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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: City Planet, by Stewart Brand. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.
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City Planet, by Stewart Brand
by noteworthy at 9:52 pm EDT, Apr 17, 2006 |
This article seems likely to provoke discussion. In a nutshell: it sure looks like everything is going to hell, but it's really going to be coming up roses here in a little while. (Maybe.) What the world has now is new cities with young populations and old cities with old populations. How the dialogue between them plays out will determine much of the nature of the next half century. The convergence of the two major trends, globalization and rampant urbanization, means that all cities are effectively one city now.
It's one city, and it's a Temporary Autonomous Zone. The TAZ by its very nature seizes every available means to realize itself--it will come to life whether in a cave or an L-5 Space City--but above all it will live, now, or as soon as possible, in however suspect or ramshackle a form, spontaneously, without regard for ideology or even anti-ideology.
Having said that, while we're on the religion tip: "Pentecostalism is ... the first major world religion to have grown up almost entirely in the soil of the modern urban slum” and “since 1970, and largely because of its appeal to slum women and its reputation for being colour-blind, [Pentecostalism] has been growing into what is arguably the largest self-organized movement of urban poor people on the planet."
In Gibson's version of the Sprawl, most people are poor, but I don't remember anything about everyone being deeply religious. |
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RE: City Planet, by Stewart Brand
by knowbuddy at 6:44 pm EDT, Apr 18, 2006 |
all cities are effectively one city now
Hmm. I'd love to RTFA, but registration ... notsomuch ... BugMeNot ... notsomuch. I could be completely misinterpreting the article based on the snippet, but ... Speaking as someone who grew up in the typical middle-America sub-urban environment, then upgraded to an actual urban environment, then downgraded drastically to an almost rural environment ... only someone who rarely makes it out of the city could think that we are that connected. Sure, it's a nice thought and it has a pleasantly futurist feel to it ... but it's just not the case. There are some scary backwater places that have little to no link to the outside world. Sure, they do actually have CNN and the web and blah blah blah, but they have no desire nor care for anything outside of their community. They don't know you nor do they want to connect with you. And they aren't as (geographically) far away as you think. We have a long, long, long way to go before true metroplexes come about. What we have now is just sprawl all tarted up to look like structure. |
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RE: City Planet, by Stewart Brand
by noteworthy at 7:27 pm EDT, Apr 18, 2006 |
knowbuddy wrote: Hmm. I'd love to RTFA, but registration ... notsomuch ... BugMeNot ... notsomuch. I could be completely misinterpreting the article based on the snippet, but ...
I don't know what you're talking about. I can follow the link and read the full text just fine without any apparent registration. (Is anyone else having that problem?) As for misinterpreting the snippet, it's likely; Brand really goes full circle (Ha!) in this article, from painting a picture of disaster, then on to a tutorial in demographics and population dynamics, and finally to explaining why everything is actually going to be just fine. Speaking as someone who grew up in the typical middle-America sub-urban environment ...
Brand is not talking about America. ... only someone who rarely makes it out of the city could think that we are that connected.
He's not talking about AIM on your mobile phone. ... a pleasantly futurist feel to it ...
Well, that's Brand, alright. GBN definitely keeps on the sunny side. Which is why I meant to link in the recent Technology Review article about Soviet bioweapons. There are some scary backwater places that have little to no link to the outside world ... They don't know you nor do they want to connect with you.
But many of them do envy the people who are vastly richer than they are, and who spend thousands on trifles while they struggle to find bread and milk for children. We have a long, long, long way to go before true metroplexes come about. What we have now is just sprawl all tarted up to look like structure.
I presume you're still talking about the US. I don't think anyone could consider the Kenyan slums "tarted up." (Have you seen The Constant Gardener?) |
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