In 1964 in Queens New York, a woman was raped and murdered in her apartment building.. Many opportunities for people to help, yet nobody did. Is it fear, or a blatant lack of caring. I'm sure there are many other horrible stories as well. I would like to believe I would help.in some way.
When Covid began, I was prepared to come together as a nation. The vast majority of people seemed to have the opposite goal. That was a choice that wasn't forced on us.
Little doubt that COVID accelerated a trend of “desocialization” of our species. Something that seems likely to worsen as AI becomes a “stand-in” for human companions.
The fact that someone can be sleeping on a subway and set alight is incredible and emblematic of deeper challenges in American cities.
As our cities grow larger, inputs like piping, wire, and road length scale sublinearly. Outputs like GDP, income, and patents scale superlinearly.
Generally, these are positive returns to scale, but in some cases, we get negative returns, like crime and disease.
It’s the city government’s responsibility to minimize the negative and maximize the positive. American cities seem unwilling, or perhaps unable, to shoulder this responsibility.
Thank you, JK. A recurrent theme in my writing is addressing this unwillingness to shoulder the responsibilities of urban governance that you point out here. That's a cultural problem, not a technological or technocratic one—we have capabilities! At some point, the unwillingness becomes a disability, a learned helplessness, manifesting/culminating in horrible incidents like this. So I find myself spending more and more time thinking about the cultural issue.
Excellent thoughts you shared here Ryan, it's a shame what happened to that woman and I hope we reach a tipping point soon.
Unbelievable tragedy, and a horror. But your writing is spectacular, and you’re spot on.
Thank you, Kim.
In 1964 in Queens New York, a woman was raped and murdered in her apartment building.. Many opportunities for people to help, yet nobody did. Is it fear, or a blatant lack of caring. I'm sure there are many other horrible stories as well. I would like to believe I would help.in some way.
When Covid began, I was prepared to come together as a nation. The vast majority of people seemed to have the opposite goal. That was a choice that wasn't forced on us.
Nice piece Ryan.
Little doubt that COVID accelerated a trend of “desocialization” of our species. Something that seems likely to worsen as AI becomes a “stand-in” for human companions.
The fact that someone can be sleeping on a subway and set alight is incredible and emblematic of deeper challenges in American cities.
As our cities grow larger, inputs like piping, wire, and road length scale sublinearly. Outputs like GDP, income, and patents scale superlinearly.
Generally, these are positive returns to scale, but in some cases, we get negative returns, like crime and disease.
It’s the city government’s responsibility to minimize the negative and maximize the positive. American cities seem unwilling, or perhaps unable, to shoulder this responsibility.
Thank you, JK. A recurrent theme in my writing is addressing this unwillingness to shoulder the responsibilities of urban governance that you point out here. That's a cultural problem, not a technological or technocratic one—we have capabilities! At some point, the unwillingness becomes a disability, a learned helplessness, manifesting/culminating in horrible incidents like this. So I find myself spending more and more time thinking about the cultural issue.
Well said!