Eyes of next generation wide open to promise of digital future

For anyone worrying about the future, here’s one possible crumb of comfort. In one vision of a West Cork town 100 years in the future, Skibbereen’s West Cork Hotel has an outdoor swimming pool.

This vision of the town of the future was the work of one young participant in a Coder Dojo project to visualise what their surroundings will look like a century on. It was an illustration of how children still in primary school now often have the technological tools and talents to forge a path into the hi-tech world of the future, even as many of us are still struggling with our iPhones.

The 3D model of Skibbereen’s future was rendered in a Minecraft video game style and displayed in front of an appreciative crowd on the first day of National Digital Week. The buildings of Bridge St and Townshend St in the town were recreated by people from Generation Z, who have only known a digital world. So Dominic Casey Jnr, son of the coach of Olympic silver medalists Gary and Paul O’Donovan, projected a future vision of the rowing club, another youngster recreated the local Church restaurant, and local schoolgirl Fiona formed the future hotel.