"Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them." -- Albert Einstein
Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:01 AM
The latest issue of MIT Technology Review has a new short story from novelist and journalist Bruce Sterling (Wikipedia entry; blog; unofficial fan site). "The Interoperation" is a tale of architecture and angst from 2040, featuring CAD software and mad architects that look rather familiar.
"The Interoperation" is a tale in which "architecture had given way to software management. So he turned buildings into construction programs." Sterling has long been interested in design, and was the keynote speaker at COFES 2007. Any regular AECnews reader will recognize several themes and insider issues, including the occasional thinly veiled homage to contemporary persons, programs, and issues (interoperability, sustainability).
A few choice lines: Roebel still worked--when he worked at all--on this ancient CAD system designed for building French fighter aircraft.
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He had joined the comprehensive revolution attacking every aspect of the construction-architecture-engineering business. The "Next Web." The "Geo-Web." "Ubiquity." The "Internet of Things." It had a hundred names because it had a thousand victims, for the old-school Internet had busted loose to invade the world of atoms. Not just certain aspects of harsh reality--the works.
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The Church of Symbiosis ... could it get any worse than this? François Roebel was the picture of sanity compared with his favorite clients.
The Church of Computer-Human Symbiosis was an aging group of California hacker cranks who had inherited the vast fortune of a vanished social-software company. They had long been Roebel's ideal patrons, for they were crazily rich, all-forgiving, and incapable of judgment.
Over the decades, Roebel had built the cult an awesome set of monumental churches. His temples were top-end architecture glamour hits; glossy photo books about them weighed down coffee tables on six continents.
Nobody ever worshiped in the amazing churches Roebel had built, because the cult was too crazy and scary. Furthermore, the roofs leaked and all the utilities malfunctioned. Still, that didn't much matter to the cultists. They were serenely indifferent to such earthly concerns, since they spent most of their waking lives playing immersive simulation games.
--RSN