He makes a great point but there's reason to not be so glum.

I choose to believe America isn't screwed, design-wise, because I've seen a wonderful change lately. All through the 70's, 80's and 90's I was depressed by most of the architecture around me: that sun-bleached modern pop-up storefront that's been the design standard for the last 30 years -- just boxes with no real texture or color. My dad is a contractor, and he's heard all the excuses from developers. The one that came up all the time was that it was "interesting" to be so bland. But it wasn't interesting. It was just cheap and the developers were just following each other's lack of imagination to keep costs down.

But lately in California in particular they've been tearing down the hideous strip malls and indoor malls and replacing them with a walkable "Disney" aesthetic, mostly in the Craftsman style. Crown molding is coming back, so are piled rock walls and slanted roofs, sidewalks with color, little jump-streets with trolly tracks running the length of them, fountain nooks, and small booths designed to look like something out a Victorian station.

Look at this sign for Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga:

http://www.rhumbaghost.com/craft/vic_gardens.jpg

Or Glendale's new Americana on Brand:

http://www.rhumbaghost.com/craft/americana.jpg

They even have a trolly:

http://www.rhumbaghost.com/craft/americana_car.jpg

Just 10 years ago, developers would have just popped in a bunch of gray and beige boxes with dead signage. Yes, these walkable malls are mostly filled with the kinds of store chains BoingBoingers complains about, but I think that's besides the point. I believe that often when a giant developer has the chance to build something, good or bad, the smaller business people, like that Russian family, try to keep up by doing the same.

So, I think there's a chance for a a better designed future.

Stephen Fry has a really great podcast, his PODGRAMS. In the episode called WALLPAPER her talks about Oscar Wilde when he visited America. Wilde was asked why America was so violent and he replied that it was because our wallpaper is so ugly. Stephen Fry then takes it from there and explains when your environment is ugly, you feel ugly. And I believe that. I've believed that all my life because it just feels true. It may not be something we all think about constantly, but it is there, it's part of our visual world, and even our visual world can lead to a kind of mental suffocation over time.

So here's to happiness.

See? This is why we can't have nice things.

There are more Alan Watts recordings up at http://diydharma.org/Watts. I loves his writing but hearing him really underlines what a great performer he was.

Another really good science podcast is SETI's Are We Alone, hosted by Seth Shostak and Molly Bentley. Great interviews with scientists complete with purposely horrible science puns: http://radio.seti.org/

I read this a while ago in Nation Geographic and even then I thought it was really hollow. This idea seems to be saying, as long as things continue exactly on the path we're on now, this is what humanity could become. But the path we're on now, it's more realistic to look towards Ray Kurzweil's Singularity, the melding of humanity, AI and nanites, which according to him, could begin as soon as 2045. Maybe the splitting of the human race will be the result of the rift between modified humans and naturals or Luddites, but Oliver Curry's idea doesn't seem to acknowledge technology at all. In any case, it's getting a lot of replay since Drudge linked to it.

Finally. A Bible I can be a peace with.