5 ms·

It's fascinating to imagine how future peoples might interpret current day cities, should there be a similar loss of knowledge in between. Skyscrapers in parti

by ruytlm 8y ago

It's fascinating to imagine how future peoples might interpret current day cities, should there be a similar loss of knowledge in between. Skyscrapers in particular will be interesting, given that to date no building over 200m tall has been voluntarily demolished[0], and there are currently 1340 buildings in the world over 200m tall[1]. [0]: http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/buildings?list=tallest-demolished http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/buildings?list=tallest-demol... [1]: http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/ http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/

Swizec 8y ago
Aliens.
cm2187 8y ago
Is that true? I understand JPMorgan will scrap their current skyscraper to rebuild another one. I assumed this was common place in New York.
- paulific 8y ago
  Well if you believe Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City#Tallest_destroyed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_N... the tallest NY building voluntarily demolished to date was the Singer Building at 185m. My guess is that there is a point of diminishing returns at which there is no economic return in knocking down your existing building to build an even larger one. In JPMorgans case they have a 50 year old building that they are planning to replace with one that doubles their office space so they seem to have a good rationale.
qubex 8y ago
I wonder what they’ll make of “Manhattan-henge”. That always comes to mind when I hear of folks of the Graham Hancock type speaking knowingly of advanced astronomical intentons being encoded into the various layouts of ancient buildings... and I find myself thinking “er, no... stuff lining up on astronomically relevant dates occurs whenever you arrange stuff regularly, and if you’re willing to ‘force’ these to fall on equinoxes or solstices you only have to mess around with the dates you’re willing to quote for construction”. (To wit, some of these theories may be correct, but it’s easy for one’s sense of skepticism to be blindsided by apparently compelling cases that arise by sheer chance.)
- notahacker 8y ago
  Vaguely related humorous piece about archaeologists of the distant future discovering a well-preserved example of a mid 20th century motel; they conclude every unfamiliar item within it from the toilet to the television has religious significance http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Motel-of-the-Mysteries-Macaulay.pdf http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Motel...
netcan 8y ago
Just recently went on a bit of a neolithic binge. Fascinating work being done by this generation of archeologists, on a time where we previously had very little knowledge. There isn't much that survives 10k+ years, so lots of speculating, extrapolation and wondering by necessity. Anyway, future archeologists will find a lot of things about us, that'd surprise us. We have a continuity with paleolithic religions' "fertility cults." From Venus of Duseldorf figurines in the upper paleolithic to Madonna statuettes in half of European homes today, Europe has continued a long tradition of Mother Goddess worship as the primary religious object. Clearly, we are a matriarchal culture. The ancient Egyptian, Summerian & Hittite sphinx continues to guard most temples (especially gothic and neogothic churches) in the form of the gargoyle. Clearly gargoyles-sphinxes are very important to our culture.... It's interesting, playing this game. One thing that it highlights is how low key and nearly invisible "memes" can become. Gargoyles aren't really a part of our myths and religions (never heard a priest mention one), but they are all over European Christian churches and other buildings. Is this sphynx related? Seems possible. They look similar and are used in the same way architecturally as Hittite sphinxes. If they are related, it isn't in a way that's commonly known. What is the christian-gargoyle connection anyway? Is there a mythology that goes with these symbols? Do they symbolise anything to us or are they just a thing we're putting on houses of worship out of habit? The Madonna is an important religious symbol, but not the main character or god of the religion. Still, you'll find more Madonna in household or public religious art than you will find Jesus art. Then, most Jesus art is symbolic (a cross) and we don't do YHVH (jesus' dad) art because depicting god was a Taboo. It isn't taboo in this milenia, so god is *occasionally" depicted in Christian art (eg the sistine chapel) but the ancient customer was different. The result is that churches don't seem to be temples to god, to archeologists. Looking at a pile of art and symbols and stuff... I think we assume it had a symbolic or mythological sense to it. A reason that ancient priests could have articulated. In truth we are probably overphasizing some things that they though of as unimportant and completely missing other things that were vital to understanding the culture.

by ruytlm 8y ago

Swizec 8y ago

Aliens.

cm2187 8y ago

Is that true? I understand JPMorgan will scrap their current skyscraper to rebuild another one. I assumed this was common place in New York.

paulific 8y ago
Well if you believe Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City#Tallest_destroyed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_N... the tallest NY building voluntarily demolished to date was the Singer Building at 185m. My guess is that there is a point of diminishing returns at which there is no economic return in knocking down your existing building to build an even larger one. In JPMorgans case they have a 50 year old building that they are planning to replace with one that doubles their office space so they seem to have a good rationale.

qubex 8y ago

I wonder what they’ll make of “Manhattan-henge”. That always comes to mind when I hear of folks of the Graham Hancock type speaking knowingly of advanced astronomical intentons being encoded into the various layouts of ancient buildings... and I find myself thinking “er, no... stuff lining up on astronomically relevant dates occurs whenever you arrange stuff regularly, and if you’re willing to ‘force’ these to fall on equinoxes or solstices you only have to mess around with the dates you’re willing to quote for construction”. (To wit, some of these theories may be correct, but it’s easy for one’s sense of skepticism to be blindsided by apparently compelling cases that arise by sheer chance.)

notahacker 8y ago
Vaguely related humorous piece about archaeologists of the distant future discovering a well-preserved example of a mid 20th century motel; they conclude every unfamiliar item within it from the toilet to the television has religious significance http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Motel-of-the-Mysteries-Macaulay.pdf http://sultanaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Motel...

netcan 8y ago

Just recently went on a bit of a neolithic binge. Fascinating work being done by this generation of archeologists, on a time where we previously had very little knowledge. There isn't much that survives 10k+ years, so lots of speculating, extrapolation and wondering by necessity. Anyway, future archeologists will find a lot of things about us, that'd surprise us. We have a continuity with paleolithic religions' "fertility cults." From Venus of Duseldorf figurines in the upper paleolithic to Madonna statuettes in half of European homes today, Europe has continued a long tradition of Mother Goddess worship as the primary religious object. Clearly, we are a matriarchal culture. The ancient Egyptian, Summerian & Hittite sphinx continues to guard most temples (especially gothic and neogothic churches) in the form of the gargoyle. Clearly gargoyles-sphinxes are very important to our culture.... It's interesting, playing this game. One thing that it highlights is how low key and nearly invisible "memes" can become. Gargoyles aren't really a part of our myths and religions (never heard a priest mention one), but they are all over European Christian churches and other buildings. Is this sphynx related? Seems possible. They look similar and are used in the same way architecturally as Hittite sphinxes. If they are related, it isn't in a way that's commonly known. What is the christian-gargoyle connection anyway? Is there a mythology that goes with these symbols? Do they symbolise anything to us or are they just a thing we're putting on houses of worship out of habit? The Madonna is an important religious symbol, but not the main character or god of the religion. Still, you'll find more Madonna in household or public religious art than you will find Jesus art. Then, most Jesus art is symbolic (a cross) and we don't do YHVH (jesus' dad) art because depicting god was a Taboo. It isn't taboo in this milenia, so god is *occasionally" depicted in Christian art (eg the sistine chapel) but the ancient customer was different. The result is that churches don't seem to be temples to god, to archeologists. Looking at a pile of art and symbols and stuff... I think we assume it had a symbolic or mythological sense to it. A reason that ancient priests could have articulated. In truth we are probably overphasizing some things that they though of as unimportant and completely missing other things that were vital to understanding the culture.