https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/beneath-the-skyway/
For those that don't know, 99% percent invisible is this lib architecture/engineering podcast that has the most smooth brained takes whenever politics is inevitably brought up. I think this episode is the worst in that it's about the Minneapolis Sky Bridges and the systemic race and class issues surrounding what is a good piece of public infrastructure. Essentially Minneapolis has a bunch of indoor pedestrian bridges connecting buildings together because it's cold outside. What went from a mere mall attraction expanded into a network of buildings connected by skyways, it's a legitimate public good however being America it's not surprising there was some racial and class disparities that arose from this project.
First off the pedestrians being elevated above the street made the first stories of buildings less valuable, second cars basically had free range on the street below because pedestrians were using the sky bridges, third access to the sky bridges was being restricted by business owners because blacks, youths, and poor people were using them. Now these problems could be solved in a lot of ways, better access to the bridges from street level, make the bridges public property, actually encourage people to use the bridges instead of drive. What was 99% invisible solution? Tear them all down, turn them into aquariums, make the street pedestrian friendly because the bridges are the result of systemic racism.
I'm not denying there was some kind of racism or classism involved with the construction of these bridges, the problem is the bridges are useful to everyone and the only people enforcing the racism are the security guards and business owners. I was expecting some speech about how the walkways should be available to everyone with how useful they were, but nope, let's just destroy a useful piece of public infrastructure because racism. This is your mind on the California mindset, I bet the host took an uber home after recording that. What a shitty fucking take.
I just started listening to 99 PI and all it's lib solutions to everything are infuriating. I have noticed that every episode on China turns into Reddit, china bad bashing, except for the one where they talked about Capitalism in China and how the middle class there yearns for freedom.
Some of the worst are when they talk about buses and never mentioned rail as an alternative, how we should bring back public toilets, but as pay per use because cities can't be bothered to offer public goods for free. The worst was Google's Next Billion users Plan, and Roman joking as Google describes the most horrifying plan to get rural India and Africa on the internet.
Well, don't leave us hanging...
It was something about Wi-Fi balloons, don't get your theory from podcasts chuds.
I mean, people have been trying to get blimps to work for the longest time. It is consistently the hardest way to do infrastructure.
I imagine there's some nonsense about how they can't lay any actual cable because locals might just tear it back up and sell it for scrape? We just need this corners of the world to be ultra-impoverished for some reason, but also we need to sell the residents digital real state and Disney IP?
It was mostly about their failures. About how they wanted make tools for farmers and engage them with social media, but that most people don't to complicate their lives with add ons. I got the feeling that Google wanted to do data collection and make people more efficient so they could work more, but no one was having it.
They funniest example was when they tried to make an app that told poor farmers the price of wheat in the city and the farmer replied, it doesn't matter because the system is rigged to keep us poor. A technocratic solution that did nothing to a capitalist problem.
Also just the title of the program, the next Billion users.
What happens when you're reading Ready Player One and everyone else is living Steinbeck's The Pearl.