memes

Even though I hate car centric infrastructure, watching a new highway or bypass spring up out of nothing is an incredible testament to our ability to work together to achieve great things

I traveled across Southeast Asia drawing powerline tangles and run-down alleyways in a sketchbook. It's definitely a thing.

While they do affect the skyline, i find them kind of a great. Its like wind turbines, they serve a very easy to understand purpose and exist for everyone while having only little environmental impact and lasting a lomg ass time. Compared to infrastructure like starlink which will only ever serve a few people, obstructs the entire sky for everyone from any angle and will only function for a few(5) years before having to be replaced.

I think the long distance transmission lines are kind of neat. They often become roosts for hawks and eagles here, gives you a chance to see some nature near the city.

The linked comic is ugly as sin though, that's a high voltage rat nest. And I'm sure there's a happy medium to be found with that sort of electrical pole, but it doesn't give me the feeling of serenity that the high tension towers do.

Underground transformers seem to be the better approach for denser connectivity

just needs a subtle background hum and everything is complete.

Japan is earthquake country so they get a pass.

India however...

go look at pictures of the Indian power systems

In civilized countries we tend to bury them

Have you heard of under ground power cables? Or of not that, a slightly neater organization of power cables?

I love nature. Termite mounds are nature, honeycombs are nature, spiderwebs are nature. Humans are a part of nature and our infrastructure is a part of who we are.

Carving out exceptions for human artifacts like this takes for granted that a bunch of arboreal primates figured out how to melt down the rocks themselves to extract their purest essence, then wound that essence into ropes that contain the lightning we learned to generate ourselves to power the many other artifacts we developed to bring light into our dwellings, communicate with primates on the other side of the planet, and automate the menial tasks of our lives.

While certainly selfish and misguided at times, everything we make is nature, just as much as honeycombs and spiderwebs.

Honestly, to me the ironic part is the power lines in this artwork are unappealing to me because of the artist not the subject matter. It seems they don't know what all the lines are or where they go or how they work, so when I look at it and do know what it's supposed to look like, this just looks like a mess that makes zero sense. The artist has created some sort of electrical fire hazard.

It me, in somewhere Japan a couple days ago