Divsion of Labor

by phil on Wednesday Jul 9, 2003 12:48 AM
anarchism, specialization

The most interesting thing I read in this random Anarchy Magazine I picked up was the reasoning behind why big cities are not great places for anarchist discourse.

1) the big city consumes and takes care of everything... social, cultural, food, etc.. there is no time to reflect or rather all reflection takes place within the shadows and simulations generated by the metropolis

2) the big city sustains itself on its inhabitants participating in a division of labor. Therefore, there is a strong interest among the ppl to tow their job-preservation lines and therefore run counter to a lot of Anarchist discourse.

Now, my spin... if we look at organisms at various sizes and spanning multiple object types, we could have the city as being one of them, and also being subject to the traditional rules of evolutionary biology.

basically, those cities that persist shall, that's the rule. Larger cities self-maintain because they provide certain amenities to its people and also because of the people in it produce in such a way that makes the economy of those cities larger, and therefore able to sustain bigger projects. Cities that attempt to expand that don't provide those features or don't have a symbiotic relationship with a system that makes efficient usage of its population will eventually die off or rather, they expand by having those relationships.

I'm sure cities engage in predatorial acts, taking away the business of other areas, leaving ghost towns etc. Small towns persist for other reasons, like those that don't care to move out from their current location, etc..

But, interesting to see a living example in which humans are molded and utilized for a larger system in such an obvious way.

Makes me wonder whether this trajectory toward the Singularity is going to be positive for humans or worse? Or rather, actually, all I care about, how am I going to be in the Singularity?