Form operates upon people turning them into specific sorts of subjects. This
occurs through various operations such as addressing people, distributing specific
sorts of political justifications where, for example, the government can try to impose
its view of the world and the population agrees or challenges that ordering.
Interfacing with infrastructure is, in fact, a way of interaction with technology.
Form comprises the funnel conveying all human interactions with technology.
Infrastructure comprises concrete components that must be handled: picked up,
held, walked upon, sat on, turned, or pulled. This provides physical and sensory
experiences which describe the infrastructure under other circumstances.
Some people have been accustomed to appreciating poetry, literature, etc.
through the metrics given above. Those visitors who have had the opportunity of
looking at and using infrastructure (some country icons) during the day and/or night
(Budapest, Paris, Rome, Taj Mahal, Red Fort, in India, etc) will surely recall some
sweet memories impressed upon them by sensory and physical experiences.
7.9 From Inception to Oblivion
Without proper maintenance, infrastructure can very quickly turn into ruins. Planning, construction and inauguration are just the beginning.
Investment in infrastructure requires spending significant amounts of capital,
resources such as land, human, energy which pays off only after long time periods
between a decade and a century. Such infrastructure are often public goods, and
though returns are uncertain, the intention in the investment stems from the hope that
such infrastructure will bring in economic growth and improve the welfare of the
population.
Infrastructure planning gives a picture of how people (politicians, planners,
engineers, architects, and the public, when consulted) imagine their society in the
future. As the number of users (of the infrastructure facility) increases, the demand
made on it will increase. Not only, the construction of such a facility takes time
(a few years), but the facility itself will, with adequate maintenance, last decades or
centuries. Thus, forcibly, infrastructure should always be implemented not only to
exceed present needs, but provide for requirements likely to arise in the future – here
again, many decades from now. Once built, the infrastructure can rarely (because of
the expenditure) be relocated, and may attract other facilities. A new road might
attract houses, schools, businesses, etc. Thus, the planning of the infrastructure
carries temporal and spatial dimensions with it.
Sometimes, as Third World countries acquire some wealth, there is a desire to
show off their infrastructure, although the need might be genuine. Just as people tend
to show off with their materialistic acquisitions (clothes, furniture, car, house),
infrastructure could play that role for some countries.
A country may have real needs to satisfy, but it is perceived as modern, developed
and industrial, only when there are visible signs of infrastructure or use thereof:
buildings, roads, the internet.
7.9 From Inception to Oblivion
213
occurs through various operations such as addressing people, distributing specific
sorts of political justifications where, for example, the government can try to impose
its view of the world and the population agrees or challenges that ordering.
Interfacing with infrastructure is, in fact, a way of interaction with technology.
Form comprises the funnel conveying all human interactions with technology.
Infrastructure comprises concrete components that must be handled: picked up,
held, walked upon, sat on, turned, or pulled. This provides physical and sensory
experiences which describe the infrastructure under other circumstances.
Some people have been accustomed to appreciating poetry, literature, etc.
through the metrics given above. Those visitors who have had the opportunity of
looking at and using infrastructure (some country icons) during the day and/or night
(Budapest, Paris, Rome, Taj Mahal, Red Fort, in India, etc) will surely recall some
sweet memories impressed upon them by sensory and physical experiences.
7.9 From Inception to Oblivion
Without proper maintenance, infrastructure can very quickly turn into ruins. Planning, construction and inauguration are just the beginning.
Investment in infrastructure requires spending significant amounts of capital,
resources such as land, human, energy which pays off only after long time periods
between a decade and a century. Such infrastructure are often public goods, and
though returns are uncertain, the intention in the investment stems from the hope that
such infrastructure will bring in economic growth and improve the welfare of the
population.
Infrastructure planning gives a picture of how people (politicians, planners,
engineers, architects, and the public, when consulted) imagine their society in the
future. As the number of users (of the infrastructure facility) increases, the demand
made on it will increase. Not only, the construction of such a facility takes time
(a few years), but the facility itself will, with adequate maintenance, last decades or
centuries. Thus, forcibly, infrastructure should always be implemented not only to
exceed present needs, but provide for requirements likely to arise in the future – here
again, many decades from now. Once built, the infrastructure can rarely (because of
the expenditure) be relocated, and may attract other facilities. A new road might
attract houses, schools, businesses, etc. Thus, the planning of the infrastructure
carries temporal and spatial dimensions with it.
Sometimes, as Third World countries acquire some wealth, there is a desire to
show off their infrastructure, although the need might be genuine. Just as people tend
to show off with their materialistic acquisitions (clothes, furniture, car, house),
infrastructure could play that role for some countries.
A country may have real needs to satisfy, but it is perceived as modern, developed
and industrial, only when there are visible signs of infrastructure or use thereof:
buildings, roads, the internet.
7.9 From Inception to Oblivion
213