[FRIAM] dystopian vision(s)

[Steve Smith]

Glen sed:

> https://www.neom.com/en-us/regions/theline
>
> Pushed by a ruthless monarchy, funded by fossil fuels, bulldozing 
> indigenous lands, ... yikes.

And your linked advert for it!   Looks like the Saudi's intend to even 
change the laws of physics as well as other "softer ones" .

The first reaction I had to the *positive* implications of "The Line" 
was to reflect back on Paolo Soleri's Arcologies and then on the flip 
side, the modern efforts to re-establish wildlife corridors.   I forget 
Soleri's claims about how many 1mile cube Arcologies would be required 
to house all of humanity, but the idea that we should retreat to our own 
little high-tech termite mounds and leave the rest of the landscape for 
Gaia to "do her thing".  The idea of designing an entirely 
closed/self-contained Arcology seems as futurist/fictional as 
"Generation Starships", even with the technological advances since the 
60s/70s when he was rolling his ideas out.    If such a vision succeeded 
we would still be (almost literally) "a pox upon the land".   I have a 
vague memory of his aspiring to house 1M people in these square-mile 
city footprints.  That factors out to be 10B people needing 10M such 
"hives" and 10M square miles of footprint.   I also remember 1 mile 
*cubed* but a mile-high building even with a square mile footprint seems 
a bit over the top?   I haven't read this particular source, but found 
it while trying to answer my questions above, and offer it to anyone 
else interested in the 
conception:https://www.organism.earth/library/document/arcology .


BTW, have we discussed that James Lovelock died a few weeks ago at age 
103?   Lovelock is dead, long live Gaia!

Wildlife corridor return, includes billionaire tech philanthropists 
(e.g. Bill Gates) buying up huge swaths of farm/ranchland in the 
mid/west which (on reflection, naturally) has the Red-State politicians 
and residents in a frenzy as the "jobs" in their small towns go away and 
the Walmarts they already allowed (colluded with?) to destroy their main 
streets are downsizing/closing.

> https://www.mojo.vision/mojo-lens/
>
> Unlike bin Salman, these guys seem well-intentioned. But sheesh. I 
> can't even imagine wearing that.

I am less averse to trying to learn to cope with contact lenses which 
might be/provide portals into the "Metaverse" than I am into trying to 
begin to decide what I actually want to allow to flood into them.   As 
we have been discussing here in the "News" thread, it is hard to know 
how to curate one's own "News of the World" with the (neccessary?) help 
of public/private media institutions.

Vernor Vinge's day-after-tomorrow-fictions often reference what I think 
of as a f(r)actionation into virtual "Guilds" which were not unlike what 
I imagine (fear) Fox News!  and Democracy Now! loyalists might become.   
BTW I am a fan of Amy and DN! but depend on them/her to expose me to 
things and offer perspectives I wouldn't find easily elsewhere, but have 
friends who I swear won't watch/or listen/or read anything that didn't 
originate with Amy. Maybe they value their time/energy more than I do?   
I certainly know too many people whose televisions have only one channel 
(Fox) and do not have a working mute, much less off control.
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