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Comment by netcan | Hacker News Reader

I'd like us to be more forward looking, ambitious and experimental with our cities as well, especially in the west.

But... I think there's an institutional aspect here that needs resolution before we can. The internet is worryingly centralised. A small number of extremely profitable companies monopolise huge markets. Google tends to do this with data.

I think the reticence was justified: "Who owns the data? What kind of monopoly are google eventually going to have?" These are fair. A financial success case for google is some sort of data-centric monopoly. They don't really do business another way. It's fair to be dubious of their endgame.

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I, for one, would like us to stop experimenting with re-inventing the wheel. We had functional cities for centuries now. We can make adjustments to match the century, but I do not think it is helpful to revamp the way we have lived until now to satisfy this odd new personality that pervades the web that needs to change UI every so often to feel relevant.

Geez. I feel old now.

Progress is inevitable, even necessary, especially when systemic problems like climate change are consequences of the current paradigm. This seems to happen throughout history, ie industrialization, abolishment of slavery, new forms of government, etc.

We need deep changes now to get ahead of the looming consequences of the patterns we've held as a society up until now.

If you think Toronto is a functioning city, I suggest you do some traveling.

>> A financial success case for google is some sort of data-centric monopoly. They don't really do business another way. It's fair to be dubious of their endgame.

Reminds me of a board game called Risk that I like playing where you have to capture territories by attacking owners of other territories. The moment any one player looks like they are gaining a good lead over others, the rest of the players gang up against that player to prevent him from getting too powerful.

The goal is to be the single largest player in the game and everyone is trying to do that. But the moment anyone is too ahead of the curve in doing that we don't like it. I guess we as a society are wired to hate a single large player. Maybe the last couple of centuries left a bad taste in our mouth.

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