The grand vision of Neom — the Saudi megacity that was going to change the future of how and where humans live– is officially a failure. The project has shifted focus as the Saudi government has reportedly been downsized from the biggest grand city vision ever imagined to shifting focus to start as a giant hub for data centers instead. Some early critics are describing it as desperate and predictable. I don’t really agree.
Maybe the vision of Neom was never realistic. Building a city that could sustain itself in the middle of a desert for nine million people without cars, roads or emissions was one of the boldest visions of the future anyone had ever imagined and then tried to turn into reality. Clearly it was too ambitious.
Celebrating its failure, though, encourages the world to dream smaller. We need big dreamers. Especially ones who have nearly unlimited funds. So, the original vision of Neom may be dead, but I’m not celebrating that. I choose instead to celebrate the idealistic vision that contributed to even imagining it in the first place. I hope we keep space in our world for more of that.