Image source: Gilles Trehin’s Urville.

As I said, I can do “iterative” and I can do “internet of things” but I can’t really do “architecture” so I’m afraid I’m going to do a typical amateur thing and approach this in a super literal way. So apologies in advance for that.

I need a way to think about this.

From my very amateur perspective, there seem to be two traditions of considering cities. I quite like cities, so this is a good way to start.

The first is to consider utopias. This image from from Gilles Trehin. I think he has Asbergers, and he carries round this entire city, Urville, in his head. He draws it bit by bit.

I don’t really like using words like “progress,” but if I was to define it then I’d use the definition the modernists used: progress is the continual realising of our imagined utopias. [I really should check who said this, or who said something similar that I’ve now twisted for my own purposes.]

Matt Webb, S&W, posted 2006-07-31 (talk on 2006-07-21)