urban defect: facebook

More of a social defect really, the current flap over facebook-beacon highlights our latest acceleration toward the Privacy Free Society. The convenience of digital communication has made us all complicit, but facebook really gets it out there in your, well, face.

facebook is kind of a digital equivalent of gay sex in the 1970s. There's a new freedom that's fun, exhibitionist and promiscuous, and "all of my friends are doing it, so where's the harm?"

The voyeurism and exhibitionism is pandered to so expertly in facebook that we can't help but gulp it down, browsing through those ever growing lists of friends and idling for endless hours in the shallowest sort of pseudo relationships.

But exposure increases vulnerability. Beacon broadcasts your purchases out to the facebook cohort you're a member of. Groovy if you're shopping at Dolce and Gabbana I guess, but if you're buying Viagra or adult diapers it's everybody's business too.

Really, do you want to see all that detail from everyone around you? Do you want all of them looking at yours?

It's like wireblight: sometimes it's just better to hide more of the plumbing behind nice, plain walls. The only folks it's really useful for are the ones trying to tap in and analyze or modify whatever it is you're spending you shekels on. I think it's safe to assume that most of these folks probably don't have your best interests in mind.

urban defect: wire blight

The nervous system belongs underneath the skin.

The guys who climb the utility poles and all of the people who drive past these nests of linear clutter will tell you this is merely an aesthetic consideration, that keeping the communication, power, and entertainment infrastructure out in plain sight and easily accessible is just fine, thank you very much.

Hmmm.

This was how things looked in Manhattan in 1888 during the worst blizzard of that century. It was back in the day, when Edison and Nikola Tesla were still duking out AC vs DC power distribution strategies. No question about the wireblight back then, friends.

That storm made big trouble and blew out much of the young network. When visiting NYC today you will note that the nervous system is entirely under the skin.

Extreme weather tends to expose our weaknesses. Probably a safe bet that freakish future weather (much amplified by our accumulated environmental misdeeds) will be the boot that kicks our ass into burying the current blight.