This morning Rachel Armstrong tweeted about whether cities of the future will be designed around energy. The article linked from the tweet discussed how there are two operative principals historically considered when building cities: transportation links and defence. The reasons around defence are a given, and transportation links were important to connect agricultural sites and sources of trade to the urban people.

Now that war machines have the capacity to travel around the globe and supply chains have the ability to deliver fresh produce pretty much anywhere (I bought tofu in the Arctic a couple years ago), what will be the main principal considered in designed cities of the future. General Electric’s Ecomagination blog suggest it is energy, but what about internet connections?

A report that went live this morning, commissioned by Google UK, found that the Internet economy now represents 7.2% of UK GDP, which is more than construction, transport or utilities. The FT said that Britain has become a “nation of digital shopkeepers.”

With an internet connection vital for 250,000 jobs in this country, is fibre optic cable the new trade route?

Photo by Flickr user ILMO JOE, licensed under CC BY 2.0.