4 ms·

It's not just colours. The world rapidly turning into a real-life "borg-world": same kinds of buildings; same kinds of dresses; same kinds of "world models; sam

It's not just colours. The world rapidly turning into a real-life "borg-world": same kinds of buildings; same kinds of dresses; same kinds of "world models; same philosophies; and now the same language too. The world is for all real purposes has been gobbled up by the Anglosphere. It's all but dead; I'm sure many people realize how drab and low-entropy our world is today.

tbossanova 4y ago
Wouldn’t drabness and sameness be more high-entropy?
ben_w 4y ago
I don't know what you mean? I live in an apartment that's about a century old, the style of which was widely (but not universally) replicated all over the industrialised world around that time. The view out tall my office window has some other apartment towers in a different and more recent style, perhaps 50 years old, and some short ones in yet another style that might be less than 10 years old. I suspect that if everything looks the same to you, what you're seeing is the last time a place had major economic growth leading to a building boom. When it comes to world models, I've met an anarcho-capitalist and an anarcho-communist, and I've known someone who thinks the best thing about democracy is preventing(!) people from getting what they want, and multiple people who want to end technological growth to let the ecosystem (they use the word "planet") heal, and at least one other who would gladly disassemble the actual planet to build a swarm of O'Neill cylinders to power a colonising swarm of von Neumann replicators to do the same to every star in our future light cone. My mother had anecdotes about relatives causing scandals by marrying outside their denominations of Christianity, I've known at the least atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, at least one literal Satanist, and Wiccans (and probably some more but it hasn't come up in conversation).
t_mann 4y ago
My impression is that architecture is becoming increasingly 'rectangular', with exteriors being basically a supremely boring assortment of different rectangular structures. Especially at the lower end, residential construction mainly meant to be sold to people who buy it as an investment rather than for personal use.
- Night_Thastus 4y ago
  It's far easier and faster to use essentially pre-made easily-tileable templates for buildings than it is to make anything custom. A huge chunk of the US is built this way. It's because those who need the buildings want them cheaply, and aren't considering an aesthetic factor.
wsc981 4y ago
When I first moved to Thailand, it seemed to me the colors were much more vibrant here than in Northern Europe. And even after living here for 5 years now, I still appreciate this often. Greens are more green, blues are more blue, etc... I'm guessing it has to do with the position of the sun relative to the earth / how sunlight enters the earths atmosphere. Just seeing these more vibrant colors have the effect of lifting my mood a bit. Just last week I heard somewhere that colors in New Zealand are very vibrant as well. I've never been there, so not sure how it compares to Thailand, but perhaps it's true.
- silisili 4y ago
  I felt the same way when I moved to Florida from the midwest. It's really hard to describe to people who haven't experienced it.
thematrixturtle 4y ago
Having visited East Germany before the wall came down, I assure you some parts of the world used to be far more drab than anywhere today. Even North Korea seems to like pastels. It's also rather Anglocentric to assume that the "generic world" you describe is an "Anglosphere". Today's modern aesthetic is often described as Japanese/Zen or Scandinavian, and indeed, its biggest purveyors -- IKEA, Muji, Uniqlo, H&M -- are not from the Anglosphere.
sebastianconcpt 4y ago
What about some soviet brutalism then? https://designyoutrust.com/2021/07/impressive-examples-of-soviet-brutalism-in-architecture/ https://designyoutrust.com/2021/07/impressive-examples-of-so...
CalRobert 4y ago
Growing up my family and I would look at new developments on the edge of town and lament that all the cookie-cutter houses looked the same. I did a self-build on a house in 2021 and the county planners insisted I had to make the house blend in with the existing ones. There was no room for creativity. For an age we're we've made progress in personal freedoms we seem pretty hell-bent on forcing conformity.
password54321 4y ago
I think you need a holiday.

tbossanova 4y ago

Wouldn’t drabness and sameness be more high-entropy?

ben_w 4y ago

I don't know what you mean? I live in an apartment that's about a century old, the style of which was widely (but not universally) replicated all over the industrialised world around that time. The view out tall my office window has some other apartment towers in a different and more recent style, perhaps 50 years old, and some short ones in yet another style that might be less than 10 years old. I suspect that if everything looks the same to you, what you're seeing is the last time a place had major economic growth leading to a building boom. When it comes to world models, I've met an anarcho-capitalist and an anarcho-communist, and I've known someone who thinks the best thing about democracy is preventing(!) people from getting what they want, and multiple people who want to end technological growth to let the ecosystem (they use the word "planet") heal, and at least one other who would gladly disassemble the actual planet to build a swarm of O'Neill cylinders to power a colonising swarm of von Neumann replicators to do the same to every star in our future light cone. My mother had anecdotes about relatives causing scandals by marrying outside their denominations of Christianity, I've known at the least atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, at least one literal Satanist, and Wiccans (and probably some more but it hasn't come up in conversation).

t_mann 4y ago

My impression is that architecture is becoming increasingly 'rectangular', with exteriors being basically a supremely boring assortment of different rectangular structures. Especially at the lower end, residential construction mainly meant to be sold to people who buy it as an investment rather than for personal use.

Night_Thastus 4y ago
It's far easier and faster to use essentially pre-made easily-tileable templates for buildings than it is to make anything custom. A huge chunk of the US is built this way. It's because those who need the buildings want them cheaply, and aren't considering an aesthetic factor.

wsc981 4y ago

When I first moved to Thailand, it seemed to me the colors were much more vibrant here than in Northern Europe. And even after living here for 5 years now, I still appreciate this often. Greens are more green, blues are more blue, etc... I'm guessing it has to do with the position of the sun relative to the earth / how sunlight enters the earths atmosphere. Just seeing these more vibrant colors have the effect of lifting my mood a bit. Just last week I heard somewhere that colors in New Zealand are very vibrant as well. I've never been there, so not sure how it compares to Thailand, but perhaps it's true.

silisili 4y ago
I felt the same way when I moved to Florida from the midwest. It's really hard to describe to people who haven't experienced it.

thematrixturtle 4y ago

Having visited East Germany before the wall came down, I assure you some parts of the world used to be far more drab than anywhere today. Even North Korea seems to like pastels. It's also rather Anglocentric to assume that the "generic world" you describe is an "Anglosphere". Today's modern aesthetic is often described as Japanese/Zen or Scandinavian, and indeed, its biggest purveyors -- IKEA, Muji, Uniqlo, H&M -- are not from the Anglosphere.

sebastianconcpt 4y ago

What about some soviet brutalism then? https://designyoutrust.com/2021/07/impressive-examples-of-soviet-brutalism-in-architecture/ https://designyoutrust.com/2021/07/impressive-examples-of-so...

CalRobert 4y ago

Growing up my family and I would look at new developments on the edge of town and lament that all the cookie-cutter houses looked the same. I did a self-build on a house in 2021 and the county planners insisted I had to make the house blend in with the existing ones. There was no room for creativity. For an age we're we've made progress in personal freedoms we seem pretty hell-bent on forcing conformity.

password54321 4y ago

I think you need a holiday.