Scholarly record

DISTRIBUTED METROPOLISES

B. Podhalanski

Abstract

One characteristic quality of metropolises is their non-continuity. They are composed of a network, a web woven out of various threads - of extremely fine, almost invisible spider's silk, which gives in to the pressure of the wind, as well as thick ropes, which can resist it and support entire skyscrapers, wires that transmit impulses, radio waves and starlight. Everything is in the spaces of these webs: emptiness, grass, the shine of water surfaces, forests and sand, prisons and botanical gardens, tombs and public houses, factories and temples. People - more and more people - live between all of this. This web is multi-dimensional: lamplights are turned off by lightning, we can hear the bell's toll in its sound, the singing of birds, rolling thunder, we are struck by the smell of incense, mud makes a wet sound, car engines, donkeys and jets all roar. More and more skyscrapers are being built, old palaces crumble, people are born and people die, wars are being fought, there is peace but we can see no stillness - the network constantly transforms and expands, swallowing additional fields, forests and all the land in between. Metropolises are nearly everywhere and that some places are still free of them is only a matter of time. For the time being they act like corporations or mycelia - they ceaselessly grow. Or perhaps there is only a single metropolis, whose different names are but camouflage, and its non-continuity constitutes proof of its ever-presence, which can only be defeated by time?

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