New York 2140, Kim Robinson

In skyscrapers half submerged by sea-level rise weary Manhattan dwellers crack jokes and conduct business as usual. Their insouciance is comical, but their inability to change their ways is the paradoxical punch line. Lower Manhattan is water-floored, but so densely studded with skyscrapers and bordered docks that the old outline of the island is easy to see. Upper Manhattan remains above water and has become so crowded with buildings. But people don’t give up on it. You are forced by the structure of the situation to throw good money after bad, escalate your commitment, and keep being an apartment dweller, unable to imagine leaving… a monomaniacal New Yorker to the end. Throughout it all, the more things change, the more they stay the same, especially in NYC. And the characters still believe this in 2140… the attitude, the nightlife, the atmosphere and the situations they get themselves in to. A conspicuous forecast for NYC’s future.