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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32947 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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The concept of '15-minute cities' came up a few weeks ago, but since then it appears to have piggybacked off a local dispute in Oxford to become the locus of the latest so-called 'far-right conspiracy theory'. The proposed measure certainly codes as dystopian to me on this side of the pond, even as someone who is generally supportive of new urbanist ideas, but I can't speak to how it plays in Europe.

I've often felt that the culture war battle lines on these urban planning issues have not been as clearly drawn as those on gender, immigration, or abortion, mostly due to a lack of attention, but that time appears to be coming to an end. Though seeing as we already can't build anything, I suppose it isn't much of a loss.

The idea of 15 minute cities, seeks to help, not to limit. It aims to provide resources, not dictate where people are allowed to go. In a plan for a 15 minute city public transport networks will be made better and more available; people will be able to move easily. Car movement will be more limited...

This is the mix of po-faced didactic sincerity and Alzheimer's-style incoherence I find often happens when Chat GPT does political analysis. I'm glad to see that AI can already imitate a journalist.

This next bit isn't so stupid, but it's also something that Chat GPT could easily produce and in fact seems to be the sort of tripe[1] that was Chat GPT uses as the basis of its policy analysis style:

But this design choice isn’t just good for Oxford; 15 minute cities and traffic filters have the ability to help people all over the world. Pollution ruins cities. It has been known to cause many health issues, such as asthma. In serious cases, such as certain cities in India, a thick smog hangs permanently above buildings; people have to wear face masks to avoid it. In the USA, vehicles cause 75% of pollution- worldwide, vehicles produce 27% of all greenhouse emissions. 15 minute cities will reduce the amount of pollution and emissions from vehicles drastically. It will also simply make things easier for people. Not everyone has a car and not everyone can access things that are far away easily. By having accessible and close services, it means people, especially groups such as the elderly, disabled, or even just those with busy schedules, will benefit hugely, while also building a sense of community. 15 minute cities may very well be the future; and from the sounds of it, that’s not a bad thing.

[1] I actually like tripe, but you get the point.

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