The Human Equestria Challenge

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

Since joining this Forum, I've seen a number of posts or threads like this, where Equestria is held up as a vastly superior civilization to our own.  Some go so far as to say that it would be terrible for any humans to visit Equestria because we would inevitably corrupt or ruin the place, because that's just the kind of bastards we are as a species.

 

This is not a thread to argue for or against those ideas.  Instead, a challenge: think of all of the things that make Equestria a better place...and then, come up with realistic, plausible things we as humans could do to make our world (or even some small part of it to start, like an intentional community) more like it in the areas that matter most.  I'm talking about out here in the physical world, so no "Upload our minds into an EquestriaMatrix come the Singularity!"  The more practical in the present and near-future, the better.

 

A few quick idea prompts:

 

What Comes After Heroic Materialism?

 

Life Without Cars

 

Let's Take Another Trip to Venice

 

We Could All Be Wizards

 

The Venus Project

 

The Buckminster Fuller Institute

[Jesse20 81]

for the "no cars in equestria" idea i have a headcanon that magic is like the force from star wars in that it flows through everyone and you would just need to be taught how to manipulate it so you could teleport wherever you would need to go also learning more about magic could be a good timekiller also you don't need electricity for sports  

[Silverhoof 2,844]

I like materialism. I like having my own stuff like electronic entertainment. I like being able to go out and purchase whatever i want.

 

But I refuse to live in a world without cars.

[Ignore Me 14]

You see, due to the fact that Equestria has magic and ponies instead of electronics and people, we can't really be the same or make a utopia like Equestria. For starters, their magic makes it easier for them to do things, to communicate, etc. Their magic has no pollution either, or a fuel source other than food. They have no need for massive oil refineries or nuclear plants for their magic, but they can still communicate almost instantaneously with it. Also, ponies have much higher stamina than humans, thus disabling their need for cars. They can run pretty fast, and for a decent time too. A human would simply keel over and die.

However, without electricity, humans wouldn't be stuck inside all day, we'd have reason to go outside and play, and move. We'd be stronger, and have somewhat higher stamina and strength. A horse drawn carriage or even bicycles wouldn't be bad things to convert to. Perhaps we could even come up with better man-powered vehicles if we weren't so focused on making cars less bad for the environment. Without electricity, we'd have no way of communication with others at the speed we do now, which may not be a bad thing. We'd be outside more, interacting with others. We'd read more, play more, socialize more. Community strength would grow, perhaps to the level of ponyville, where everypony knows everypony else. We'd have less reach but stronger bonds, and without instant messaging to hold us back we could go outside to talk to friends, speak face to face. This would build confidence, which appears to have gone from an all around average level, to extremes on both ends, with most people either being extremely confident or extremely inconfident. Perhaps then, with all this, we wouldn't have to conform to society's standards since we'd, for the most part, be our own society inside of a larger one. The basic principles of the larger still apply but with our own rules, instead of letting the rest of the world dictate us.

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

I like materialism. I like having my own stuff like electronic entertainment. I like being able to go out and purchase whatever i want.

 

But I refuse to live in a world without cars.

 

Sorry I took so long to respond to this.  If you read the posts about "materialism," he isn't talking about everyone becoming monks or not being able to have nice things.  To the contrary, the author argues that in a post-Heroic Materialist culture we'll actually be able to have nicer things (he emphasizes clothes, food, and architecture).  The term "Heroic Materialism" is the name given for the current era by Kenneth Clarke in his multi-episode documentary, Civilization.  The aspects of it the articles I linked to talk about mostly are the giant freeway overpass/clover-leaf constructs, Brutalist apartment blocks, and other Big!Big!Big! elements of the stark, utilitarian modern built environment.  He summarizes the contrast this way:

 

It's not about machines and concrete-pouring and technology. It is about fun and creativity, and people being together and having a good time.

 

Anyway, if you love automobiles and suburbia and Heroic Materialism in general, I'm going to guess that you're not one of the bronies who would jump at the chance to go off and be a pony in Equestria, and who lament the shape of the world we currently live in.

You see, due to the fact that Equestria has magic and ponies instead of electronics and people, we can't really be the same or make a utopia like Equestria.

 

I'm not talking about making a "utopia" exactly like Equestria.  I'm talking about seeing if we can select out the things that (for those bronies who think so) make Equestria such a better place than our world that they "don't want to live on this planet anymore," and create real-world, human versions of them.

 

For starters, their magic makes it easier for them to do things, to communicate, etc. Their magic has no pollution either, or a fuel source other than food. They have no need for massive oil refineries or nuclear plants for their magic, but they can still communicate almost instantaneously with it.

 

On the other hand, they're limited to hand-written text, and we've only seen one pony who has access to a baby dragon to belch out incoming texts.  Our communications technology is far more ubiquitous and versatile.  Most of the time, unicorn magic is used to do things we can do with our hands, like manipulate objects and carry things.  Magic runs on food.  "Food" gets its energy from growing plants, which get their energy from the Sun.  In short: Equestria runs on solar power.  Can we do the same?  I think so, but we would have to have built environments more like those of Equestria.

 

 Also, ponies have much higher stamina than humans, thus disabling their need for cars. They can run pretty fast, and for a decent time too. A human would simply keel over and die.

 

The reason ponies don't need cars isn't because they have superhuman speed and stamina.  It's because they build their cities and towns around ponies, rather than cars.  Humans have built cities and towns people can live in without cars for more than ten thousand years.  It isn't rocket science.  The formula is simple:

 

1) Typical [street] width of about 10-30 feet building to building

2) Buildings side by side (little to no side setback) with no setback or greenery in front

3) No central automobile roadway and sidewalks. The street is flat from one side to the other, although a sort of shoulder is often delineated by a paint stripe.

4) No street parking. You can stop a vehicle for deliveries and dropoffs.

 

You can drive on these streets. There's no rule that says you can't. However, there isn't much auto traffic because driving is very slow, and people are walking in the middle of the street. Automobiles generally stay where they have dedicated automobile roadways, what I call "arterial streets."

 

--Source

 

It is possible to create built environments for humans and still have cars.  But, as we pass the peak of conventional (read, "cheap, high energy return on energy investment") oil, and governments continue to lack the funds to maintain all of that vast, incredibly-expensive automobile-oriented infrastructure, it would be a good thing if we could start creating built environments where you don't need a car to get where you want to go.  And lets face it: our automobile-centric built environments are Butt. Ugly in comparison to places designed for people to inhabit, instead of speed past in a car.

 

Cars create the need for cars.  Any "decent" automobile roadway has to be wide, at least wide enough for two trucks to pass in opposite directions.  But you need somewhere to park a car when you get where you're going.  So now the street has to be wider, to accommodate another row of parked automobiles on each side, and/or the places people actually go to need to have parking lots.  Now that the streets are full of fast-moving heavy machinery, pedestrians (also known as "people") need someplace else to walk: sidewalks.  All of this extra street width, parking area, and sidewalk area is "Non-Place"--that is, not somewhere anyone ever goes, but space you have to cross to get where you're actually going.  A Place is a destination, like a home, shop, park, restaurant, etc..  "Non-Place" is all that other stuff. 

 

So now getting around on foot or bike is more difficult because the distances from where you're at to where you want to be are all longer.  More people get into cars, which means more congested streets and more difficult parking.  So now you need bigger parking lots and more lanes of roadway.  No one wants a storefront or living room set right up to a roadway full of roaring machines, so now you need to start creating buffers of greenery (shrubs, lawns, and trees), usually called "green space" between Places and the automobile roadways.  This "green space" isn't an actual Place, like a park where people go; it's just there to make the auto-scape more tolerable.  Start adding in islands and turn lanes and overpasses and clover-leafs to manage all the traffic flow, and now you've got a built environment that is inimical to anything but cars.

 

However, without electricity, humans wouldn't be stuck inside all day, we'd have reason to go outside and play, and move. We'd be stronger, and have somewhat higher stamina and strength.

 

I don't see a reason for us to be "without electricity."  We can generate electricity from renewable sources, and we already have the technology to produce a comfortable existence while using a lot less of it than we currently do.  The average New Yorker uses a third less energy per capita than the average American, and that's without even trying for energy efficiency.  Nonetheless, if we had built environments that were welcoming to people not wrapped in 4,000 pounds of powered combat armor on wheels, we would "go outside and play" more, and be healthier.  Like they do in Europe and Japan.

 

A horse drawn carriage or even bicycles wouldn't be bad things to convert to.

 

I'm against horse-drawn carriages as utilitarian transport.  It takes a lot of time to harness horses.  You have to have a place to keep them when they're not pulling the carriage, and they have to eat every day whether you use them or not.  In addition, when you have lots of horses in a city, they create a massive manure problem.  When automobiles were invented, they represented a major reduction in urban pollution compared to mass horse-powered transport.  Nowadays, we have a wide range of other options, like subways, trolleys, cable cars, monorails, trains, and aerial ropeways (like a ski lift tram) for longer-distance travel.  All of these can be operated on electricity, from solar, wind, or other renewable sources.  Our electronic technology (email, video-conferencing, etc.) can also be used to reduce the need for transport (e.g. business travel) so that we can accomplish our goals with less energy.

 

Perhaps we could even come up with better man-powered vehicles if we weren't so focused on making cars less bad for the environment.

 

We already have them: velomobiles.  They can be equipped with a battery to provide electrical boost for climbing hills, and they can be as much as 80 times more efficient than electric cars.  Those are the hardcore sports versions.  At the other end of the spectrum, you can also DIY-build a range of human and electric-powered personal vehicles, cargo-haulers, and now a basic utility velomobile from salvaged and/or off-the-shelf parts.

 

Without electricity, we'd have no way of communication with others at the speed we do now, which may not be a bad thing. We'd be outside more, interacting with others. We'd read more, play more, socialize more. Community strength would grow, perhaps to the level of ponyville, where everypony knows everypony else. We'd have less reach but stronger bonds, and without instant messaging to hold us back we could go outside to talk to friends, speak face to face. This would build confidence, which appears to have gone from an all around average level, to extremes on both ends, with most people either being extremely confident or extremely inconfident. Perhaps then, with all this, we wouldn't have to conform to society's standards since we'd, for the most part, be our own society inside of a larger one. The basic principles of the larger still apply but with our own rules, instead of letting the rest of the world dictate us.

 

I don't think we need to go without electricity to accomplish these goals, or at least get a lot more of them.  What if we built our cities and towns to look like this:

 

 

Or this:

 

 

Do you think people might want to "get out and play" more?

Edited August 12, 2013 by Roko's Basilisk