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"The answer to the problem of information overload on the Net is reputations… engineer a system called a reputation server."
- Neal Stephenson
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| King's Free Park | ||
| A park in which anarchy reigned; a very long, narrow park. |
Science fiction writers do more, much more, than merely examining problems of the present. They also help to solve problems we don't even have yet.
| The modern transportation systems cleaned the air and made traffic jams archaic and left the nation with an embarrassing problem. What to do with ten thousand miles of unsightly abandoned freeways? King's Free Park had been part of the San Diego Freeway, the section between Sunset and the Santa Monica interchange. Decades ago the concrete had been covered with topsoil. The borders had been landscaped from the start. Within King's Free Park was an orderly approximation of anarchy. |
| Technovelgy from Cloak of Anarchy,
by Larry Niven. Published by Analog in 1972 Additional resources -
|
People who come to this country from Europe, where land is at a premium, are stunned at the amount of land occupied by our modern highway system. Niven takes a reasonable premise and runs with it in the story.
This solution works with today's version of the "trench" freeway, as well as the freeways that wind through the countryside. However, you probably wouldn't get a very anarchic or liberating feeling in a park made from the first "trench" freeway - the Davison freeway in Detroit, Michigan. Imagine a four lane divided highway squeezed (barely) into a tunnel. Now take just the roof off; that's the Davison freeway.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Cloak of Anarchy
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and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to Cloak of Anarchy
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
King's Free Park-related
news articles:
- Rebuild Highways - Or Think Differently
- Niven's King's Free Park - In Toronto
| Elegant Bivouac Shelter Produces Water And Electricity |
| AI-THu Shapeshifting Transformer Home |
| With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need |
| Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast |
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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
