Architectural reflections in [Homunculus don't know]
Housing and Street-Depravation and Chaos
The original sin of immersive space and the end of body bondage
The original sin of immersive space and the end of body bondage
The emergence of immersive virtual spaces represented by VR gives people a choice-if we can already simulate a world that is almost indistinguishable from the real world, do we still need to keep our bodies? To some extent, the final living space of human beings should be the "vat" that contains the brain in the "brain in a vat" theory.
The Canaan Star story tries another possibility, which is a transition model from a modern living model to a state of "brain in a vat". This is a completely flexible, fully functional living unit. Each unit is equipped with a fully automated information processing system, which automatically analyzes the user's behavior and habits to adjust itself. From food, daily life, travel to health and entertainment, it covers all aspects of the lives of residents, and to achieve it may only need a vectorless space, a mechanical auxiliary arm, a multiple projection system and a collection of functional walls. In this model, on the one hand, all the preset functional partitions in the house are eliminated, and on the other hand, the exit is retained as the core of the entire house.
If guiding humans to give up their flesh is the original sin of immersing space, then such a closed dwelling unit may be the end of body bondage.
The Canaan Star story tries another possibility, which is a transition model from a modern living model to a state of "brain in a vat". This is a completely flexible, fully functional living unit. Each unit is equipped with a fully automated information processing system, which automatically analyzes the user's behavior and habits to adjust itself. From food, daily life, travel to health and entertainment, it covers all aspects of the lives of residents, and to achieve it may only need a vectorless space, a mechanical auxiliary arm, a multiple projection system and a collection of functional walls. In this model, on the one hand, all the preset functional partitions in the house are eliminated, and on the other hand, the exit is retained as the core of the entire house.
If guiding humans to give up their flesh is the original sin of immersing space, then such a closed dwelling unit may be the end of body bondage.
Housing and Street-Depravation and Chaos
The disappearing community, our faulty neighborhood
The disappearing community, our faulty neighborhood
Countless identical living units are connected to each other to form a huge frame, which encloses public spaces with different functions. These public spaces and the framework of residential units form the city. In this city, there is no concept of community, because all living spaces are not connected with any public space. Since these public spaces are not physically separated from each other, they constantly infiltrate and influence each other. At the same time, these spaces are constantly moving their positions, which exacerbates this impact. So when we walk in such a block, what we see is a scene of mutual "interference" of landscapes from different worlds superimposed on each other. This block that cannot be interpreted by senses and can only be intervened through behavior is like looking at a display screen full of malfunctions. And this is our faulty neighborhood.
City and Country-Prison and Paradise
Complete freedom is self-imprisonment
Complete freedom is self-imprisonment
Canaan Star has shaped a rapidly changing city in which the residents can only rely on AI to live normally and orderly.
People's sense of belonging to the city comes from its unchanging part, and people can perceive the spirit of the city only by relying on a fixed place. What does a transiently changing city rely on to make people perceive? When we need smart map navigation even if we leave our home to buy a pack of cigarettes, what makes us feel where we are? Artificial intelligence has replaced our perception of the city, and it has further replaced our judgment of the city.
Convenient, comfortable, energy-saving, and sustainable cities have always been the direction we are exploring, and there are signs that we are also moving in this direction. What we worry about is the relationship between people and the city after losing the spirit of the place. If a city becomes a place that can only have a relationship with a third party (Ai), does it mean that we have completely lost control of it?A city that always runs at the highest efficiency, really what we want? The Canaan Star story serves as a fable reminding us that if we lose our perception of the city, we will not be able to understand it even if we are already in a prison.
Through artificial intelligence, perhaps we have obtained a completely free city. Will this freedom itself become a kind of self-confinement for us?
People's sense of belonging to the city comes from its unchanging part, and people can perceive the spirit of the city only by relying on a fixed place. What does a transiently changing city rely on to make people perceive? When we need smart map navigation even if we leave our home to buy a pack of cigarettes, what makes us feel where we are? Artificial intelligence has replaced our perception of the city, and it has further replaced our judgment of the city.
Convenient, comfortable, energy-saving, and sustainable cities have always been the direction we are exploring, and there are signs that we are also moving in this direction. What we worry about is the relationship between people and the city after losing the spirit of the place. If a city becomes a place that can only have a relationship with a third party (Ai), does it mean that we have completely lost control of it?A city that always runs at the highest efficiency, really what we want? The Canaan Star story serves as a fable reminding us that if we lose our perception of the city, we will not be able to understand it even if we are already in a prison.
Through artificial intelligence, perhaps we have obtained a completely free city. Will this freedom itself become a kind of self-confinement for us?
City and Country-Prison and Paradise
Pastoral Utopia, praise of life
Pastoral Utopia, praise of life
The opposite of the contradictory situation of the city is the upgrading of the countryside. The vast residence, a large number of non-functional poetic spaces, and the nature integrated into it...The countryside has become a kind of luxury under the continuous expansion of the city. The value of native resources will become more expensive because of the cheapness of man-made resources. So in the story of Canaan, the earth as a huge village became the residence of the upper class.
The countryside has always had a certain sacred attribute of leave from the world. Whether it is the Peach Blossom Spring in the East or the Avalon in the West, its existence carries a certain utopian nature. The countryside outside the city where the value iteration is too rapid may become a pastoral utopia because of this attribute. People there praise primitiveness, praise life, and praise all non-automatic nature, but they will certainly enjoy the convenience brought by partial automation at the same time. This is not a kind of irony, it is better to say that this is a yearning, the best fantasy of contemporary intellectuals for the future.
The countryside has always had a certain sacred attribute of leave from the world. Whether it is the Peach Blossom Spring in the East or the Avalon in the West, its existence carries a certain utopian nature. The countryside outside the city where the value iteration is too rapid may become a pastoral utopia because of this attribute. People there praise primitiveness, praise life, and praise all non-automatic nature, but they will certainly enjoy the convenience brought by partial automation at the same time. This is not a kind of irony, it is better to say that this is a yearning, the best fantasy of contemporary intellectuals for the future.
