Paul Krugman: Hong Kong, with its incredible cluster of tall buildings stacked up the slope of a mountain, is the way the future was supposed to look. The future — the way I learned it from science-fiction movies — was supposed to be Manhattan squared: vertical, modernistic, art decoish. What the future mainly ended up looking like instead was Atlanta — sprawl, sprawl, and even more sprawl, a landscape of boxy malls and McMansions. Bo-ring.
From the archive: Welcome to the exhibition of rediscovered works by the mid 20th century illustrator A.C. Radebaugh.
From the archive: One of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the world, Hong Kong has an overall density of nearly 6,700 people per square kilometer. The majority of its citizens live in flats in high-rise buildings. In Architecture of Density, Michael Wolf investigates these vibrant city blocks, finding a mesmerizing abstraction in the buildings' facades.
Paul Graham: It's cities that compete, not countries. Atlanta is just as hosed as Munich.
Decius: Paul Graham asks what living in your city tells you. Living in the north Perimeter area for 6 odd years now has told me that everybody makes way, way more money than I do. It's not inspiring so much as it makes you sympathize with class warfare.
The Future Is Not What It Used To Be | 
