On lighter note:
Tagcities
According to Nathan Newman, it’s more dangerous to raise kids in the suburbs than it is to raise them in Harlem.
Damn, I didn’t know the answer to hardly any of these questions. Granted, I’m still new to Portland, but I don’t know the answers to many more for Sheridan or Olympia. Another thing to add to the project list: learn the answers to all these questions!
For those unfamiliar with him, this interview serves as a good introduction.
Markets, Antimarkets and Network Economics.
Markets and Antimarkets pt. 1.
Markets and Antimarkets pt. 2.
Markets and Antimarkets pt. 3.
Markets and Antimarkets pt. 4.
Markets and Anti-markets in the World Economy.
Josh Ellis’s latest rant about the Grim Meathook Future (this time he talks a bit about the alternatives):
It’s a simple fact that the American lifestyle is unsustainable for more than maybe another decade. That means that all of the companies that are in the business of outfitting that lifestyle are screwed. It’s hard to sell big, expensive HDTVs to a nomad who lives out of a souped-up Winnebago and drives around doing manual labor. (I’m talking about you, of course, my reader, when the oil and the money finally starts to run out.)
The big markets of the 21st century aren’t going to be in luxury consumer goods like iPods and HDTVs and home stereo systems that pump more watts than the Grateful Dead in 1971. It’s going to be Lifestraws and inexpensive antiviral medication and cheap, cheap computers and cheaper Internet access. […]
There are larger markets to consider now, perhaps with smaller individual revenue streams but greater volumes than you can possibly imagine. There’s a great bit in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon where some of the main characters, who are geeks, develop a system that allows Filipino pinoy workers to send video messages back home from the local branch of the global convenience store. The system is a hit, of course, and the characters use it to fund their long-term deranged money-making schemes.
It’s a good, check it out.
Of course, there are entrepreneurs and designers who are working on this sort of stuff… but like Josh said in his first rant, that sort of thing doesn’t get you on the cover of Wired. World Changing, of course, is the go to place for information about the real future tech.
Web 2.0 is great. I work for a Web 2.0 company (and so does Josh). But the most important challenges faces humanity will be energy, climate change, and water shortages. Hopefully, some of the tools of Web 2.0 will be useful for the people solving the real issues.
Also, check out this great interview with Wes Janz about archetecture and design in squats, slums, etc.
The Sudden Stardom of the Third-World City (via Abstract Dynamics).
TK writes:
This brings us to the most perverse suspicion of all. Perhaps the Third-World city is more than simply the source of the things that will define the future, but actually is the future of the western city. Perhaps some of those tourists who look to the Third World for an image of their own past are reflecting uneasily on how all the basic realities of the Third-World city are already becoming more pronounced in their own cities: vast gulfs between sectors of the population across which almost no sympathetic intelligence can flow, gleaming gated communities, parallel economies and legal systems, growing numbers of people who have almost no desire or ability to participate in official systems, innovations in residential housing involving corrugated iron and tarpaulin. Is it going too far to suggest that our sudden interest in books and films about the Third-World city stems from the sense that they may provide effective preparation for our future survival in London, New York or Paris?
I hadn’t really thought of it quite like this, but yes I think some of my own interest in 3rd world megalopolises is in gaining some insight about what the future may look like for all of us.
See also: Feral Cities, Grim Meathook Future, Biopunk: the biotechnology black market, and Adam Greenfield’s Design Engaged 2005 presentation (does anyone have better notes for this?).
Update: Adam tells me the book’s been delayed. Should be out soon though.
I think I’ve mentioned it before, but my friend Adam Greenfield has a book on ubicomp coming out: Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. Actually, it was supposed to be out on the 18th, but Adam hasn’t mentioned the release on either of his blogs, and I haven’t been down to Powell’s to check yet.
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this book, because a. I don’t know much more about ubicomp than what I read in Smart Mobs. b. I’ve enjoyed Adam’s perspective on design/urban/tech issues at V-2 for the past few years, and his writing is always clear and enjoyable.
Here are a couple of interviews with him:
1. Interview from a French magazine.
2. Interview with Rebecca Blood:
I’ve been saying for about three years now that the first real business opportunity of the full-fledged everyware age is gonna be zones of amnesty — cafes where you can explicitly go to be offline and inaccessible. Maybe I’ll start a chain called Faraday’s Cage, or something. (It seems that a few coffeehouses and the like are actually starting to institute similar measures, at least during peak hours.)
Late update: I forgot this Podcast interview.
1. PROVISION OF PURE WATER AND EFFECTIVE SEWAGE TREATMENT
2. THE ISOLATION OF DANGEROUS AND DISHARMONIOUS LAND USES
3. THE ABOLITION OF CORRUPT “BOSS” GOVERNMENTS
4. DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED ROADWAY SYSTEMS
5. THE ELECTRIFICATION OF CITIES AND REGIONS
6. THE ADVENT OF UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATIONS
7. THE WIDESPREAD EXTENSION OF HOME OWNERSHIP
8. THE REALIZATION OF METROPOLITAN AND REGIONAL PARK SYSTEMS
9. THE CONTROL OF LAND SUBDIVISION
10. THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT
Plus, the Fannie May Report:
1. The 1956 Interstate Highway Act
and the dominance of the automobile
2. Federal Housing Administration
mortgage financing and subdivision regulation
3. De-industrialization of central cities
4. Urban renewal: downtown redevelopment
and public housing projects (e.g.,
1949 Housing Act)
5. Levittown (the mass-produced suburban
tract house)
6. Racial segregation and job discrimination
in cities and suburbs
7. Enclosed shopping malls
8. Sunbelt-style sprawl
9. Air conditioning
10. Urban riots of the 1960s
© 2024 Technoccult
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑