Tag Archives: Land

What Will Major Cities Look Like in 25 Years?

Have you ever visited your hometown only to find that there’s been so much change since you’ve left? I certainly have and it’s amazing to see how different things have become since I’ve moved away. Well, if your hometown happens to be a major city, then the pictures in this slideshow might be quite interesting.

The slideshow demonstrates the changes to some of the world’s biggest cities. It’s simply amazing to see the change in what amounts to a rather short time. For instance, the second one from the slideshow included below), showing the difference between Dubai in the span of 13 years… wow. Of course, this is a bit of an anomaly based on the kind of money that’s been invested in Dubai, but it’s still remarkable to see just how much it’s changed.

Dubai – 1990 to 2003

There are plenty more that are just as amazing as Dubai. There’s Atlanta in the span of about 50 years:

Some of the other images, like the ones of Shanghai, Singapore, and Fortaleza (Brazil), make it appears as if you’re looking at a picture of two different places (and in effect you are, because of the time component). If not for the water landmarks, you might think you were being deceived.

My point in discussing these images is look at where we are today. It’s 2014. Think about some of the major places you’ve come to know and love. There are buildings that we look at and think, “Wow… that building’s so tall… we’ll never have taller buildings, will we?” What do you think folks thought 50 years ago?

That’s not to say that taller buildings is where we’re headed. There’s always the possibility that they’ll be advances in magnetization or some other form of technology and we will finally get those flying cars that we’ve been predicting for so long. I have a sneaky suspicion that when the time comes to pass that we do finally have the “next” bit of where we’re going, that it won’t be what many of us are expecting. I doubt that many people in 1950 would have thought that this is what infrastructure would look like 60 years into the future. Similarly, I’ve learned that we, as a species, are rather horrible at predicting the future, so I don’t know that what we’ve predicted has even an infinitesimal chance of coming to pass. Either way, I encourage you to think about it and reflect on how things different could (will?) be.

Tying Up Loose Ends: Food for Thought and Brief Hiatus

Since moving to the new domain (www.JeremiahStanghini.com), this has been the longest time between posts. The last post I wrote was on April 5th. The hiatus from posting will continue for a little while after this post because I’m working on the last requirements for finishing my MBA. There are about 3 weeks left until the end of exam period, so I’ve got a few papers/presentations to finish and a lot of grading of papers/exams.

Whenever I open my computer I see the list of posts that I’ve been meaning to write. In an effort to “clear out some mental space,” I thought I’d do what I’ve done a couple of times in the past and flush out my list of posts to write. In this way, the list will be fresh for when I come back (save for the few cognitive biases that I still want to write about). So, without further adieu, here are some of the things that I had planned on expanding upon. I hope you enjoy!

Cars and Transportation — It’d be really cool if they could *feasibly* develop a car that could transform. A car that could be a single-passenger when commuting, but it could expand/transform into 2, 3, or 4 seats when it necessary.

Political Ideology — What if a given political ideology’s thoughts/plans don’t work unless they can be fully implemented? And because there’s a split in Parliament/Congress, it’s worse. But what if when either party had total control, it’d be worse than this middle-ground between the two ideas?

LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan — A few weeks before the conversation about LeBron vs. Jordan started, I’d had it on my to do list to write about it. I was a bit peeved when the conversation started (without me), but there were some interesting (and some not) things written about it. I think it’s extremely difficult to compare players across decades. It’s akin to comparing players across sports! I remember a few years ago when there was talk that Alex Rodriguez would be the greatest baseball player ever. I think it’s safe to say that conversation has died down a little.

Fear of Public Speaking — I was thinking back to one of the first times I had to stand up in front of a group of people and give a speech. I don’t even remember what I spoke about — but I do remember one of the speeches from my classmates who did quite well (it was about the NBA dunk contest). As I watch some folks present in front of rooms, I can empathize with their nervousness. Heck, even I still get a bit nervous sometimes. One thing I’ve learned — it’s really about repetition. The more times I’ve spoke in front of groups of people, the less nervous I get the next time I go up there. (On a slightly related note: I’d say another key factor in minimizing fear of public speaking is the extent to which you’re prepared to speak on the topic. Read: know your stuff!)

Focus on Labor — I’ve never been the CEO or a highly placed Vice President of a company, but from an outsider’s perspective, I always have a hard time understanding the lack of focus on the labor force. At times, it really looks like labor is the key to success. If the labor force is well taken care of, production and profits tend to do well. It reminds me of that post I did about sustainability and pitchers. The relation here is that when management takes care of the labor force, it is with an eye towards long-term sustainability.

Life, Liberty, and Property? — Why is property so valued? What about nomads or North Americans who show us that land isn’t to be owned? What about animals? They don’t seem to own land.

Star Trek: Inheritance — This is an episode from the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The gist of is that Data has to decide whether or not he’s going to tell his mother that she is an android (when she believes she’s a human). In thinking about this episode, I wondered about the ethics of telling someone they aren’t who they think they are. What about an adopted child?

Social Entrepreneurship — George Mason University‘s Center For Social Entrepreneurship has a massive open online course (MOOC) in social entrepreneurship. If you wanna learn about social entrepreneurship, this is a great place to start!

“I AM” — I saw the movie I AM quite some time ago and there were some cool things that stood out to me. I’ll be brief:

  • The HeartMath Institute — check them out! They’re doing some fascinating work.
  • Animals are more likely to cooperate than we may have first thought. There was a reference to a journal article about how a herd of deer decided to go in a given direction after hydrating at a water hole.
  • Rumi poetry is medicine for the soul.
  • I am continually amazed at the kinds of things that are correlated with Random Number Generators.
  • Did you know that the word “Love” appears 95 times in Darwin’s “The Descent of Man?”
  • A great quote that Desmond Tutu read: “God looked at me and said, all I have is you.”

And so that clears off most of my list. Look for a new post sometime in the next month, but probably not for the next 3 weeks. Happy end of April and early May!

Charting The Unknown: What’s It Like To Explore

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to see a . This particular luau was a little different from most luaus. Most have the traditional Hawaiian food, Hula dancers, Poi spinners/twirlers, and music. This particular luau that I saw was a cross between that and a retelling of the story of some of the first voyages from Tahiti to Hawaii. From the luaus website:

It is during the time of epic voyages between Hawaii and Tahiti, along one of the longest sea roads of Polynesia, that our journey takes place. Through laughter, fear, seduction and fire, a new legacy is created, born from the cherished seeds of their ancestors.

As the show concluded, I couldn’t help but wonder… what was it like for those early explorers of the world?

Outside of astronauts, I really can’t think of anything that compares to what these early explorers might have been feeling before beginning their journeys. And these astronauts would only have relatable experiences to those explorers that set sail after the ones that had already gone “first.”

Just stopping for a moment… to consider what it’s like to leave everything you know – everything you’ve ever known – to get on a boat to set sail for the new land. Not knowing what kind of topsy-turvy experience the ocean will gift them with. Not knowing what kind of experience the new land will bring them. Will their be food? Will we be able to make shelter? Will there be predators? But maybe most of all, will we make it?

It’s a reasonable question, yes? You’re venturing out into the unknown. Venturing out into uncharted territory. For those initial explorers, for the ones who left their land before anyone else had done so, they were venturing out into the water before anyone else had. They didn’t know that they would eventually find . I just can’t imagine what it was like for these early families to voluntarily leave everything they’ve known.

~

History wasn’t a . Nonetheless, I understand the importance of having an understanding of where we (as a species) have been to understand the possibility of where we may be going. As I reflect on some of these early experiences of our species, I wonder if, in my lifetime, we will again get to have this feeling of . I suppose we could say that scientists get to have this feeling when they conduct research. They are, in a sense, charting the unknown. Beyond that, we could even stretch the metaphor to include psychologists/psychiatrists who offer counseling where they help the client “plunge the depths of their psyche.”While these experiences may be similar, they don’t give me the impression that they would compare to making humans feel “small” in the sense that an experience like setting sail on the ocean might. Leaving the edge of the shore and being out in the open water without land as far as the eye can see — it’s quite an extraordinary sight! In fact, I’m told there’s nothing like it. To see stars stretch from one end of the horizon all the way to the other. Remarkable.

It can also be humbling, can’t it? To see a sight like this and realize that the Earth, that humans, are just a tiny spec in the universe. I really hope that in my lifetime (or very nearly after), humans again get to have that feeling. That humans will pilot spaceships and attempt to physically chart the depth and the expansiveness of the universe. I think we can do it. I feel we can do it.