City Design Efficiency Thread

The first question in the study/science of city design is regarding the basis for measuring the functionality of a particular society/nation/civilization.


QUESTION: What is the best way to measure prosperity/functionality/success/efficiency of a social economy?
IOW: What basis can we use to determine how well a society is functioning, how successful a society is, or how prosperous a society is?

I would like to know different people's opinions on what qualities they look at in determining how propserous a society is.

 

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IMO: In my long experience of city design, I have determined that the first and foremost way to measure how prosperous a civilization/society is would be to first determine a purpose for society. What is the purpose of a civilization? Once we understand the purpose of a civilization, we can measure how well the civilization is fulfilling that purpose. I have decided that the purpose of civilization is to nurture the individual. Because the state of the Earth environment plays an important role in nurturing the individual, it would be more accurate for me to say that the purpose of civilization is to nurture the individual and the environment. With this in mind, we can move on to determine how to measure how well the individual and the environment is being nurtured. Therefore, in order to measure how efficient a society is, we must have a basis for measuring how well the individual and the environment is nurtured.

The only obligation of the individual is to refrain from violating the human right of other individuals. Beyond this, the individual has no inherent obligation to anybody. This freedom from obligation is the basis for true "Social Freedom". "Social Freedom" is total freedom with the only exception that the individual is not free to violate the human rights of others. It is in fact this lack of freedom to violate the human rights of others that allows the individual to possess true "Social Freedom". (There is more to this including lack of freedom to cause harm upon the environment and democratic basis for determining human rights.) IMPORTANT: If a society/social system (institution) imposes any obligation upon the individual beyond the obligation to respect the human rights of others, the institution is in violation of the individual's "Social Freedom".

Why does CS always use the term "the individual"? All individuals are different in many ways which makes for great diversity. However, it is important that the term "the individual" is used when describing ethical rights and standards for all members of civilization equally.

1. There is the individual and the institution.

2. The only purpose, and therefore the full obligation of the institution is to nurture the individual and the environment. Therefore, the efficiency of the institution which can be also called the success/prosperity of the society is measured by its ability to fulfill its obligated purpose.

3. An individual's freedom of choice without any social imposition of obligation to society (other than respecting this freedom for others) is what makes an individual free.


COMMUNISM
Communists believe that each person is obligated to contribute to society. This belief is actually detrimental in society’s capability to fulfill its purpose. If the individual does not have the choice, the individual cannot be said to be free. Many people who call themselves capitalists are actually communists even though they refuse to see themselves as communists. Americans who beg for more jobs and get upset at others who refuse to contribute to the madness are actually the most communist culture I have ever met.


DETERIORATION LIFESTYLE AND CAPITALISM
When a civilization has a very weak understanding of the science of city design, it is incapable of city design efficiency. With the understanding of the science of city design, we know that the efficiency of a city design is based on the city’s ability to nurture the individual and the environment. Without this basic foundational understanding of city design, cities are design with very low levels of efficiency. In other words, cities are design wit very low levels of efficiency in nurturing the individual and the environment. In fact, they are design with high levels of deterioration of the environment, human health, and ultimately the self. The capitalist lifestyle of deterioration is a lifestyle that depletes/deteriorates the environment, deteriorates our physical health, and ultimately deteriorates the self. We are no longer healthy individuals in a healthy environment of freedom, we are cogs in a machine destroying the earth in order to consume products and material possessions that make us sick, and ultimately destroy our individuality.


SOLUTIONS
It is because the science of city design is able to acknowledge the purpose of civilization to nurture the individual and the environment, problems are easy to assess. There is a fine line between art and science. The art of city design or the science of city design? Skill is a measurement of capability in an area. While a painter might have great skill in painting great works, a computer engineer might have great skill in engineering computer motherboards or new and improved devices. This is a start of a new area for the highest skilled city designers to design the most efficient cities that specifically nurture the environment and the individual, turn around the current elite who are obsessed with maintaining a tight grip on the current system that affords them a lifestyle of destructive extravagance, and manifest continually improving city designs? Is city design about designing the ideal city/utopia? Yes and no. Designs MUST be empirically tested. While a design in theory might seem great, we will not know until we implement it. Once we implement a design, we can measure its efficiency, assess flaws, and make improvements. The science of city design is not as much about designing the ideally efficient city in which all are free and happy, but more about moving towards that ideal. America is a dystopia, whose forefathers happened to be the greatest city design scientists/idealists of their era. Its time for a new era, and more of a scientifically practical approach that incorporates greater safeguards against corruption. While we will never say corruption is inevitable, we will say that better and better designs make for solutions to prevent, expose, and disseminate various forms of corruption.

What is corruption? A deep understanding of corruption is an integral part of city design science. While humans might get sick, computers might get viruses, cities get can become infected with corruption that can have a detrimental effect on a city’s ability to fulfill its purpose of nurturing the individual and the environment. One of the main reasons why corruption is able to spread is the false belief that it is inevitable. As long as people believe corruption is inevitable, they will not lift a finger against it, and it will continue to be inevitable. Another reason is fear. People are afraid that if they fight corruption, harm may come to them. Solutions for this are simple. An understanding of corruption and self deception must be fundamental in the educentric city design.
(I created educentricism which means that all city designs revolve around education/academics. Not academics as we know it under the academic industrial complex, but the concept that a city must be an educational institution in order for it to prosper as defined by our basis for measuring prosperity.)

 

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So taxes for schools is wrong? (especially for childless persons)?

This seems very disjoint / rambling to me. I do not know what you are saying but it give me the opportunity to make an observation about communism, Cuban style:

Unlike many long term rulers, Castro did not seem to be exploiting the state to build up his bank accounts out side of the counrty he ruled basically as a popular dictator. As he first seized power he lead to considerable economic distruction - but the first farm he burned was the one he had inherited.

In general, I think he wanted to help liberate the cuban people from a truely terrible, explotative dictator, Batesta. He did do some good. - The success of Cuban medical schools is well known. (Even Americans have gotten their MD degrees there.) The adult litercy program was a model for the world and very sucessful, but the economy Castro made was a disaster, and not just because of the US embargo.

Here are some facts related to his 49 year reign*:
Exports drop from $3.6e9 to 3.2e9 while imports soared from $3.3e9 to 10.8e9dollars annually. This caused a great increase in the per capita national debt. It increased under Castro for $49 to ~$3000 per person. Despite the medical advances, infant mortality rate climbed to moved Cuba from 25th to the 13th highest in the world. Cuba, pre-Castro, had the 2nd highest car ownership in South America, but now Cuba is in 9th position. Pre-castro there were 58 independant newspapars, now there are 17, all owned and controlled by the government. Per-capita income rank in South America fell from 4th to 29th !

Thus once again, central direction, rent controls, managed economy, etc of extreme socialism or communism has proven to be a disaster for its people. This insipte of what I think was a government under Castro that was actually trying to "do good" for the Cuban people.

China seems to have found a better way compared to both communism and capitalism. The state directs and funds the major infrastructure items: transportation systems, dams, power plants, schools, financial systems (but that did not work as well as it should, so China is making it more market oriented with less support of failing state businesses, etc.) while Adam's Smith's "invisible hand" freely guides the things that have shorter time and financial scales, like the decision of a farmer to plant rice or raise pigs etc.

Now that China is trying to get rid of corruption and cleaning up the environment, (increasingly important to the CCP) - expect China to prosper even more rapidly while US and EU sink into depression.

I do not know if China has the best system of urban planning and is on it way to becoming the highest material standards or not, (very hard to do for 1.3 billion people on the very finite Earth.) but they are rapidly moving in that direction. Only time will tell.
-----------------
*This data is from VEJA, sort of Brazil's "Time magazine" - the current issue with Castro on the cover.

 

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These economies do not work because these economies measure prosperity in terms of economic output production. Production and grand output are an incorrect measure of a nation's prosperity.

 

What are the "correct" measures? If anything related to Happiness, Freedom, etc. how is the actual quantative value to be determined?

One "output" that can (and should IMHO) be measured is the production of well educated youths. US fails compared to many on this measure, especially when cost effectiveness is considered. Life expectance is another easy to measure indicator. - Again the US fails, especially when cost effectiveness is considered. (Highest per capital expenditures and about 3 years less life expectancy compared to Europe or 7 less compared to Japan.

I.e. I am not opposed to inclusion of "good life" measures that can be made quantative and bias free, but "happiness," "freedom" etc. are hard to measure without strongly biased results. With their biases, instead those of the US's, the Chinese measure higher than the US and conversely, of course.

To take one example of the different bias effects: The average Chinese WANTS their internet filtered to protect their youth against sexual predators, anti-social suggestions, propaganda that attacks the "harmonious society." etc. They are free from these evils common in the US so score higher in freedom in this area. The US bias applied to their society has the opposite conclusion.

 

Definitely not production output. You cnould have the greatest GDP on the planet. That is no measurement of the living standards of the population. A slave society can have the greatest GDP.

There are things such as crime rate, poverty, education, health, technology.

 

Now many cities have you designed lately? Which ones?

And if you haven't designed any new cities, perhaps you can give us a run-down of your highly skilled education and experiences?

Baron Max

 

I'd say if the people are happy, crime is low, education is abundant, hospitals and fire protection are available, a good court system, good policing, well maintained roads and bridges, clean air, nice parks and recreational areas, swimming pools, well planned communities with good zoning laws are a few things that would make a good city design.

 

I think the level of prosperity in a society depends entirely upon three main variables: resource management, protecting the environment, and the interconnection between the people. I think that a society with the understanding of these three things can propsper indefinitely.

Resource Management:

Many of today's problems, such as crime, hunger, wars, poverty etc, are based on the assumed scarcity of resources when in fact, this this false. The reason scarcity exists is because of the paralyzing profit structure that this world system is based on. Abundance can only be non-existent in a world where profit is the incentive. So the reason that the world in such in bad shape, the reason why a billion people lives on less than 1 dollar a day is because everyone is out for themselves. Everyone engages in differential advantage against his/her fellow human being.
What we need is see the world's resources as the common heritage of all resources. I'll elaberate if people need me to.

Protecting the environment:

This issue should be a priority of all nations. We should shit where we live. But that's what we're doing everyday. If we want future generations to enjoy what we've enjoyed and more, we need to give them the opportunity to do so.

Interconnection:

Many people don't understand how connected we are to the environment and eachother. When people see that we are all one, that what anyone does affects everyone else, we will see and know peace. All people of the world would love each other if we understand one another. The powers that be divides us by striking fear onto us. If you don't believe people wanted to be connected and united, just look at the most popular things today: social networking, mobile phones, internet. Border lines need to wither away for peace to be achieved.

Some people may see how these three things connect. Conflicts will never go away until everyone in the world has what all people need: food, shelter, water, freedom, and love.

Side note: Hi All!

 

Hello.

A
EDUCENTRICISM
The belief that civilization's purpose is to protect/nurture the planet/universe, and all its inhabitants. Including the culture that abides by such belief. This is in opposition of consumerism which is the belief that civilization's purpose is to destroy the planet/universe.


B
Any form of output requires 3 primary things in order to create.
1. Space - land area.
2. Raw material resources - anything from the earth.
3. Human time-labor.

These 3 are the input for production of any form of output.
Efficiency is using the least amount of input to produce, consume, and exhaust any form of output.

Thus, input produces output for human use/consuption. After use/consumption, whatever is not completely exhausted is renewed as input. Efficiency is as much a minimization of waste as it is a minimization of input.


C
What is the purpose of output? Human civilization has only one objective. To protect/nurture the earth and all its inhabitants. This is the fundemental definition of educentricism. All output is used for this purpose.


D
Consumerism is a culture of deterioration. Deterioration of the environment, the human body, the mind, the spirit/life-force.


E
How well does a civilization function? What is civilization propserity? Is it innovation? Technology? Freedom?

The measurement of "prosperity" is the measurement of civilization's funtionality. It is the measure of how well a civilization is acheiving its objective. When objective is vaguely defined, discussing a civilization's prosperity is impossible.

A society made up of slave camps where humans live in bondage under a plutocratic elite can be rationalized as prosperous. Even a society with a slave-labor infrastructure can be a leader in innovation and technology.

A society with a large military run by free markets, destructive consumerism, and propaganda illusion of freedom can be rationalized as prosperous.

However, when the "objective is sprcifically defined, as in C, prosperity/funtionality has a basis.

 

That's patently false. Consumerism is simply the act of consuming goods, services and products that are made available. It's not a belief, it's not an -ism at all ....it just is.

I suspect that there's not a single consumer who willing "consumes" with the express intent of destroying the planet.

Baron Max

 

To ScyentsIzLief: hi and welcome to SF

There is a slight (perhaps great) problem with you idealism. You want social equality and efficient management of resources.

Let's consider a pig. (No not a "cop" nor a "filthy rich" "profit making" capitalist, but one with curled tail, four legs and four feet etc.)

Efficient management require that the tail and feet be used for food as well as the hind "ham legs" and pork chops etc. Who eats the pork chops and who eats the pig's feet? Or MUCH more importantly, how is this decision made?

 

There are various connotations in which the term "consumerism" can be used. All very different from one another. In this case, I am discussing consumerism with respect to economic theory. That increased consumption is a measurement of a fucntional/successful economy. I clearly object to this. Decreased consumption in fact is a measurement of efficiency.

I am the only person I know of that has a problem with "creating" more jobs. This economic model is so absurd. The purpose of technology is to reduce input needed to produce X output. If reducing input/jobs can produce output greater than or equal to X, I am all for it. I consider less jobs = more efficiency.

 

If resources were managed as good as they can be, and with technology, there would be so much pigs that people can eat only the eyes and there would be enough for everyone. The point isn't what on a pig should be eaten, but how many pigs there is. And intelligent management of the earth resources, along with technology will achieve this.

And it's not idealism or my idea. It's almost a century of research and experience conducted by Jacque Fresco, director of The Venus Project.

 

Propaganda has used doublespeak to create a culture that hates "idealism". Thus, any action towards "utopia" is thwarted by common sense. More specifically common nonsense or the status-quo. Doublespeak in this case makes the human brain interpret "utopioa" as "dystopia". Any mention of ideal utopia (which is a society of happiness and prosperity) is subconciously considered to be a dystopian nightmare. It is considered common sense to not take action towards the the total nightmare of ideal utopia. Innaction towards improvement thereby becomes self-imposed docility. A fact of life to remember is that common sense is rarely sensibly. Reason and logic are everything.

 

Sure. But can't you see that the reality of humans and human interaction prevents that very idealistic "IF" statement? The sentence is correct, but from that point it all falls completely to hell. "IF" statements must necessarily take into account the various aspects of issues ......and that should include all the human problems involved. Yours don't do that ....so they're nothing but fairy tales.

Idealisms written by others are still idealism. Nice to talk about and laugh about, but they have little or no effect on the realities of the world.

Baron Max

 

Telling us about a dreamworld is one thing, explain the common sense approach to getting there is a whole new issue!!

How do you get humans to stop being and doing human things? Once you make that hurdle, then I'll listen to you. But I'm not going to keep reading more of your pipe dreams without concrete methods of attaining your utopia.

Baron Max

 

It's idealism to you simply because your mind doesn't have the capacity to realize a world like that, and ignorance because you simply know nothing about it and making a judgement about it.

It's as simple as me saying you're dense and ignorant even with your 18,000 posts.

 

Oh, sure I can! I have a marvelous imagination. The difference is that I know that it's only imagination. You, on the other hand, seem to think that if you can dream it, you can make it happen. And that's simply not the case. I dream of getting lovely, willing, young women into my bed at night, but that don't make it happen!

So, like I said before, show me your METHOD of getting TO your dream world, then we can talk.

Baron Max

 

Kid, what more do you need? I gave you the link. Do you want a hands-on exercise? Reading too boring for you?