It gets me looking around me and thinking, how can RL problems be solved, all around us things that I look at and say why hasn't it changed, why are we still doing things in this way? 1. Housing is still done the same way (pretty much), wood frame, stucco walls, drywall, insulation, pipes, wiring, waste management. ¤ Industrial buildings now use large sections that they place, like the way we lay blocks (wall blocks), why for the love of god is this not the way we build houses, walls can be added or removed, in addition the walls in the living area can be opened up to repair things, instead we have to bust the drywall and repaint, including everything else, sure it's cheaper to "build" it upfront but the costs over the years make no sense cause life will happen. 2. Why don't homes in areas with favorable conditions produce their own water? ¤ The technology exists ( atmosphere condensers), can be made to be a part of the infrastructure, washing, watering, showering. ¤ Plants can now be watered by drip irrigation system, Hollywood showers can now be fine without feeling guilty about being wasteful. 3. Power, Elon Musk has it right but the design is wrong, a powerwall is great but it should be "the wall" inside it, also able to be accessed and a solar system and wind that all supplement the power to be stored, right now walls are basically voids, if you think of the space that's wasted instead of being used to make the house a living, breathing entity you see the poor designs we are still using. ¤ Here's why it doesn't happen, cost, no industry exists to build this new home, the regulations ( government stifling), would hinder implementation, so I can go on but what about you...does Empyrion make you think?
Too many people for "cool ecology" right now. Half of the world population live in cities, and majority of housing is made of square boxes where humans pile up one over the other. So the ones who can afford it sometimes make use of their head, sometimes not. Governments are snakes eating their own tails. Empyrion is a cool game : when tired or bored of an aspect, I just switch to another aspect. Total freedom in a game is hard to achieve, yet Empyrion rewards those who put in some efforts and reason. Not like RL...
Trying to understand "cool ecology" exactly, I'm a bit obtuse, but if you mean eco-busybodies who try to be hip by 'living the cleaner life' then got it, otherwise I'm missing the reference exactly. I believe the current technology exists now that can free up many folks to move away to more rural areas, new towns with a population limit that the technology can support should be allowed to develop, but like you said, government is just like that snake, fearful government would deny people building a town free from all the "services" that government regulations control. I'm definitely not in favor of a town that would dump raw sewage or be of an unsanitary design, I wouldn't want hobo town, so waste management would be a top priority, this is the one thing that is the biggest problem for many places, hence the population limit I eluded too. In this brave new world things would get a 100% recycle policy, wet waste, ie; foodstuff would be sent to composting, plastics and other unusable items by the town would be sold to recycling companies, what's leftover will have to be ground down and disposed of in a way that would not contaminate the world, beyond that shipping to our town would be in the order of those that package stuff in sustainable containers would be top choice. Sounds dictatorial I know but in reality it is not, it is a choice, a choice not to be lazy, so then comes the incentive part, not only do people get a nice clean place, a place with a population to fit, but everything that the town nets for the recycling every adult gets a cut of the proceeds, idealistic I know, hard to achieve, yes, humans are such fickle creatures, however Alaska has a policy of people sharing in oil profits and it can be done. So before someone says it can't be done, we'll, it can't if you have the wrong people to begin with, it needs to be a certain type of person, the way things are now everywhere is you got a mixed bag of everything, nobody wants what the same thing, everybody pulling in their own direction, how do I know it can be done by choosing the right people for the community, it's been done, NASA, the space station, that's how, they are a community, everyone contributes to keeping things clean, to work together even when they don't always feel they like each other because the community is more important and they all understand this. Anyway, I could go on waffling but I'm Shhhhhhhhhhing up.
There is one theory that says at some point there will be too many humans on Earth for food. This is just one theory. Another one says that the "developed countries" living standards can't be spread to every country because there are not enough resources to do so. Another theory says that sooner or later humans will go extinct, and as such everything we do doesn't have much sense in the grand picture. This last theory opens the door to nonsense, and lots of people like it. We live in a society where selfishness has to help others, so we invented a "3rd party" to take care of this. Now this 3rd party has a life of its own, and its needs add to the needs of the others, so they shifted from being there to help to be another liability. The largest part of humanity doesn't eat well (or at all many times), don't have access to water, no car, no salary, no health care, some can't even starve in peace... Internet gave humanity an opportunity to open its eyes, and those who could have helped chose to look elsewhere, but mainly at themselves. And even then, people who spend most of their time looking at themselves don't really see what's in front of them. So we may have dreams, but nature goes on and will still be there when we will be no more.
I believe that extinction is a definite possibility for anything living, but I also believe that hedging your bets is the best way to keep this a more remote possibility, to move foward, when things stagnates (as they have), and nobody takes responsibility, and the crazies and selfish imbeciles control we have what we have now. Our world population must collapse, at some point it will, through wars, biological means, or something that sets the world back, however, doom shouldn't be the mindset, the mindset should be not on the bad it should be on the task at hand, how do we find a solution to things around us, problems shouldn't be looked at as a reason not to but a reason to learn, A leads to B, to C and so on. The scientific method works like that, it is only our mindset of indulgence of the selfishness that keeps things the way they are, BUT, again, when choosing a population for a community it must be chosen with care, not everyone should be allowed, sounds bad to post that but if you are going to build something you don't pick from a pool of whatever and hope for the best, the best is what you won't get, this is why buildings in Japan don't fall from the earthquakes on a regular basis, but they do in places where you don't have this. This game is an indulgence for me, but this game is different in the sense that is gives you tools, materials, and problems to solve, I can indulge my ideals which is very appealing and addictive, anyway, I'm off, seriously sounds silly but Empyrion has given me so many RL ideals I'm off to try to build something that I think "why doesn't it exist" and enjoy the results.
