About Me
My name is David Thurlow, and I help communities with technology adoption and policy. As I see the world around us changing with new innovations and social developments, I try to understand those changes and where they might lead. Most importantly, I ask what choices we have today that could help us shape the future for ourselves and coming generations.
A large part of my work centers on the potential impacts and opportunities of automated vehicles, or “self-driving cars”.
Why technology and society?
I am particularly drawn to issues of how technologies affect human behaviors and interactions. I have studied the use of design to influence adoption and retention, strategies for marketing “anti-social” technologies such as virtual reality and games, and historical and modern examples of people who resist or abandon new technologies. I’ve also studied how companies and governments make decisions and set policies regarding the potential consequences of adopting new technologies.
Why transportation and urban environments?
I grew up in the small town of Bozeman, Montana, but later also lived and worked in the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, the dense urban spaces of New York and Toronto, and the modern yet historic cities of Munich, Lyon, and Montréal. I also had the pleasure of spending three years in a serene wooded countryside location in the American Northeast.
My time in these differing environments helped me to understand how vital the design of cities and towns is to our life experiences. Public spaces and architecture play a key role in how we feel and interact with others, and it’s clear to me this is an important part of how our modern lives are changing.
The design of our cities and towns, however, is often at the mercy of something else: our transportation choices. Our transportation systems not only affect how we spend much of our time, but also dictate how the space within our cities and towns will be used. If we want to take control of shaping the places we live, we need to start with our choices about transportation.
Why do you care about this?
I see a lot of disturbing trends in the world right now, from environmental damages to economic instability to political incompetences. At the same time I see people turning to technology to solve those problems, hoping for easy solutions to mistakes we’ve made and systems that aren’t working for us. I believe we do have the power to build a better future for ourselves, but I don’t believe new technology will take us there without any planning on our part. Many of today’s problems are the result of yesterday’s technologies. That’s why I want to help people make smart decisions about how we use our technological abilities – to build a future that aligns with our communities, our cultures, and our human values.
