Top Highlights

• the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney’s vision was of a real city that would “never cease to be a blueprint of the future, where people actually live a life they can’t find anywhere else today.”
• Would EPCOT have delighted enough residents and visitors to make it successful—as a business venture and as a living laboratory for innovative urban solutions? Would EPCOT have been able to renew itself continually over time, rather than becoming a stagnant relic from the era when it opened?
• Walt said, “We have long held that the normal gap between what is generally regarded as ‘entertainment’ and what is defined as ‘educational’ represents an old and untenable viewpoint.” He added, “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.”
• There is a familiar pattern in the Disney educational programs. Walt’s team had a knack for making the most boring subject something of interest. They start out with a long shot that provides a panoramic overview of the topic and then narrow the focus to a specific problem or opportunity that becomes the subject of the film. With the stage set and ...
• We learn that every problem has a technological fix. When that fix creates new, unexpected problems, we will simply find another technological fix. That solution then leads to other problems, and the cycle continues. For better or for worse, this is the definition of American progress.