Telosa utopia may pick and choose its residents

The Future. Marc Lore, the former CEO of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce division, is planning on building a smart city called Telosa somewhere in the desert. If you want to move there, though, you may have to undergo an application process. While the intention is to make sure that Telosa lives up to Lore’s high-minded ideals, any criticism of the process could become a legal nightmare.

City club
Like a high-class co-op in New York City, Marc Lore’s city of the future may have a vigorous application process.

• Optimistically, the $400 billion city will allegedly welcome the first round of 50,000 residents, called “settlers,” by 2030.
• Each potential resident must fill out an application that will be vetted by “a team of staff and volunteers that includes architects, economists, engineers, climate experts, and more.”
• The application process will reportedly have a focus on diversity and inclusion.

The former Walmart exec is beating the drum on his planned utopia, Telosa, that will be built in either Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, or the Appalachian Region.

What’s yours is mine
Telosa is essentially one big experiment based on a vision that Lore calls “equitism” — a mix of equality and capitalism.

• It will offer residents equal access to healthcare, education, and transportation.
• It will be built to support autonomous vehicles and run on renewable energy.
• The land will be owned by the community, so that any appreciation on it will be funnelled back to residents through improvements in infrastructure.

Additionally, Telosa will have a VC fund for any startups that want to relocate to the city. That should be enticing.