THE ECONOMY OF WASTE

What I learn on FW has an unexpected effect on my view of aesthetics (the study of beauty). If there HAS to be waste to survive--and I think aesthetics are bound up with what enables you to survive--your aesthetic ideas might change to accommodate waste. The same sea coast whose development I recently bemoaned now is seen differently, and might even prompt me to want more of it. Why? Because the mind seeks pattern, and pattern is involved with the idea of beauty. Now, the maze of roads you see on a Google satellite map is less like a creeping cancer and more like veins, enabling circulation in a new life form.

NYC's Manhattan island comes to mind. Early prints and maps give you a sketchy idea of what it was like before European settlement. Nothing like what a Google map would have shown. But if we've lived in Manhattan, or seen it represented in movies, we might think of it as having a compelling beauty based on its very rational pattern. Streets align one way, and avenues another, perpendicular to the streets. It's very easy to figure out where you are and how to navigate your journey. The order of the road system produces an order to the buildings that line it. They all have the same setback from the curb. They are of similar height. There windows and story levels might more or less align too. A lot of energy is conserved through this patterning based on an original grid concept.

But even though a human-imposed angularity replaces nature, it doesn't remove the pleasure and efficacy of having nature nearby. In Manhattan, there is Central Park.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Manhattan,+New+York,+NY/@40.7791915,-73.9790181,10248m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m8!1m2!2m1!1sNYC,+manhattan+island!3m4!1s0x89c2588f046ee661:0xa0b3281fcecc08c!8m2!3d40.7831411!4d-73.9712906

So, in the name of economy to survive, must a lovely coastal area with endangered turtles and conches be turned into a version of Manhattan? Without FW (ourfiniteworld.com), I wouldn't even have considered such a thing--despite the economic system steamrolling over my objections anyway. FW gives me a handle in why this it happening, why it might need to happen, and better ways to think about it.