We have always imagined a future with flying cars, enormous bridges, incredibly interconnected cities, and underground areas. Big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence will power those futuristic cities, enabling them to coexist with humans in terms of how they live, breathe, and even think.
The following are the list of the most futuristic cities in the world and which part of the world they can be found:
The industrial model of Beijing's economy has largely been replaced by a 77% service-based economy, with a focus on finance, retail, and information technology. Zhongguancun, in the northwest of the city, is known as China's Silicon Valley and is the location of both start-ups and well-established tech goliaths like Lenovo, Google, and Microsoft's new Chinese research center.
Russians are renowned for their expertise in computer science and technology, which they used to put the first man in space. Moscow has so far been very successful at imitating Western businesses, such as Yandex and VKontakte, the Russian versions of Google and Facebook. Nowadays, the city is emerging as a pioneer in novel and uncommon fields of technology, like nanotechnology.
Global companies including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, and IBM have their headquarters in Dubai, which is the de facto Middle Eastern hub for technology (particularly IT). The city has made significant technological investments, including building Smart Palm trees that have solar-powered phone chargers and Wi-Fi hotspots. In order to connect citizens in a future 'smart' environment with full integration, it also introduced the Dubai Smart City initiative.
Milan, Italy's financial hub, is mostly recognized for its banking and fashion sectors. Milan also hosts a number of high-tech expos and even the 2015 World's Fair, in addition to the glitz and the cash. The city is a pioneer in biotechnology within the technology industry.
Madrid places a lot of emphasis on high-tech production and cutting-edge technology, even though Barcelona is Spain's main industrial hub. Madrid is one of Europe's top technological hubs thanks to its highly educated workforce and the presence of many Spanish global corporations.
With its ninth-place global rating in both software development and multimedia design, Kuala Lumpur is a programmer's utopia. Additionally, the city offers lightning-fast Wi-Fi, and it has established itself as a popular destination for traveling digital nomads due to its abundance of incubators and creative young workers.
Sydney, the largest city in Oceania, has established a solid basis in technology, with biotech and high-tech manufacturing accounting for the majority (11% of its economic output). Sydney also has one of the most accessible educational internet systems in the world, ranking fifth overall.
Toronto, which ranks fifth in North America for the number of tech jobs, just after Washington, D.C., Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Boston, is Canada's tech sector leader and one of the best. In terms of having a prepared and integrated digital economy, the city came in at number eight globally, and the increase in IT jobs is credited with driving down Canadian unemployment.
Berlin has long been a center for medical technological developments, in part because Germany established the oldest universal health care system in the world. Berlin places a specific emphasis on high technology and clean technology because of its youthful, highly educated workforce and the nation's superior engineering capabilities.
Since its inception, Paris has led the world in technical development. Although the city gained notoriety due to early innovations like glass in building and gas lights across the city, there are still ongoing developments in its high-tech manufacturing sectors, particularly with regard to optics and aeronautical equipment.
Not just because of its bullet train, Tokyo is regarded as one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world. The city is a leader in software creation and holds many technology summits. Tokyo has plans to implement a number of cutting-edge innovations as the 2020 Olympics' host city, including autonomous taxis and a fake meteor shower.
Chicago is one of the cities on our list that is most committed to encouraging the development of the technology industry. The local administration is promoting public-private collaborations and wants to give its pupils the knowledge and abilities they need to be successful in tech-related industries. In an effort to make computer science classes a graduation requirement, the city secured a federal grant in October 2015 to equip every classroom with high-speed broadband and Wi-Fi.
Singapore aspires to be recognized as the global leader in sustainable energy, and doing so requires a lot of technology. Singapore offers its inhabitants free high-speed internet access and is home to research facilities for numerous multinational corporations, including Microsoft and Google. Additionally, it makes use of cutting-edge technology to bill locals according to how long they spend traveling on toll roads.
Los Angeles, the third-largest tech ecosystem in the US and home to 12% of early-stage businesses, is the second-most ready city for the digital economy. Tinseltown is expanding over 30% more quickly than Silicon Valley and employs the most Americans working in high technology.
Apple, eBay, and Tesla Motors are just a few of the tech giants based in the Bay Area. San Francisco, which gained notoriety during the dot-com boom of the 1990s when thousands of entrepreneurs set up shop there, and Silicon Valley, which lies nearby, both have a reputation for being technologically advanced cities. Despite the Valley's significance, numerous businesses have been moving there as employees yearn for a more dynamic, ethnically diverse atmosphere.
New York City's Silicon Alley is one of the world's most successful, attracting approximately $7.3 billion in venture capital investment in high-tech, despite the fact that most people would sooner connect the city with banking and Broadway than with technology. The city is even undergoing a significant fiberoptic telecommunications upgrade with the goal of becoming the world's top tech hub, which is largely backed by Cornell Tech, a highly-advanced joint-venture graduate school of applied sciences that is currently under construction.
Hong Kong, the financial center of Asia, has to be well-connected. Hong Kong, one of the simplest places in the world to launch a business, boasts one of the fastest internet speeds in Asia. The government consistently supports innovation, allocating more than $1.8 billion since 2011 for science and technology R&D. The city has become more futuristic as a result, and at certain schools, students even check in using fingerprint scanners.
Stockholm is the hub for technology in Europe with the fastest rate of growth. Sweden has had increasing development, partly because of its stable economy and highly educated workforce, while the majority of the rest of Europe has been experiencing financial stagnation since 2008. Stockholm is home to some of the most well-known digital superstars, like Martin Lorentzon of Spotify, Daniel Ek of BitTorrent, and Niklas Zennström of Skype, who together account for 15% of all European investments in the technology sector.
Although it shares the spot with our number one city, London holds a firm position at the top of our ranking of the technologically advanced cities in the globe. The English capital triumphs when it comes to multimedia design and technological readiness, despite Seoul having greater broadband quality. Another nod to Silicon Valley can be seen in London, which is home to Silicon Roundabout, the third-largest tech startup hub in the world. The largest IT businesses in the world have drawn attention to the region, and several of them have established innovation hubs and research facilities in the Central/East London cluster.
Seoul, which makes up less than 1% of the country's total land area, is the economic hub of South Korea, contributing 21% of the country's GDP. Like Dubai, Seoul, home to IT behemoths Samsung and LG, has started a 'smart city' effort. To get things started, the city is providing low-income families with used smart devices in an effort to get everyone connected to the high-speed wireless networks in the city. This cutting-edge center even features sophisticated CCTV cameras that can spot intruders and advanced street lights that broadcast audio and provide wireless internet connection.
It is evident that technology will always be a part of improvement in any city. It will also be utilized to produce a new standard of living in thoughtfully designed developments that retain the human touch.