Greenbelt

[CDL.TO]

Wait, what? I've never! I grew up in a central Scarborough mid-rise and moved here 9 years ago to this decrepit old farmhouse. My parents own it.

I did a stint in residence at Carleton for two years, in a basement in Rexdale and in a Parkdale high-rise.

I'm moving to somewhere close to Ryerson in a couple of months.

I haven't exactly lived in what I deem to be suburbia.....maybe Rexdale was the closest I've gotten to that.

I hate subdivisions because they are of shoddy construction, fugly, overly expansive, wastes of space, over-priced, environmentally detrimental, contributing to a selfish and sloppy lifestyle, etc

Ok, I guess Rexdale would be kinda suburban....but other than my 7 months there...not really.

And yes, I'd rather live in my parents' farmhouse than some crazy-assed never-ending crescent at the bottom of the hill here.

But that is all neither here nor there cause I'm moving back to central Toronto which is where I'm happiest.

Woah there. I just wanted to know your opinion about exurbia/rural living vs. suburban living. No need to list your urban qualifications.

Just asking because I grew up in a place very similar to Cherrywood and would have much rather have lived in a faceless suburb, and was wondering if you shared that view or had a different one.

 

[SunriseChampion]

You may be right. I believe that cities were necessary as a way of managing the costs of things like electricity, employment, etc. through the proximity of people, but I see the possibility of completely self-sustaining homes in the near future. Such homes can exist anywhere--as far from the maddening crowd as one wishes. You'll be telecommuting from the moon before you know it.

Yeah, hopefully I'll get to see self-sustaining homes on a mass scale before I croak circa 2060. Even in that case, I still think there should be strict limits on outward development.

Telecommuting...I wish! Not in my field.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Woah there. I just wanted to know your opinion about exurbia/rural living vs. suburban living. No need to list your urban qualifications.

Just asking because I grew up in a place very similar to Cherrywood and would have much rather have lived in a faceless suburb, and was wondering if you shared that view or had a different one.

Yeah, I guess I got carried away.

I'm not gonna lie, I hate it here too. I'm young and I first moved here when I was 16. I hated it/still do BUT suburbia isn't the answer for me.

Can I answer neither?

 

[Hydrogen]

Have you seen any of the Hubble images?

Maybe this is the space observatory you want to be referencing. It's the one looking for earth-like planets.

http://kepler.nasa.gov/

 

[vinny_the_hack]

Probably not, although it is interesting. We have the technology today to create a livable atmosphere on a planet not naturally conducive to sustaining human life. What we currently do not have is the means to (physically) venture far afoot into space should we find an earth-like planet.

I have a theory that there is no other life anywhere in the universe, whether earth-like planets exist or not. I believe this is God's favourite planet...current mess we've made of it notwithstanding. I am not a zealot and as such have no interest in debating His existence or in trying to bring others into the fold. In fact, I haven't been fulfilling my Roman Catholic observances for a very long time. I only mention it in passing.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Neither have I, don't you worry.


I don't know...in an infinite multiverse, there's a very high likelihood of other sentient life.

Actually, come to think of it......my parents' place, once renovations are fully complete will be almost entirely self-sustainable save for a water recycling system so I'll almost get to experience what you're talking about rather close to home, though nowhere near the mass scale at which I'd like to see it.


Fruits, vegetables, livestock. All organic.
Geothermal heating/cooling.
Solar panel power generation.
This place will be pretty tip-top.

 

[afransen]

Yeah, hopefully I'll get to see self-sustaining homes on a mass scale before I croak circa 2060. Even in that case, I still think there should be strict limits on outward development.

Telecommuting...I wish! Not in my field.

I'm not sure that self-sustaining is actually the way to go. Some things benefit from economies of scale, like district heating. Houses certainly can certainly become more efficient, though.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Yes, perhaps self-sustaining communities of a certain size would be most beneficial.

Something like what is being planned (built?) for part of the Regent Park redevelopment.

 

[vinny_the_hack]

I don't know...in an infinite multiverse, there's a very high likelihood of other sentient life.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? How do you reconcile the fact that we aren't being bombarded by intelligible communication signals from the countless advanced societies scattered all over the multiverse? Personally, I believe there is very little intelligent life beyond the outskirts of the GTA.

 

[SunriseChampion]

You'd think so, wouldn't you? How do you reconcile the fact that we aren't being bombarded by intelligible communication signals from the countless advanced societies scattered all over the multiverse? Personally, I believe there is very little intelligent life beyond the outskirts of the GTA.

There's any sort of life outside the GTA? I'm hard-pressed to find anything in even Vaughan, not to mention as far away as Cobourg or Welland. But then, Vaughan's a special place.





They're bloody far is how. Or we are being bombarded with signals but just don't have the requisite technology to receive it. Etc.

 

[vinny_the_hack]

How far away can they be? They've had billions of years to arrive here. If there were as many civilizations in various stages of advancement out there as mainstream scientists believe, surely thousands of them would be capable of devising signals that even the most moronic forms of life, of which we no doubt belong, could at least recognize them as having been sent by intelligence, if we're not able to actually translate them.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Obviously, I don't have answers to these questions, though I can ask: who's to say we haven't received any sort of transmission?

It's not like you and I have a bunch of equipment set up with this goal in mind.


Anyway, if higher forms of life were to contact us, the first thing they'd say is "Don't fu*k around with the Greenbelt! In fact, why don't you expand it". I'm certain of it.

 

[vinny_the_hack]

I'm sure they would.

As far as I know, equipment has been set up to do just that--scan the heavens for any of several signal types whose transmissions even remotely resemble something other than random noise. No luck, yet, apparently. You'll know within minutes when they find something. If they find something.

Perhaps an even more basic question is why we haven't been visited. I don't mean by UFO's. I mean by one of the myriad of advanced life forms out there intent on saving us from ourselves. On second thought, it's plausible that no propulsion system has been developed with the speed it would need to traverse the distance between stars. But it doesn't explain why their transmissions haven't arrived.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Well, by some accounts, we HAVE been visited. And I'm not talking Roswell, either.
Of course, "scientific evidence is lacking".

I know there are programmes out there that are looking for just that but what I meant to say was: do you think they'd tell us? I'm sceptical as to the honest intentions of any government-run programme.


Thread hijacked.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

How far away can they be? They've had billions of years to arrive here. If there were as many civilizations in various stages of advancement out there as mainstream scientists believe, surely thousands of them would be capable of devising signals that even the most moronic forms of life, of which we no doubt belong, could at least recognize them as having been sent by intelligence, if we're not able to actually translate them.

The simple answer is this. We here have only begun shooting radio communication out into space within the last century and a half. Those signals have barely gotten through our own galaxy, let alone the billions of light years between anything of significance.

Our interstellar craft can barely get our astronauts to Mars right now.

Yet we have all the technology to blow ourselves up before we have a chance to start planet hopping.

How do you expect any sentient life out there to be communicating with us (or at minimum we pick up their signals) unless you expect them to be centuries ahead of us technologically.