tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post8045344534145553960..comments2024-03-19T00:19:09.117-07:00Comments on Rocketpunk Manifesto: Technology Revolutions, Trends, and TwistsRickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-82464084042110921452013-03-19T08:58:27.925-07:002013-03-19T08:58:27.925-07:00This is mufasa. Can't remeber my account passw...This is mufasa. Can't remeber my account password.<br />Nanotechnology is very much goibg somewhere, and it creeping into everyday life. Not as molecular machines, but more in the material sciences with coatings and Semiconductors. Great example is the new 3d transistor and memreaiators.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-31386022861692665432013-03-16T20:08:43.246-07:002013-03-16T20:08:43.246-07:00Thom S: "because its also looking global warm...Thom S: "because its also looking global warming is going to exceed all the maximum projections - to the extent that a large chunk of the Arctic may become ice-free in the next hundred years or so. The future of history for the next millennium may now be dominated by an expansion (of people and ecosystems) into the polar regions."<br /><br />Between this method for extracting CO2 from seawater (& so indirectly from the air)<br />http://bravenewclimate.com/2013/01/16/zero-emission-synfuel-from-seawater/<br />& this method for cooling the planet while we are working on getting the CO2 down<br />http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/10/08/low-intensity-geoengineering-microbubbles-and-microspheres/<br />I see some real hope for us to not need to move to higher altitudes & latitudesJim Baergnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-65094070285777572102013-03-15T00:57:10.178-07:002013-03-15T00:57:10.178-07:00Give the man a cigar the Mandrill, Drill and Papio...Give the man a cigar the Mandrill, Drill and Papio "Baboon" are part of the order Cercopithecinae, my confusion. Who said the Medieval Warming Period or the Little Ice Age were a global phenomena I didn't inply antything of the sort, my post kind of got jumble I was trying to imply that some of the lack of fishing was the warm water fishes may have hugged the Canadian Coast and more Eastern and Southern regions during the later period of Viking settlement while colder adapted fishes may have stayed along south bearing currents lying in the Straits further from Greenland making provisioning of fish expeditions difficult. There is some evidence though that both events did effect ecosystems in China and the Indian subcontinent though. I do agree with you that sustainability is probably more important then maintaining islands of diversity, in fact it would make a lot of sense to create easier migration and connection routes between these islands in many cases. Connecting North Americas national parks while at the same time making farmers and ranchers part of conservation efforts would help preserve both genetic diversity and the future harvesting of these natural resources for our use and prosperity. Cordwainerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06756588407144494507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-81267615407659709952013-03-15T00:18:59.726-07:002013-03-15T00:18:59.726-07:00Cordwainer,
I think you'll find that baboons ...Cordwainer,<br /><br />I think you'll find that baboons technically belong to the same order, not genus. Big difference.<br /><br />As for 'alarmists', the idea of global warming being a catastrophe is dependent on where you're sitting. For organisms in sensitive ecosystems it will be merely a continuation of a disaster that is already unfolding. Other systems will probably expand or contract without changing much in character. <br /><br />Overall, my gut feeling is that we'll see a lot of disruption in ecosystems before they settle down into a new state. This is actually in some way normal, although the pace is much faster than usual. What will make it problematic for us as a species is that these systems work on timescales that we can't process very well. <br /><br />It may well be that, in the blink of a geological eye, the reordering of the world's biosphere is over and a new normal established. Unfortunately for the people on the ground the 10 000 year period in which it happens will be a long, trying time.<br /><br />As an optimist, I prefer to see the upside of the whole thing. Perhaps we'll finally let go of this whole 'nature there, people here' mentality and learn to integrate ecosystem management (or even design) into existing municipal thinking. Perhaps we'll get over trying to lock a fraction of a living system into some sort of artificial stasis via parks and preserves and instead get on with the job of understanding how to make these things tick in a fashion we are comfortable with.<br /><br />Maybe we will finally own up to the fact that we're living in the anthropocene and begin to work out how to manage the world instead of simply live off it.Thom Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03200667235769052060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-5933611216999477182013-03-14T21:53:19.146-07:002013-03-14T21:53:19.146-07:00Re Greenland: the "Medieval Warm Period"...Re Greenland: the "Medieval Warm Period" was likely a regional thing, not a global thing.Damien Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13321329197063620556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-89149363645821287502013-03-14T15:05:35.710-07:002013-03-14T15:05:35.710-07:00While I agree with most of Jared Diamond's wor...While I agree with most of Jared Diamond's work I do believe that recent studies found that warm waters in the Atlantic would have pushed fishing populations in the Atlantic to far East and in the Atlantic and far too North in the Straits between Canada and Greenland. While some fishing would have been possible during the early years of the settlement as agricultural practices destroyed the necessary materials for netting and basketry and shoals in the strait moved further NorthWest this might have been made things more difficult. Also they were terribly far away from Europe and the political situation in Denmark was largely on of ambivalence even Iceland was largely left to itself for nearly 200 years.Cordwainerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06756588407144494507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-57302721863060140402013-03-14T14:49:13.694-07:002013-03-14T14:49:13.694-07:00Technically Baboons and Mandrills belong to same g...Technically Baboons and Mandrills belong to same genus, while Rhesus monkey is another term for macaque who are all members of the Old World Monkeys or Catarrhines.<br /><br />I'm know climatologist but I do find the latest alarmism a bit surprising since climate scientists are pretty much saying its too late to really stop temperatures from climbing to a level that many have already said was a point of no return. If they are right and the Earth goes through a mass extinction event due to the supposed rapidity of temperature changes being greater than what the Earth has ever experienced in the past and there is nothing we can do about it. If we reduce greenhouse gases we can stop the amount by which global temperatures will climb but not enough that it will matter. So if the recent findings are correct then short of environmental engineering we are screwed.<br /><br />On the other hand they could be wrong or the effects of the projected climb in temperatures will not be as bad. I tend to agree with the actual projected climb in temperatures although I disagree as to whether some of the recent temperature climb is entirely due to anthropogenic sources.(I think about 2 to 3 degrees can be accounted for by solar insolation) Where I disagree is with the alarmists who think that this will necessarily cause a global catastrophe or massive extinction event. One the idea that rapid temperature swings like this have not happened is most likely has happened, findings are not exactly clear on the earliest "Big Five" the Ordovician,Devonian and Permian events are still not fully explained and difficult to determine what role temperature changes played, needless to say life on earth survived those events. Also one could make the claim that the effects of the Anthropocene itself has already produced an evolutionary event similar to a minor extinction event. It is unlikely in my opinion that anthropegenic warming will cause anywhere near the damage that alarmists claim. While an anoxic ocean event might occur we have had several of those and sea life rebounded from those rather rapidly. Lower life forms have a tendency to evolve and fit new niches in new or challenging environments within only a few generations in some cases so most marine life would be safe. Although baleen cetaceans might have a problem, I have a feeling non-krill eating cetaceans and pinnipeds will only have there numbers greatly reduced. Corals have showed surprising tenacity during periods of even higher sea-level temperature rises, the mechanisms for this are not yet really understood but findings on some recent "invasive" coral species could illuminate them. Land life probably won't be altered that much since those ecosystems have become largely homogenized due to human changes to the environment going even farther back then the industrial age. Some animals will go extinct but the vast majority will either migrate or adapt. Humans with their vast cultural and infrastructural demands though will be less likely to abandon there farms, homelands or nations then other animal and plant species but our ability to use technology and cooperate with one another will no doubt limit the suffering that might occur.<br />The biggest issue will be maintaining the agricultural centers of the world and the "pauper states" of Europe and Asia that maybe financially well off but agriculturally and territorially impaired.Cordwainerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06756588407144494507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-19514568603164781082013-03-14T02:11:42.670-07:002013-03-14T02:11:42.670-07:00Cordwainer,
I actually didn't get to the end ...Cordwainer,<br /><br />I actually didn't get to the end of your post - I start losing my ability to make out words when paragraphs get too large - but suffice it to say that baboons and rhesus macaques are both monkeys; so I take it that you agree with me there.<br /><br />I have no opinion on the 'Aquatic' versus 'Plains' origin theory of hominids.Thom Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03200667235769052060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-30583963932923819572013-03-14T02:07:14.462-07:002013-03-14T02:07:14.462-07:00Thucydides,
I'm not a climate scientist/ecolo...Thucydides,<br /><br />I'm not a climate scientist/ecologist, but as a scientist I have to take on faith that my colleagues know what they are talking about when they come to a conclusion. 98-odd percent of them are convinced that anthropogenic global warming is a valid hypothesis. The IPCC fourth assessment was unambiguous on the matter. All the ecologists I know personally are long since over talking about 'if' and have moved on to dealing with the consequences 'when'. <br />So I think wondering about the effects of an Artic thaw is more than mere speculation at this point. That ecologies will change is pretty much a given.<br /><br />As to Greenland - Jared Diamond covered the topic and basically came to the conclusion that ecological damage caused by Scandinavian farming practices (along with a strange reluctance to eat fish, which were abundant in the area) did as much as anything to make the colony fail. The cold is, at best, a secondary factor to the long-lasting effects of unintentional damage in an ecologically sensitive area. <br /><br />As this is pretty much the sum of my knowledge on the topic, feel free to pick up the relevant book (Collapse, published by Penguin Books, ISBN-13 978-0-140-27951-1) for the full version of the argument.Thom Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03200667235769052060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-40997441626148053952013-03-13T20:06:04.802-07:002013-03-13T20:06:04.802-07:00Thorm
The "average" temperature has rem...Thorm<br /><br />The "average" temperature has remained constant for almost 15 years now, so the climate change alarmism seems to have been way off track.<br /><br />Even if not, archeologists have been unearthing Viking farms on Greenland, and have charted the progression from croft farming with dairy cattle, to farming sheep and goats, to finally packing up and leaving Greenland. The interesting thing is the progression charts the gradual cooling of Greenland from 1100 to @ 1400, and even today Greenland is far too cold for croft farming. The climate was much warmer in the past with little or no archeological record of extreme weather, floods or anything else that are projected by climate alarmists.<br /><br />People and animals will adapt like they did at the beginning and end of the Medieval Warm Period.Thucydideshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09828932214842106266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-59478692073119002552013-03-13T14:17:28.891-07:002013-03-13T14:17:28.891-07:00Both baboons and rhesus macaques live in both jung...Both baboons and rhesus macaques live in both jungles and savannahs and baboons often compete with chimpanzees while bonobos are very cosmopolitan even more so then chimpanzees. I have a feeling early environmental factors had little bearing on human cosmopolitanism. It was probably more. The ability to acquire easy access to high calorie resources depending on whatever environment is the more likely the reason for are cosmopolitan behavior. In this regard a jungle to semi-aquatic to wet savannah to coastal and then global progression of evolution(aquatic ape theory) or a jungle to wet savannah to dry savannah to coastal to global progression would explain most of our biological differences from other hominins(plains ape theory). It just seems that the aquatic theory explains it better particularly when explaining differences between us and neanderthals and denisovans. I like to believe we have always been a "couch potato" species that used are intelligence to get our food with the minimum of effort and not the "Great Hunter of the Plains", leave that for the young and the bold the Neanderthals and Homo Erectus. Our habilis or ergaster ancestors along with archaic sapiens probably stayed where the hunting and gathering was easy and used technology to make it even easier they probably did travel away from such littoral zones to gather food and resources which would have necessitating better cooling via perspiration. Most likely though they were cursorial hunter and scavengers who stayed near a home base and not roving bands of gypsies like plains baboons. As for the "a species doesn't go back to the water or evolve adaptations twice" I would make the point that there are plenty of organisms in the past who have and that those ancestors who went back to a semi-aquatic or coastal gathering existence were already mostly modern in their physiology and were merely going where the eating was good. Plains Ape Theory has yet to provide the resource allocation theory necessary to explain all of the physiological differences we see all though it does expalin most of them in opinion. That they tend to see themselves as the pinnacle theory and don't even consider aquatic theory on equal footing while not having presented a sufficient theory to even start poking holes at aquatic theory seems to put them in a dubious standing in my opinion. Cordwainerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06756588407144494507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-20981198771758800562013-03-13T00:53:12.226-07:002013-03-13T00:53:12.226-07:00My fault: I should have said 'apes' instea...My fault: I should have said 'apes' instead of 'primates'. <br /><br />Monkeys, our cousin clade, are most definitely cosmopolitan and were indeed on track to push the last of the apes out of history altogether before we showed up.<br /><br />In other news: its looking more and more like sequential cloning, if not exactly a solved problem, is at least getting there. This is making plans to reintroduce extinct species (limited, for the moment, by available DNA and suitable surrogate mothers) look more and more plausible.<br /><br />And we may need to, because its also looking global warming is going to exceed all the maximum projections - to the extent that a large chunk of the Arctic may become ice-free in the next hundred years or so. The future of history for the next millennium may now be dominated by an expansion (of people and ecosystems) into the polar regions.<br /><br />Thom Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03200667235769052060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-82597438531640341932013-03-12T14:36:33.184-07:002013-03-12T14:36:33.184-07:00"One thing that is very un-primate about us, ..."One thing that is very un-primate about us, however: we're a cosmopolitan species rather than jungle specialists."<br /><br />Baboons aren't jungle specialists either. Ditto rhesus macaques -- apparently with the widest range of non-human primates -- and Japanese macaques aka snow monkeys. Vervets are another savannah monkey.<br /><br />"Mandrills mostly live in tropical rainforests and forest-savanna mosaics."<br /><br />So we might be unusual but far from unique in being non-jungle, plus all our extinct relatives, though we're unique among almost all species period in our global range.Damien Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13321329197063620556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-21343047455630402772013-03-12T01:11:06.847-07:002013-03-12T01:11:06.847-07:00A good proviso to keep in mind :)
In a sense, tho...A good proviso to keep in mind :)<br /><br />In a sense, though, we are (as a species) the quintessential primate: omnivorous, intelligent, social, calculating and -in a pinch- ruthless. <br /><br />One thing that is very un-primate about us, however: we're a cosmopolitan species rather than jungle specialists.<br />Thom Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03200667235769052060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-19936884686987600072013-03-11T16:52:29.043-07:002013-03-11T16:52:29.043-07:00Hence my proviso, 'at least would-be' ...Hence my proviso, 'at least would-be' ...Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-14885968772409127262013-03-11T09:12:11.335-07:002013-03-11T09:12:11.335-07:00Escapees?
We never left...Escapees?<br /><br />We never left...Thom Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03200667235769052060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-12277898854576644722013-03-10T19:19:10.086-07:002013-03-10T19:19:10.086-07:00Only just caught up with the more recent part of t...Only just caught up with the more recent part of this thread! <br /><br />I have little to contribute regarding Canadian urban politics, but due to my book I have sort of stumbled into gender politics. <br /><br />My impression is that the challenge in the gender dispute is that the issues strike very close to home, so it is kinda hard to be cooly objective.<br /><br />On the one hand, I am skeptical of arguments that Upper Paleolithic conditions favored sex roles effectively identical to the pop culture version of the 1950s.<br /><br />On the other hand, we are not disembodied intelligences, but escapees (at least would-be) from the primate house.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-55534721431476739562013-03-08T20:58:10.532-08:002013-03-08T20:58:10.532-08:00Manhattan residents use 1/3 the energy of the aver...Manhattan residents use 1/3 the energy of the average American.<br /><br />Toronto and Vancouver aren't all that dense. As for 45 minutes:<br />http://sfb.nathanpachal.com/2011/08/commute-to-work-time-in-metro-vancouver.html<br />You see times like that... coming from the low density areas, and using transit, which is far more energy efficient than driving. The drivers take under 30 minutes.<br /><br />And I think you badly misunderstand what exurbs are.<br /><br />"As for "paranoia", the arbitrary intrusions of politicians at the civic and Provincial levels to force developers to make high density developments at the expense of suburbs"<br /><br />I don't know Canadian urban politics. In the US it's entirely the other way: a thicket of laws make new high-density cities illegal. Zoning laws and parking requirements require low density, forbid pedestrian-friendly mixed usage, and subsidize car-centered lifestyles, as does the interstate highway system. <br /><br />And I know at least parts of Canada have off-street parking requirements similar to those of the US, e.g. Ottawa requiring 10 spaces per 1000 sqft of a church, or Calgary for a billiard parlor, or Burnaby for an art gallery. For comparison, a parking lot uses 330 square feet per parking space, so providing 10 spaces per 1000 sqft of use means over 3/4 of the land is parking lot, unless multi-level garages are (expensively) built.<br /><br />And I have followed Rob Ford and transit related Toronto politics, somewhat; suburbanites beleagured under urban planner attack is the exact opposite impression I've gotten. Toronto is no transit heaven, even if it compares favorably to much of the US.Damien Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13321329197063620556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-47298087377764579402013-03-08T20:21:42.835-08:002013-03-08T20:21:42.835-08:00The key is population turnover and shared interest...The key is population turnover and shared interests, a rapidly churning population is one where bonds are weak and transitory regardless of population density.<br /><br />The higher density cities can hardly be called "energy efficient" when citizens in Toronto or Vancouver take 45 minutes plus each way to commute, in this respect the US is far ahead with "exurbs"; which combine suburban densities with the amenities that are normally in the core districts of cities for short commutes.<br /><br />As for "paranoia", the arbitrary intrusions of politicians at the civic and Provincial levels to force developers to make high density developments at the expense of suburbs (or to thwart the sort of development that makes suburbs a pleasant place to live) are a fact of life. In Ontario, the laws of unintended consequences is weighing in; various malformed policies like MicroFIT, promotion of "locavours" and so on are driving homeowners to install solar panels and grow "victory gardens". This is amusing because these people are now less connected to the "grid" and less dependent on government in many respects, but these developments favour suburbanites, since city dwellers have far less access to unencumbered rooftops and land that can be turned into gardens. <br /><br />To tie this into the theme of the thread, politics and economics are helping spread technologies that are disruptive of centralization, and the effects are to increase the numbers of people who are less dependent on the various "gatekeeping" functions of traditional business, economics and politics.Thucydideshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09828932214842106266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-20702528838573035802013-03-08T18:43:51.236-08:002013-03-08T18:43:51.236-08:00Also, many of the previous comments completely con...Also, many of the previous comments completely confuse density with population *size*. Pre-car small towns can be very dense and certainly walkable. LA is a medium density big city, Phoenix a low density ones; they're not higher trust places than Manhattan.<br /><br />Population turnover matters too; a small town or suburb with rapid replacement of the population isn't going to have the same bonds (or frictions) as one consisting mostly of families that grew up together.<br /><br />But big dense cities are a lot more energy efficient, more creative, and their higher levels of crime seem to have been largely an artifact of lead poisoning from lead gas.Damien Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13321329197063620556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-88185871864656250042013-03-08T18:17:52.210-08:002013-03-08T18:17:52.210-08:00"Social engineers in Canada hate suburbs, nei..."Social engineers in Canada hate suburbs, neighbours help each other and don't rely on many government services outside of Police, EMS and utilities. High density, low trust neighbourhoods have fewer social mechanisms to turn to, so people are more dependent on higher levels of government services and control."<br /><br />Ah, the common paranoia, where people are accused of actively destroying society to build up government, rather than building up government to deal with a changing society.<br /><br />***<br /><br />Taisho Baseball Girls was pretty fun, yes.Damien Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13321329197063620556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-61147415903898026242013-03-08T18:01:15.179-08:002013-03-08T18:01:15.179-08:00Its taken awhile to plow through this thread. Sorr...Its taken awhile to plow through this thread. Sorry about the tardiness.<br /><br />Tony said...<br /><br /> <i> Every technology follows a logistic (S-shaped) development curve. That means that right when you're in the middle of thinking that it's really taking off, it's actually slowing down. </i><br /><br />============<br /><br />I actually find myself (reluctantly) in agreement with you most of the time. <br /><br />However, I can't help but think its statements like the above that prove great breakthroughs in any field - whether it be music, culture, chess, art or science - always has and always will belong to the young.<br /><br />Sadly my chance for greatness passed away a long time ago.<br /><br /><br />Thucydides said...<br /><br /> <i> As a suburbanite myself, I can say that a "good", high trust neighbourhood replicates a small town, in that everyone knows everyone, and people are willing to help each other (during one big snowstorm, we all assembled on the street with shovels and snowblowers and cleared all the driveways and an emergency lane down the road long before the city crews showed up, as an example). </i><br /><br />========<br /><br />This phenomena of apathy increasing with population density is fairly well known. We cover it in both law and psychology from different points of view.<br /><br />It most famously came to public attention in the Kitty Genovese murder case in which none of the 38 witnesses called the police because well - they all thought someone else would.<br /><br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese<br />Lockihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08689365707645882401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-51761738425922455112013-03-08T10:08:19.903-08:002013-03-08T10:08:19.903-08:00Thom S.
Good thread I agree extrapolation is the ...Thom S.<br /><br />Good thread I agree extrapolation is the weakest form of evidence and while this is a fair gripe in regards to the study of behavior and evolution, I think that valid data can be obtained through rigorous study and the inclusion of many disciplines such as anthropolgy, archaeology, psychology, sociology, neurology, genetics and proteomics to come up with hypothesis that may seem wild today but can pass the litmus test of a "working theory". After all many such "working theories" are largely or entirely based on extrapolation. My main point is that social scientists and their critics tend to be more prone to personal influences and less reasoned and disciplined in their discussions. If they would all stand back and be more open-minded, thick-skinned and inter-disciplinary in their approach they might be able to achieve some "good science" for a change instead of bickering over "pop science" and old flawed theories. Like baseball there is no crying in science, and its not who wins or loses its how you play the game.<br /><br /> Which reminds me of Taisho Baseball Girls, a pretty cool anime set in interregnum period Japan that is surprisingly original and not derivative of Princess Nine or League of Their Own. It got me to thinking and studying women's sports. With all the cooperative mixed gender sports and new women's sports being included in the Winter Olympics, I think it might be a good idea to do a movie about the 1920's "Bloomer Girls". Men in drag and sassy female athletes on the same playing field might be an interesting way to make a plea to the Baseball Commission to lift the ban on women playing in the minor leagues. Plus you could ret-con a lot of famous female and male athletes of that time period who played in the the Bloomer Leagues but may have never played together. Cordwainerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06756588407144494507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-50628370499600451772013-03-08T07:35:08.350-08:002013-03-08T07:35:08.350-08:00RE: Thucydides
It actually costs a lot more to pr...RE: Thucydides<br /><br />It actually costs a lot more to provide those services to the suburbs, so it balances out.Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05741738070067590221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7494544263897150929.post-49859161219973754262013-03-08T06:11:34.279-08:002013-03-08T06:11:34.279-08:00As a suburbanite myself, I can say that a "go...As a suburbanite myself, I can say that a "good", high trust neighbourhood replicates a small town, in that everyone knows everyone, and people are willing to help each other (during one big snowstorm, we all assembled on the street with shovels and snowblowers and cleared all the driveways and an emergency lane down the road long before the city crews showed up, as an example).<br /><br />OTOH, when I lived in the "High Density" neighbourhoods that social planners seem to love, there was far less trust, openness or even knowledge of the neighbours; we were essentially living in a low trust area with a large (and constantly changing) crowd of strangers.<br /><br />Social engineers in Canada hate suburbs, neighbours help each other and don't rely on many government services outside of Police, EMS and utilities. High density, low trust neighbourhoods have fewer social mechanisms to turn to, so people are more dependent on higher levels of government services and control.Thucydideshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09828932214842106266noreply@blogger.com