Connie and Joel begin the interview discussing the emergence of the digital economy and its impact on quality of life issues. In particular, Joel discusses how the digital revolution allows the wealthy and/or information-economy workers (engineers, software developers) to live where they want because the internet enables them to work from home more readily. In particular, Joel discusses three of the new geographies that have emerged out of the digital revolution: Nerdistans (“boring,” well-organized, family oriented cities like Irvine, California), Boutique-cities (“exciting,” young, single, hot-spots like San Francisco, California), and Valhallas (upscale rural places like Jackson Hole, Wyoming). Connie and Joel also discuss the down-sides to these new geographies as places, like Aspen, Colorado or Bozeman, Montana, are seeing the sons and daughters of pioneers being “kicked-out” and “cast-away” as real-estate values climb beyond the reach of lower and middle-income residents. In particular, Joel talks about the “death of spontaneous experience” as one of the significant dangers of the new information geographies. They also discuss the impact of these new geographies on education and immigrants.
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