Oligocenters Scenario: exclusive high-tech

Future thinkers: (from left) Dr. Constantin Schwecke, Dr. Daniel Rudhardt, Dr. Meike Niesten, Eckard Foltin (back), Dr. Rainer Hagen, and Dieter Boesveld.

The oligocenters represent a world dominated by just a few megacities, which are enormous in size but very similar to one another. This trend can already be observed today in Tokyo or Mexico City . The activities of people in these conurbations are governed by efficiency and economic benefit. The overall economy is growing, but uncontrolled capital flows and occasional financial overheating repeatedly lead to regional crises. As a result, companies must react extremely flexibly in their business segments and locations.

A large number of people follow these economic shifts, thereby becoming “global job nomads”. It is difficult for them to form fixed social ties. As socially networked singles, they reside only temporarily in a given city, meaning that relatively few residential buildings are built new. High-quality building materials are primarily used to renovate existing structures. They help job nomads turn their apartments into comfortable homes to which they gladly retreat – provided that they can afford it, of course. In this future society, the population is sharply divided into two groups based on income and wealth: a small, highly qualified management class versus a broad, rather impoverished majority. On account of high debt service, the government is poor. The general level of education is declining. Companies must provide for the training of their own technical and management employees.

Consumption has high priority in both population segments. Therefore, markets are split into affordable massproduced articles and luxury goods. For example, automotive suppliers must adjust to the fact that most people prefer low-priced cars with spartan equipment, while the wealthy demand exclusive, high-tech products, which for a corresponding price fulfill the most unusual customer requests. You can tell by the expression on their faces that the two Bayer futurists, Eckard Foltin and Rainer Hagen, prefer a future world like the one described in the Polycenters Scenario. “In a world of oligocenters, people and companies are under a great deal of pressure,” Eckard Foltin points out.

Ir a In different directions
Ir a Polycenters Scenario: technology for the middle class
Ir a Farsighted products