I looked at the rating provided my last two comments made on Monday, 09/06/04. Each got a -1 for Troll. Who the heck is moderating these and how could either of these comments, in direct response and contextually appropriate to the person with whom I replied, be considered even vaguely a troll.

I looked at them again, the content of those remarks may be inflammartory to some, but only to those who have committed the very acts upon which I was commenting. There's a growing polarity in this country, and it scares me, sides choosing up, and boths believing that the only way America can survive, that their personal beliefs can survive, is by murdering all dissent inside and outside of it's borders. We are powerful because of our diversity. We must again, regain our sanity, and listen to those with different perspective, ideas, and life experiences.

The topic of the item to which I commented was "Censorship". Isn't it ironic, that somebody saw fit to mod me down, hide my comments, drown out my contribution to the greater conversation because he/she was uncomfortable with my opinion and the facts I had to share. That's the other problem screaming to be acknowledged. When our leaders, and all people decide that facts, simple truths, the kind that are self evident, must be hidden, destroyed, or lied about to promote a belief system, their personal world view, we as a culture are in immediate danger. Paving the truth over to justify fallicious ideology is a recipe for certain disaster. It takes a kind of Intellectual Courage, to every day measure one's beliefs against the world, discarding that which is neither sound, nor supported by the facts. I am seeing far too much hunkering down on both sides, protecting ideological turf, with little or no regard for the facts, or the truth. The ends do not justify the means. We are either an ethical people or we are not. Sadly, it seems that more and more, we are not.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that censorship could happen even here, on Slashdot, a bastion of thinking and intelligent discussion. It just points sadly to the increasing breakdown of meaningful conversation and debate in this society. A need to shove one's opinions down the neighbors throat. We need to stop, and look at the world we're making. It's not a pretty place. It's not the kind of place I want anvbodies children growing up in.

Genda

Seems I struck a nerve with my post about creating a sustainable world. I enjoyed the countercomments (that actually had something interesting to say), and would love to talk to those folks at length. The whole point to engineering a space is to prevent it from suffering the kind of problems our existing civic centers face. Automated recycling including tertiary water recycling, cogeneration, cameras every 20 feet to record and track criminal activity, the list of things one could do, if one built a city from the ground up today, is mind boggling. One might start with a city core, housing maybe 50,000 people, and hosting several thousand business' ranging from small sales and service to large technological service providers and manufacturing. The infrastructure would obsolete most of the overwhelmingly expensive problems facing our current civilization.

Once the core was transformed and fully operational, it would prove to be the economic engine, to sustain further growth. Modular additions would spread out from the core, like growing pie slices, until the entire population for the region could be held in the bounds of a super city less than 20 miles in diameter. No poverty, no starvation, almost nonexistent crime... certainly no violent crime, and a bustling economy would be the hallmarks of this place. The surrounding land cleaned and put back to it's prestine state for access and recreation by people, and free use by wildlife. Millions of people in a small space being productive, producing value and service, creates a tremendously powerful financial engine (look at the economies of major cities around the world and multiply times 10.)

Certainly this will be an expensive endeavor. Going to the moon was an expensive endeavor. Building the Panama Canal was an astronomically expensive endeavor... it was however, necessary and it altered the way the world did business forever. We need to take that kind of leap, that kind of reach to make possible, a life worth living for all people everywhere.

Genda
"To live in a brave new world, some poor brave bastard has to be the one to make the new world real." -me