[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I specifically chose SOLAR TOWERS (not windmills) because they would be HUGE in-your-face structures. Because they are TOWERS, their structural shape tend to represent strong psychic archetypes to different people and societies depending on cultural backgrounds.
Oh come now. You mean they would be phallic symbols, like the Washington Monument. Believe me, that represents the same psychic archetype to people in every society. It is unmistakable.
If these structures were built by the thousands they would obviously become some of the most pervasive monuments ever built in the 21st century - monuments of what our technology is capable of erecting.
Great. Just like our interstate highway system is the great monument to the 20th century. It has only cost as much as a good-sized war and killed a few million people. Of course a lot of people do think highways are beautiful, because they have never seen anything else and they have no idea what beauty is. For that matter, people think television is amusing and fast food tastes good.
And highways work so well too. So efficient. This morning, for example, in Atlanta a single accident caused 11 mile backup from 7:30 to 10:00, inconveniencing maybe a few hundred thousand people at most. What other transportation system could accomplish that nearly every morning?
I think the world has seen quite enough of this kind of large-scale environmental havoc, and grand-scale monumental architectural fetishes. As I wrote in the book (Chapter 21), I hope that the guiding principle of 21st century technology will be:
"If anyone hears a machine, it is too loud. If anyone is bothered by one, it is too intrusive."
- Jed
