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Re: Even if it costs $100 Billion It is Worth It, Based on What?
Author: synonymouse
Date: 12-01-2018 - 11:38
All due respect, I suggest you guys are missing the all-important quotidian reality here: this entire megaproject is not ultimately about transport needs or futurism; it is about the profits of real estate developers and the rewards to the California Democratic Party patronage machine and its crony consultants, contractors, unions, and suppliers. Indeed they do not give a flying f**k about whether this thing works well or not. They are preparing to blow another fortune on that transport pieces of garbage known as BART. What is the first thing one does after recognizing a big mistake? Don't repeat it. But that is exactly what they intend to do.
We live in a viscerally wasteful throwaway culture typified by the Las Vegas mentality - implode a perfectly functional building after 10 years and build another one. The only structures that heretofore have escaped this are skyrises(absent the twin towers). Maybe that is why the startichects love them so much - their legacy will survive.
So planning for what will be useful in 100 years I dunno. Used to be from antiquity forward to now from century to century a place or city remained recognizable but in the future maybe not. Think about how much California has changed in a mere 50 years. With the establishment view of unlimited technical progress(hypeloops ad infinitum)and say 10 times the population will the Golden State be recognizable or would dinosaurs like me care to live in the anthill, presumably under the thumb of ubiquitous AI?
But in grumpy old age I tend to the dystopian and my crystal ball fades to black a few decades down the road. Default predatory capitalism distorts society fatally; communism is deader than God; logical positivism aka Progress crapped out; the EU is failing and so is the Pax Americana; and the 3rd World is the turd world. I think we have picked the low-lying tech fruit. Where is room temperature superconductivity; any kind of fusion, hot or cold; the space elevator? And NASA seems to have lost track of the holy grail of space exploration - for the moment forget about the interior structure of Mars and spend all the money on rovers looking for microbial life. Yes or no is extremely important for developing a world view and a plan for the future and dealing with human-centric superstition on this planet. Forget about the moon for now. Think apocolyptic.
Rant out.
We live in a viscerally wasteful throwaway culture typified by the Las Vegas mentality - implode a perfectly functional building after 10 years and build another one. The only structures that heretofore have escaped this are skyrises(absent the twin towers). Maybe that is why the startichects love them so much - their legacy will survive.
So planning for what will be useful in 100 years I dunno. Used to be from antiquity forward to now from century to century a place or city remained recognizable but in the future maybe not. Think about how much California has changed in a mere 50 years. With the establishment view of unlimited technical progress(hypeloops ad infinitum)and say 10 times the population will the Golden State be recognizable or would dinosaurs like me care to live in the anthill, presumably under the thumb of ubiquitous AI?
But in grumpy old age I tend to the dystopian and my crystal ball fades to black a few decades down the road. Default predatory capitalism distorts society fatally; communism is deader than God; logical positivism aka Progress crapped out; the EU is failing and so is the Pax Americana; and the 3rd World is the turd world. I think we have picked the low-lying tech fruit. Where is room temperature superconductivity; any kind of fusion, hot or cold; the space elevator? And NASA seems to have lost track of the holy grail of space exploration - for the moment forget about the interior structure of Mars and spend all the money on rovers looking for microbial life. Yes or no is extremely important for developing a world view and a plan for the future and dealing with human-centric superstition on this planet. Forget about the moon for now. Think apocolyptic.
Rant out.
