
How Hyperconnected Cities Are Taking Over the World - miraj
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/04/cities-drive-the-new-world-order-parag-khanna-connectography-maps/480165/
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restalis
Connected people always existed. Maybe they connect nowadays more than they
did before (but there is a biological limit to that, nevertheless), maybe they
connect over greater distances than they did before given the technological
means, but they were and are a minority (even if a loud one). The bulk of the
populace are not like that. The bulk of the populace connect and live in a
physically delimited place. Yes, you give them cars and make it easier with
other forms of transportation, enlarging those limits, but that only produce
results when it couples with an internal drive like a desire to travel, which
again has its limits. Place proximity still holds a great weight in shaping
human relations on a very broad level and that is a fact given by our human
nature. "Geography is destiny" is here to stay, and so are all the local
things that affect most of us.

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powera
I feel like this is at least the third article that's showed up here recently
making the claim that "cities are more important than countries for economic
development" with no real argument behind it.

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mwilcox
It's all based on the same book (Connectography). I highly recommend instead
reading The Stack that just came out from MIT Press, which gives a much deeper
analysis on the relationship between cities, software and geopolitics:
[http://thestack.org](http://thestack.org)

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toyg

      Hardcover: £25.99
      Kindle:    £23.99
    

Does it really cost £2.00 to print a hardcover and ship it across the
Atlantic, or is MITPress taking the metaphorical mickey?

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ghaff
>Does it really cost £2.00 to print a hardcover and ship it across the
Atlantic

That's actually probably pretty close to correct.

Not defending the Kindle pricing but printing and distribution of physical
books is a lot cheaper than many assume it is.

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heykjo
"global strategist and world traveler" \- that so totally qualifies him to
bloviate!

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pessimizer
They must be looking for a replacement for Thomas Friedman. Needs more
incomprehensible metaphors, you can't just repeat yourself into credibility.

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basicplus2
looking at the pictorial map representative and suggestive of "hyperconnected
cities" looks rather like trade routes.. which of course have been around for
milenia

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chiph
The I-85 corridor from Atlanta to Greensboro has been known to be a hub for a
while. But like the article says, it's hampered by poor road quality.

