wanis kabbaj
[morocco & france]
intro’d to Wanis via his 2016 ted@ups – What a driverless world could look like
i see cities as living beings..
i like to find main streets and highways that structure their space.. esp at night.. when commuters make this arteries magically red/golden.. the cities vascular system.. performing vital function right before eyes.. but when sitting in car.. reality looks very diff.. nothing.. makes this time (jam) worth living..
isn’t it absurd that we created cars that can reach 130 mph and we now drive them at same speed as 19th cent horse carriages..
in u.s. alone we spent 29.6 billion hours commuting in 2014.. a monumental waste of time/energy/human potential
our city’s vascular system is getting clogged/sick ..and we should pay attention.. our current way of thinking is not working.. for our transportation to flow we need a new source of inspiration..
fitting with John‘s query this am.. and need to trust.. us..
@jhagel
I love and embrace paradox but this one has me troubled. I need your help in exploring flows, fragility and friction bit.ly/2eUDdl6
which begs we let go… and look/let inside
my aha moment happened when speaking w biotech customer.. vascular system.. miracle of logistics everyday.. biology has been in transportation for billions of years.. world’s most sophisticated transportation lab..
so what if the solution to our traffic challenges.. was inside us
why is it that blood flows in our veins most of lives when big cities get clogged on a daily basis.. reality is you’re looking at two very diff networks. ..
each of us has 60,000 miles of blood vessels in bodies..that’s 2.5x earth’s circumf.. inside you..
blood vessels are everywhere inside us, not just under the surface of our skin.
h u g e
ginorm small ness we need.. our souls beg.. has to be 7 bill of us for the dance to dance..
while our vascular system uses 3-d inside us..our urban transport is mostly 2-..we need to embrace that verticality..
x-d glasses ness (beyond 3d inside us.. no..?)
building this 3-d transport network is one of ways we can mitigate/solve traffic jams..but not the only one..we have to question other fundamental choices that we made.. like the vehicles we use
estimated up to 30% of urban traffic generated by drivers looking for parking.…and many just one person/car.. why are we wasting so much space if it is what we need the most..why are doing this to ourselves..
biology would never do this..space inside our arteries is fully utilized..at every heartbeat a higher blood pressure literally compacts millions of red blood cells into massive trains of oxygen that quickly flow throughout our body. .the tiny space inside red blood cells is not wasted..in healthy conditions more than 95% of oxygen capacity is utilized..
reason blood is so incredibly efficient is that our red blood cells are not dedicated to specific organs or tissues; otherwise, we would probably have traffic jams in our veins… they’re shared…by all the cells of our body…and because network is so extensive..each one of 37 trill cells gets own deliveries of oxygen precisely when it needs them
one ness.. if we just let go.. listen.. trust..
blood is both a collective and individual form of transportation…for our cities, we’ve been stuck in endless debate between creating a car-centric society or extensive mass-transit systems.
binary ness begging ni ness
current generation of driverless cars is just trying to earn its way into a traffic grid made by and for humans..trying to learn traffic rules..relatively simple,,and coping w/human unpredictability..more challenging
when whole cities become driverless..need traffic lights/lanes/speed limits?
red blood cells are not flowing in lanes..never stop at red lights..
in 1st driverless cities..would have no red lights/lanes..when all cars are driverless/connected..everything is predictable and reaction time.. min.. can drive much faster and can take any rational initiative that can speed them up or the cars around them..
engine – as – 7 billion whimsies.. everyday..
instead of rigid traffic rules.. flow will be regulated by a mesh of dynamic and constantly self-improving algos..
well – if ie: hosting-life-bits via self-talk as data.. facil ing us to each other.. everyday.. as the day..
result: a strange traffic that mixes fast/smooth rigor of german autobahns & creative vitality of intersections of mumbai
liquid like our blood
by a strange paradox..the more robotized our traffic grid will be..the more organic and alive its movement will feel
thinking.. ie: if we trust tech’s inability to be biased.. and our ability to be curious.. and just let mech connect us daily via what matters most..
biology has all the attributes of a transportation genius today..we now have the dreams/concepts/tech to create 3-D transport networks.. change the flow in our cities
thinking .. beyond the vehicle ness.. thinking.. flow of cities as human energy/potential..
in the city.. as the day.. ness
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find/follow Wanis:
from bio on ted page:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/wanis_kabbaj
Wanis Kabbaj works at the intersection of biology and transportation.
As the director of global strategy for healthcare logistics at UPS, Wanis Kabbaj finds ways for organizations to transport their temperature-sensitive medicines and biotechnologies safely around the world.
you know you’re talking beyond transportation/healthcare.. right.. ?
sicko et al.. we do have the means.. and so we can’t not..
For more than 16 years, Kabbaj’s professional engagements have always revolved around transportation and innovation. Some of his ventures involved helping EADS Astrium use its satellite space transportation expertise in unexpected markets or participating in the global launch of Logan, a revolutionary low-cost vehicle, that helped Renault-Nissan harness a surprising growth in emerging markets.
Kabbaj is a dual citizen of Morocco and France and lived in four continents. Experiencing constant cultural transitions throughout his life gave him a real taste for analyzing problems through non-traditional lenses and blending disciplines that are usually kept separate.
be you. 