Ideal world
Jan. 26th, 2019 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI have been trying to imagine what my Best Possible World looks like, so I can think of bits I can actually do.
It's tricky because I keep trying to fix the entire world at once, which, obviously, big.
But walking around town the other day I said to my employee that I would very much like to live somewhere with NO CARS. Which is true. Pedestrian zone for the win. But, it makes deliveries much difficult, and getting the food home. And many people need more help that makes No Cars not actually accessible. And you'd have to have a place at the edges for picking up and dropping off, but the edge would have to be pretty close to home if people had mobility issues. Also babies. It is right tricky getting plural small children anywhere. Making people walk makes it trickier than necessary.
So I have been thinking, and I reckon I like the way the university (UEA) has it, except with far fewer stairs. They've got one side of buildings that is basically No Cars and one side that is a road with several bus stops, and also somehow for some bits there's an Above that is all walking and a Below that is deliveries and suchlike. There are places to go get food if you don't cook. There's a little shop. There's a gigantic library. And the housing has common rooms to share, so people can have friends over without always needing one living room each of sufficient size to have friends over. The rooms are too small for my books though, so I prefer the housing in the over 55s places I've seen on rightmove, where there's a little flat each and also a shared room for sitting and talking and with tables for maybe games maybe eating. Little flat is helpful, shared spaces also helpful. Except if something is awkward with a neighbour you can't actually get away from them, or if social happens in sight of home then people can follow you home without walking, so there's drawbacks too. So maybe social rooms close but not that close? Like, pubs are a meeting place, but they're a bit beer focused, which is not optimal. Need something that doesn't have the drawbacks of current pubs. And where you can still run a D&D game.
The world does not have enough ground floor flats for disabled people. It's very annoying. Or enough bungalows, neither.
So my ideal world has entire new towns planned to be more like a university campus, except all ground level with no stairs, with halls for doing dancing lessons and yoga and meditation, and rooms for games night.
Also somewhere to be a garden and somewhere to be a sports kick around, because I don't want those things but plenty of people do.
Except I'm sure that wouldn't work for a bunch of people. I only know how to plan for needs I've noticed. And I can already see that ground floor for everyone equals more walking for everyone too. Or wheeling. And I have no idea what the local economy would be like, except there needs to be a lot of carers, and ways for them to get where they're going.
But the ways university is better than towns: Much Less Cars, lots of things to do, meeting rooms and living spaces, and places to eat where you don't have to cook.
Unfortunately I cannot move to a university.
And I'm sure there are reasons towns don't look like them already.
But even my fancy daydreams like where I go to STAR Labs and help superheroes have elements of this. I study with these very smart people who will talk to me and tell me which books to read. Except it's a much smaller group than university. (Which is exactly why it wouldn't work, the inefficiencies of an apprentice system make it a tiny bit hard to train everyone that wants it to a good standard). I just can't cope with lecture places full of Humans, so daydream smaller.
And then also this small group Listens to me about ethics and so forth. Human rights even for non human beings. That kind of thing. That way even though I have no superpowers I have a valuable perspective.
... translated back into the real world that's like volunteering and politics? But both of those involve groups of more than half a dozen people, so, I am... not doing that.
My ideal world involves a lot less leaving the house for routine functions. Why go to offices? Why have meetings? Just have people getting things done.
Yes I realise humans are pack bondy, but nobody likes open plan offices and everyone complains about meetings, there has to be a balance somewhere different than now.
Also make standard working hours much smaller. Would need more shifts to make available at all times, but people would be happier and not worn out. And you could stagger start times so rush hour wasn't so stuck. And move children times to when children are actually awake? And just design how we do things around how humans actually work, with variable settings for people that work different.
... granted at the moment it's difficult to find people to do all the work at all the times, but, maybe if it was more fun more people would do it.
Design things to be sustainable and repairable, need less things, make work longer.
Make clothes that actually fit. That involves more people and measuring things, or more clever computers and manufacturing than I am currently aware of existing. Mass production still has huge advantages. But it annoys me when designs stop being available? I have five dresses I bought all at once because they were good and I know what shops are like, and I haven't been able to replace any of them since, and two have holes in now. So there should be a way of just making the designs into a dress when you want them? Like there would be if we started with our own patterns every time. Print on demand, but for clothing. And then if it fits right and you make it of good stuff in the first place, need much less stuff again, maybe.
... I know there's people who make things already, probably I can find somewhere to fix my dresses or even make more, but I look forward to a sci fi future where it's really simples.
Food. Food should be a lot easier than it is. Like, most places have one vegan meal, but it's probably baked potato and baked beans, though sometimes it is just chips. This seems inefficient. Means you can get many meals in many places, but they're all the same. But I've only seen all vegetarian places in like Norwich, big places. Because not enough people I guess. But if you're one of those infrequent people, you probably gave up on going out to eat ages ago. Even tray meals from the supermarket have a half dozen sorts where the meat eaters get a whole row. But there's still a lot of people who would enjoy an easy yet varied diet, they're just spread thin enough they don't sustain the shops.
... I'm not saying I want to move all the vegans into one town, but, it would certainly be a different food experience if everyone in a city was a vegetarian.
I am glad it gets easier to find food with no glutens or vegetarian no dairy. That part is great. It's just still frustrating when some people can walk into a supermarket and know all the foods on all the shelves are edible for humans, when other people are like, only for some humans.
... I kind of do want to move people around so everyone in a town wants the same foods and likes the same things. Then you could go to any take away and lo, there would be edible food. And you could have several book groups, for lo, everyone would want to read and discuss books. And you could have science fiction groups. And it would be like a convention but all year...
... I am aware that people don't really work that way and the internet is here to do the connecting up of shared interests.
... I mean I still only know a few people on here too, because finding people to talk to remains Difficult.
... but wouldn't it be neat if we just had cities based on what we want to do in them?
Now I'm imagining like a sorting hat but for where you go to live now. Shared interests having a shared address. Town of the Star Wars Fans. City of the Football.
... actually several cities of football, because geographic devotion seems to be baked in to that one.
Or it would be like university departments, but instead of university towns you'd get like the history school city.
... interdisciplinary studies would involve so much commuting...
So: Ideal world, I would find people with shared interests, like, plural people, and talk to them, every month, and also be able to find food in every food selling venue.
I mean that seems achievable.
It's tricky because I keep trying to fix the entire world at once, which, obviously, big.
But walking around town the other day I said to my employee that I would very much like to live somewhere with NO CARS. Which is true. Pedestrian zone for the win. But, it makes deliveries much difficult, and getting the food home. And many people need more help that makes No Cars not actually accessible. And you'd have to have a place at the edges for picking up and dropping off, but the edge would have to be pretty close to home if people had mobility issues. Also babies. It is right tricky getting plural small children anywhere. Making people walk makes it trickier than necessary.
So I have been thinking, and I reckon I like the way the university (UEA) has it, except with far fewer stairs. They've got one side of buildings that is basically No Cars and one side that is a road with several bus stops, and also somehow for some bits there's an Above that is all walking and a Below that is deliveries and suchlike. There are places to go get food if you don't cook. There's a little shop. There's a gigantic library. And the housing has common rooms to share, so people can have friends over without always needing one living room each of sufficient size to have friends over. The rooms are too small for my books though, so I prefer the housing in the over 55s places I've seen on rightmove, where there's a little flat each and also a shared room for sitting and talking and with tables for maybe games maybe eating. Little flat is helpful, shared spaces also helpful. Except if something is awkward with a neighbour you can't actually get away from them, or if social happens in sight of home then people can follow you home without walking, so there's drawbacks too. So maybe social rooms close but not that close? Like, pubs are a meeting place, but they're a bit beer focused, which is not optimal. Need something that doesn't have the drawbacks of current pubs. And where you can still run a D&D game.
The world does not have enough ground floor flats for disabled people. It's very annoying. Or enough bungalows, neither.
So my ideal world has entire new towns planned to be more like a university campus, except all ground level with no stairs, with halls for doing dancing lessons and yoga and meditation, and rooms for games night.
Also somewhere to be a garden and somewhere to be a sports kick around, because I don't want those things but plenty of people do.
Except I'm sure that wouldn't work for a bunch of people. I only know how to plan for needs I've noticed. And I can already see that ground floor for everyone equals more walking for everyone too. Or wheeling. And I have no idea what the local economy would be like, except there needs to be a lot of carers, and ways for them to get where they're going.
But the ways university is better than towns: Much Less Cars, lots of things to do, meeting rooms and living spaces, and places to eat where you don't have to cook.
Unfortunately I cannot move to a university.
And I'm sure there are reasons towns don't look like them already.
But even my fancy daydreams like where I go to STAR Labs and help superheroes have elements of this. I study with these very smart people who will talk to me and tell me which books to read. Except it's a much smaller group than university. (Which is exactly why it wouldn't work, the inefficiencies of an apprentice system make it a tiny bit hard to train everyone that wants it to a good standard). I just can't cope with lecture places full of Humans, so daydream smaller.
And then also this small group Listens to me about ethics and so forth. Human rights even for non human beings. That kind of thing. That way even though I have no superpowers I have a valuable perspective.
... translated back into the real world that's like volunteering and politics? But both of those involve groups of more than half a dozen people, so, I am... not doing that.
My ideal world involves a lot less leaving the house for routine functions. Why go to offices? Why have meetings? Just have people getting things done.
Yes I realise humans are pack bondy, but nobody likes open plan offices and everyone complains about meetings, there has to be a balance somewhere different than now.
Also make standard working hours much smaller. Would need more shifts to make available at all times, but people would be happier and not worn out. And you could stagger start times so rush hour wasn't so stuck. And move children times to when children are actually awake? And just design how we do things around how humans actually work, with variable settings for people that work different.
... granted at the moment it's difficult to find people to do all the work at all the times, but, maybe if it was more fun more people would do it.
Design things to be sustainable and repairable, need less things, make work longer.
Make clothes that actually fit. That involves more people and measuring things, or more clever computers and manufacturing than I am currently aware of existing. Mass production still has huge advantages. But it annoys me when designs stop being available? I have five dresses I bought all at once because they were good and I know what shops are like, and I haven't been able to replace any of them since, and two have holes in now. So there should be a way of just making the designs into a dress when you want them? Like there would be if we started with our own patterns every time. Print on demand, but for clothing. And then if it fits right and you make it of good stuff in the first place, need much less stuff again, maybe.
... I know there's people who make things already, probably I can find somewhere to fix my dresses or even make more, but I look forward to a sci fi future where it's really simples.
Food. Food should be a lot easier than it is. Like, most places have one vegan meal, but it's probably baked potato and baked beans, though sometimes it is just chips. This seems inefficient. Means you can get many meals in many places, but they're all the same. But I've only seen all vegetarian places in like Norwich, big places. Because not enough people I guess. But if you're one of those infrequent people, you probably gave up on going out to eat ages ago. Even tray meals from the supermarket have a half dozen sorts where the meat eaters get a whole row. But there's still a lot of people who would enjoy an easy yet varied diet, they're just spread thin enough they don't sustain the shops.
... I'm not saying I want to move all the vegans into one town, but, it would certainly be a different food experience if everyone in a city was a vegetarian.
I am glad it gets easier to find food with no glutens or vegetarian no dairy. That part is great. It's just still frustrating when some people can walk into a supermarket and know all the foods on all the shelves are edible for humans, when other people are like, only for some humans.
... I kind of do want to move people around so everyone in a town wants the same foods and likes the same things. Then you could go to any take away and lo, there would be edible food. And you could have several book groups, for lo, everyone would want to read and discuss books. And you could have science fiction groups. And it would be like a convention but all year...
... I am aware that people don't really work that way and the internet is here to do the connecting up of shared interests.
... I mean I still only know a few people on here too, because finding people to talk to remains Difficult.
... but wouldn't it be neat if we just had cities based on what we want to do in them?
Now I'm imagining like a sorting hat but for where you go to live now. Shared interests having a shared address. Town of the Star Wars Fans. City of the Football.
... actually several cities of football, because geographic devotion seems to be baked in to that one.
Or it would be like university departments, but instead of university towns you'd get like the history school city.
... interdisciplinary studies would involve so much commuting...
So: Ideal world, I would find people with shared interests, like, plural people, and talk to them, every month, and also be able to find food in every food selling venue.
I mean that seems achievable.