From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2000 - 10:34:50 MST
"Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@www.aeiveos.com> writes:
> At issue is *what* is the purpose of a building -- to provide shelter
> from the elements? to collect heat in one place? to localize people?
If we look around today, I think most buildings and parts of buildings
fall into a mixture of shelter, private territory, meeting places and
storage. How this is achieved can be changed, but the basic needs
remain.
In a nanoworld the first three categories would work well with fast
construction/deconstruction, while the last may not be as quick or
convenient (unless you store your possessions as files rather than
objects, and instantiate them whenever needed - could be a bit
wasteful). So we might have the storage aspect tying the buildings
down a bit, they might change a lot but moving the inhabitants'
luggage is heavy.
Maybe you keep a basic building core around, but change the rest to
suit you, the weather, the current fads and your neighbours' demands?
> The question of virtual & real space depends much on the nature
> of *what* are the people who "use" the buildings (virtual or real).
> What would be the point of constructing a real building to host
> a virtual persona ?!?
Style? Ease of interaction? Persepolis in _Aristoi_ is partially real,
partially virtual and mainly intended as a meeting place where both
worlds can interact easily. I guess that much of the time it is rather
empty.
As for future architecture, I'm currently interested in biotech
architecture for my next sf scenario (no, I can't get enough :-). I'm
thinking along the lines of Stateless in Egan's _Distress_ and the
stuff described in the Wired article "Newer York, New York"
(http://wired.lycos.com/wired/archive/8.01/futuretekture.html). Any
other ideas for what you can do with programmed bacteria, transgene
plants and good biotech?
(The scenario will involve the division between the netocracy and
nationlubbers, the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War, the arrival of
the next ice age and the death of the *real* dragons)
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:26:34 MST