“It’s a mistake to think of the future as some sort of exercise in logic, because it isn’t,” says Devin Liddell, principal futurist at the Seattle-based consultancy Teague. And while the organisation has been around for almost a century, advising the likes of Boeing, Intel and Toyota on what tomorrow looks like, Liddell also thinks that a key driver for future transport will be enhanced virtual experiences, rather than simply physically slogging it from A to B.
We tend to think of the future through the lens of Moore’s Law, says Liddell, assuming that technology will only lead us toward faster or higher transport. But, he says, admitting that his conclusion is counter-intuitive, “it’s more likely that there’ll be people who opt for airship travel that actually isn’t Mach 5. It’s the same trade-off that people make today with rail.” A century from now, he says, “you may want to be reacquainted with the marvel of flight, and one way to do that is not by...