Human presence on our planet has been a burden, mainly since the beginnings of the First Industrial Revolution. The rapid growth of population and economic activity has left its traces. Energy consumption, use of land, pollution, and emissions have long influenced life on Earth. Humans take more than a fair share of everything, reducing refugia for other species, and disturbing fragile ecosystems. Fortunately, the Third and Fourth Industrial Revolutions - Automation and Digitalization - have at their core the technologies that allow to reduce this impact and decouple economic growth from ever climbing resource consumption.
But how should billions of humans live? We are part of creation and have a right to exist. Our population will not grow endlessly, but all we know about demographic development tells us that it will reach a good 11 billion when peaking out around the year 2100. That means we need to find a way to live and coexist, pursuing our happiness, while safeguarding our planet for generations to come. One thing is for sure: applying recipes from the "good old times" will not cut it. The good old times were neither good nor suitable to feed 11 billion mouths. Turning back the hands of time will not work. Sometimes the solution to a modern problem lies in the future, not in the past.
When looking at the fundamental problems which our presence on Earth creates, there are three that stick out: we take up too much space, we consume too much water, we emit too much CO2. The latter two will be solved with sufficient CO2 neutral energy. Clean water is, in the end, just a function of energy. We are on our way to reach that by 2050. It will take huge investments, but funds are available, and the economic equation works out. But what about space?
Deep in our souls, there is an image engraved by two million years of human development. An idyllic, rural scenario, with small villages, lots of farmland, a pond with a little fishing spot. The next neighbor far enough away to never be disturbed by kids play or our barking dog, but close enough to be happy to greet us, when we meet on the road. This country house charm is appealing, but if 11 billion people lived that way, every square inch of our planet would be covered in infrastructure, buildings, roads, and agricultural zones. What looks cozy and out-of-this-world, would, in reality, be the end of the world as we know it. This lifestyle is among the least efficient ways humans can exist. Low density drives up distances, infrastructure need per capita, and energy consumption while lowering productivity. A high density of living drives advantages stemming from sector coupling and economies of agglomeration. Dense vertical living in well-planned urbanizations is the most efficient concept. It takes the least space and reduces all kinds of economic waste. Billions of people can only safeguard our planet when most of them live in large urban centers. Highrise buildings, autonomous public transport, vertical, urban farming, and Digitalization of all infrastructure are the key to that.
When we ask ourselves, what is THE crucial technology that enables modern urban life, that makes it feasible and appealing, we might juggle a number of ideas. But in my mind, it is evident that the elevator is the critical element in the equation. We could never live in highrise buildings, without the invention of the modern safety elevator in the 1850s. Ironically it is one of the most typical inventions of the First Industrial Revolution that is the conditio sine qua non for the only way of life that will allow humankind to survive while keeping our planet safe. It gives a new ring to the term "safety elevator". Doesn't it?