8.03.2005
These rooms sound amazingly like the rooms in Terrafoam
Here's how the rooms are described in Manna:
- They clustered the buildings on trash land well away from urban centers so no one had to look at them. It was a lot like an old-style college dorm. Each person got a 5 foot by 10 foot room with a bed and a TV -- the world's best pacifier....
There were no windows anywhere in the building. It was a cost-cutting measure, but it also helped to make every room identical. The ceiling height was 7 feet throughout, so it felt very small all the time....
Because no one had a window, they could really pack people into these buildings. Each terrafoam dorm building had a four-acre foot print. It was a perfect 417 foot by 417 foot by 417 foot solid brown cube. Each cube originally held exactly 76,800 people....
- "Guardian's tape measure puts the smallest rooms at 49 sq ft, with a 7ft-high ceiling and a 14 sq ft en suite pod, cramming in a shower, sink and toilet. Room to swing a cat, there is not. Nor are there windows. In keeping with the easyEthos, such frills are ditched in favour of value for money."
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Heh. Patronizing and insulting the poor at the same time. Impressive!
They are at once "forced" into their lives; somehow they were forced to do poorly in government funded and administered schools. [If you’re talking about the 3rd world, then you probably should look at how economic growth correlates with aid] But when it comes to a personal choice like having a kid, they are "mindless".
You might want to review the tenets of a free society, in which economic exchange is voluntary. No one would book a hotel room if they didn't want a hotel room. You might recall that the only bad part of Terrafoam in 'Manna' is that you are forced to stay there.
"The resources, products and services have to spread to thinner."
Actually, that isn’t true. As an economy grows, the available products and services grow, usually even more than population. There is certainly scarcity, but growth is along the dimensions of optimal usage of resources. While we will have to re-think energy usage over the next 30 years, predictions of other resources running dry are just dead wrong. You should read about this famous bet by two renown economists regarding the availability of scarce resources over time.
Let me spare you the trouble if you can only be educated from ultra intelligent AI: your fears are overblown.
Alternatively, you might want to choose another conclusion besides “Only a Robot Nation…”
As for the story, let me just say that I would love to have paid minimal amounts of money to sleep under a roof while backpacking. After the 2nd week of camping, I would pay far more than 20GBP.
They are at once "forced" into their lives; somehow they were forced to do poorly in government funded and administered schools. [If you’re talking about the 3rd world, then you probably should look at how economic growth correlates with aid] But when it comes to a personal choice like having a kid, they are "mindless".
You might want to review the tenets of a free society, in which economic exchange is voluntary. No one would book a hotel room if they didn't want a hotel room. You might recall that the only bad part of Terrafoam in 'Manna' is that you are forced to stay there.
"The resources, products and services have to spread to thinner."
Actually, that isn’t true. As an economy grows, the available products and services grow, usually even more than population. There is certainly scarcity, but growth is along the dimensions of optimal usage of resources. While we will have to re-think energy usage over the next 30 years, predictions of other resources running dry are just dead wrong. You should read about this famous bet by two renown economists regarding the availability of scarce resources over time.
Let me spare you the trouble if you can only be educated from ultra intelligent AI: your fears are overblown.
Alternatively, you might want to choose another conclusion besides “Only a Robot Nation…”
As for the story, let me just say that I would love to have paid minimal amounts of money to sleep under a roof while backpacking. After the 2nd week of camping, I would pay far more than 20GBP.
They have had micro hotel rooms in Japan for decades, and there is a huge difference between a forced concentration camp and a hotel filling a market niche. Using this as an example to show how you are an "accurate futurist" demeans your work.
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