Both videos highlight the need for innovative solutions to rising sea levels and explore the potential of floating infrastructure to sustain human life in the future.

Video 1 Summary

Rising sea levels due to climate change are threatening coastal cities, prompting architects to explore solutions like floating cities. Architect Koen Olthuis designed a sustainable floating city in the Maldives that uses water for cooling. In the Netherlands, Sacha and Jan live in Steigereiland, a floating settlement near Amsterdam. The community contributes to technical challenges, such as managing weight distribution between homes. A project at the University of Kiel goes further by researching ways for residents to farm fish and crustaceans on floating plots. In Germany, cities like Hamburg and Bremen have built higher dikes for decades, but experts suggest that new approaches are needed to cope with increasingly frequent flooding.

Video 2 Summary

As sea levels rise at an accelerating rate, 700 million people living in coastal regions are at risk. By 2100, oceans maybe two meters higher, potentially forcing 40% of the global population, including Mumbai, Tokyo, and Bangladesh residents, to leave their homes. Cities like Miami, New Orleans, and New York could face evacuations as entire districts go underwater. Climate change will drastically alter metropolises worldwide, making floating and underwater buildings a potential refuge. While some floating communities already exist, futuristic concepts like underwater hotels and research stations like "SeaOrbiter" by Jacques Rougerie could become a reality. These projects envision a future where humans thrive on the water, with floating cities, farms, and even boulevards.

Book

The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives is a book co-authored by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler. It explores how the rapid advancement of converging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, blockchain, and others will impact industries, business, and everyday life.

 

In The Future Is Faster Than You Think, floating houses are discussed in the context of how technology and innovation will address challenges posed by climate change, particularly rising sea levels. As populations grow and urban spaces become more crowded, cities are increasingly vulnerable to flooding due to global warming. The concept of floating houses is proposed as a futuristic solution to this problem.

The idea revolves around building buoyant, self-sustaining structures that can rise and fall with water levels, making them adaptable to flood-prone areas. These floating homes could integrate advanced materials, renewable energy sources like solar or tidal power, and intelligent technology to enhance sustainability and livability.

 

Floating houses fit into the book's broader theme, which emphasizes how converging technologies can solve modern problems—like climate change—by reimagining housing and infrastructure to adapt to environmental shifts. The book suggests that innovations like these will be key to future urban planning, creating resilient communities that thrive despite changing environmental conditions.

Pubblications

1. NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

   National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

2. INGV Enrico Serpelloni and Antonio Vecchio

   Serpelloni, E., & Vecchio, A. (2021) . Sea level rise projections. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV).

3. Prof. Jonathan Bamber, University of Bristol

   Bamber, J. (2020). Sea Level Rise: Past, Present and Future. University of Bristol. 

4. Bogdan Onac, University of South Florida

   Onac, B. (2022). Hidden in caves: Mineral overgrowths reveal unprecedented modern sea-level rise. University of South Florida.

5. Prof. Robert Kopp (IPCC)

   Kopp, R. (2021). Sea level rise and implications for low-lying islands, coasts and communities. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

6. Ronald Vernimmen and Aljosja Hooije, Data for Sustainability

   Vernimmen, R., & Hooije, A. (Year).  Data for Sustainability Study.

7. Alexander T. Bradley & Ian J. Hewitt, British Antarctic Survey

   Bradley, A. T., & Hewitt, I. J. (2024). The tipping point in ice-sheet grounding-zone melting due to ocean water intrusion. British Antarctic Survey. 

8. Meghana Ranganathan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

   Ranganathan, M. (2024). A study shows that microscopic defects in ice influence how massive glaciers flow. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).