An article on the City of Angkor in Cambodia, the largest pre-industrial metropolis in the world: http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_6618259.
Interesting in its own right, but this caught my eye especially: "The hydraulic system became "not manageable, no matter how many resources were thrown at it,"".
That got me to thinking. Reliance on technology to brute-force the environment with rapid growth to fit to some vision of human dominance and success? That breaks down eventualy? Hmm, is that much dissimilar to where we may be today? Following the same path, trusting in yet more technology to make our current way somehow work out?
If so, it is pause for thought.
Posted by kannik at August 15, 2007 09:02 PM in Architecture, Philosophising