Readers of this column may remember a proposal to re-brand Victoria as the Capital of Thought.

I like the idea because it aims to set downtown on an exciting, very necessary and future-facing course, because it calls for citywide exertion, and because it’s a bit pretentious, just like this place.

I think the idea is particularly timely now because of the state of, and challenge to, the downtown economy and to its now-threatened social and cultural relevance.

Never an enemy of dream-spinning (especially my own), I envision the gradual (but not too gradual) transformation of the downtown area into a centre for organizational initiatives, intellectual enterprise, study centres, design thinking and production across a range of fields, online creativity, utterly crucial study of the human-AI interface and possible risks, even more crucial ecological and environmental study and communication, conferencing and global conversation via web publishing.

All of this would be wrapped in a program of outreach and publicity to ensure that Victoria’s new image was widely projected and the city a magnet for people who wanted to directly experience this civic transformation.

What........

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