Is Tech Bringing Us Closer Together Instead of Allowing Us to Sprawl?

A columnist for Wired has an interesting look at how telecommunications are actually making it more interesting to reside in populated areas instead of allowing the complete disregard for distance. "Technology makes it more fun and more profitable to live and work close to the people who matter most to your life and work. Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, an expert on city economies, argues that communications technology and face-to-face interactions are complements like salt and pepper, rather than substitutes like butter and margarine. Paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh."

Comments

Absolutely

[overshoot]

Paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh."

And as a result, I choose to live in a place where I don't have to drive to go everywhere: a small town where walking actually gets me places instead of an endless sea of other residences.

Re:Absolutely

[xaxa]

Paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh."

And as a result, I choose to live in a place where I don't have to drive to go everywhere: a small town where walking actually gets me places instead of an endless sea of other residences. Something I like about London (the only city with over half-a-million people that I've lived in) is it's essentially lots of small towns with no space between them. There's a community (shops, cafes, pubs, parks) probably within 10 minutes walk of everywhere in inner London and probably much of the rest. This is the case in most of the UK, although the 'small towns' making up the city are smaller than here. I haven't spent enough time in the USA to know, but is it similar? I expect older cities (New York say) to be like this, but maybe newer cities aren't?

Re:Tech can't let us sprawl

[QuasiEvil]

Um, unless you live up in the air, lack of a reliable ground is your own damn fault no matter where you live. It's provided by a giant rod out by the meter, connected to the ground conductors, and pounded deep into just what you'd expect - the ground.

Smart environments

[Anonymous Coward]

Smart Environments: Technology, Protocols and Applications

Re:Tech can't let us sprawl

[camperdave]

Of course it violated code. Grounding has been required by code since 1962. You should contact the local authorities and have that firetrap rewired before someone gets hurt.

Re:Tech can't let us sprawl

[MidnightBrewer]

Anybody who lives above the first floor (AKA "in the air"), not to mention people who live in an apartment building, can suffer from a no grounding situation that they can't do anything about. Basically the entire country of Japan (where I live) is not grounded, even though power strips are ironically three-pronged (Japan has the same plug as North America). However, there is a recourse for people with metal piping: you can ground your outlets by running ground wires to the cold water pipe under your kitchen sink, which in turn leads down to the ground and makes an excellent grounding system. Not necessarily completely tidy or elegant, but functional.