“Cities were the first Internet,” says archaeologist Monica Smith, because they were the first permanent places where strangers met in large numbers for entertainment, commerce, and romance. And the function and form of cities, she notes, have remained remarkably constant over their 6,000 years of history so far. Modern city dwellers would quickly find their way around any city in the past, given our shared architecture of broad avenues, monumental structures, and densely crowded residences.
The digital internet has not replaced cities, nor is it likely that anything else will, Smith proposes, for the next 6,000 years. Monica L. Smith is an anthropology professor and also a professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. She has done archeological fieldwork in India, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, Italy, and England. Her new book is Cities: The First 6,000 Years—available at the talk. [Note: Advance tickets are sold out. Walk-ups always get in.] "Cities: The First 6,000 Years," Monica L. Smith, SFJAZZ Center, Hayes Valley, San Francisco, 7pm, Tuesday August 13. The show starts promptly at 7:30pm. • Seminar at SFJAZZ Center <http://www.sfjazz.org/visit/directions> 201 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 • Tune into the live stream <http://longnow.org/live/> for Long Now Members at 7:30 PT - become a member <https://longnow.org/membership/> for just $8 a month. Share this talk: Monica L. Smith, "Cities: The First 6,000 Years" Long Now talk on 8/13 https://bit.ly/2KiqpHG <https://bit.ly/2KiqpHG> Talks coming up: September 29 - Edward Burtynsky film, "Anthropocene: The Human Epoch" October 14 - Suhanya Raffel, World Art Through The Asian Perspective <http://longnow.org/seminars/02019/oct/14/world-art-through-asian-perspective/> November 18 - Andrew McAfee, More From Less <http://longnow.org/seminars/02019/nov/18/more-from-less/> High-quality videos of the talks and other benefits (such as priority tickets) are available to Long Now members. Membership, which starts at $8/month ($96/year), helps support the series and other Long Now projects. Joinable here <https://longnow.org/membership/>. This is one of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking (SALT) organized by The Long Now Foundation. Free audio and my summaries of previous talks are available for download here <http://longnow.org/seminars/> (or stay up to date with the podcast here <http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast/>). You'll find a range of long-term thinking items on our Blog <http://blog.longnow.org/> (RSS <http://feeds.feedburner.com/longnow>). If you would like to be notified by email (like this one) of forthcoming talks, go here <http://list.longnow.org/mailman/listinfo/salt> to sign up online. Any questions, contact Danielle Engelman at Long Now -- 415-561-6582 x1 <tel:415-561-6582%20x1> or danie...@longnow.org <mailto:danie...@longnow.org>. --Stewart Brand s...@longnow.org ---- The Long Now Foundation -- http://longnow.org/ <http://longnow.org/> Seminars & downloads -- http://longnow.org/seminars/ <http://longnow.org/seminars/> Interval Events -- http://theinterval.org/events/ <http://theinterval.org/events/> •Twitter <https://twitter.com/longnow> - up to the minute info on tickets and events •Long Now Blog <http://blog.longnow.org/> - daily updates on events and ideas •Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/longnow> - stay in touch through our fan page
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