The combination of individuals together can hardly ever become one, but they can create one. One language, city, music, dance, one Europe. People all have the desire to appear, to join, to create. In 2040, the public: public space, the being together of people, digital space allows these activities, asking people to be vivid, collected. To be the moving matter in the public space of continuity, of something bigger than ourselves. The world shows herself to us in public space, and we ourselves are elements of that world, appearing for the others. In the public realm we recharge our home spheres with the dynamity of others, strangers, the freedom of movement and the space for chance. This public vibrancy, the public heart, or hestia, is the fire around which the community is built. In our private domain we can depart that public world of appearances and comfort ourselves with the warmth, the fire, hestia around which our private lives are built, of our personal controllable surroundings. I imagine a future where the public and private realm are distinct but balanced and in which the public is providing us with a feeling of collectiveness, togetherness, in which we all contribute to sustain that collective.

(Hestia, the Greek goddess of the heart and fire, was both the foundation of domestic life, the fireplace, the heart of the house and the public fire, the heart of the city. In earlier times fire was essential to establish a society or community. In my vision Hestia denotes the underlying similarity of the public and the private while maintaining the distinction of the two.)