Pondering Space and Time A shift in perspective
Pondering over the subject of time and space from a society & lifestyle’ angle brings about a new perspective. Time is money – so is space in today’s world. When man first walked the planet, space and time was all there was. All the space to run across fields in search for basic necessities of survival and all the time to rest in an age where food and sex were the only recreation imaginable. As man developed in numbers and mannerisms, attained physical and mental progression, along with all the positives this brought, it gave shape to what our world has now become. No time and scant space.
The law of economics suggests that as the supply of a resource falls short of demand its value becomes higher until it reaches equilibrium. Same applies to time and space whereby these two previously abundant concepts have fast become deficient. The value of time is ever on the agenda; time is short and its price is high. In the stock exchange, every second counts. Even the slightest delay in a decision, to buy or sell stock for instance, can cost a business billions in damages. As the average worker struggles to juggle work and personal life, time runs out in an instant to a point where people in some cultures are now found consuming their meals on the road. As years seem like months and weeks like days, though time is constant in theory, our perception of it is fast shrinking. And so the trend continues.
Giver of time God. Giver of space governments. In a world where every conceivable livable space has been taken over by man, (or as apportioned by legislative authorities) to the extent that extra terrestrial properties are now on the market (although debate over property rights is ongoing) giving birth to the concept of lunar cities and the like, it is no wonder that the value of space is expanding. Space has become a scarce resource with urban crowding and suburban sprawl encroaching on open rural areas in order to accommodate increscent populations.
The one-child policy was, ironically, implemented in one of the largest countries in the world, area-wise, i.e. China, as its government deals with the shortage of space issue. In Japan, people are now working in cubicles the size of cell-rooms. The larger the house you wish to rent, the more money it costs. As real estate prices sky rocket, so does the architectural landscape as buildings take on a vertical form (such as Tokyo’s infamous Sky City project), reaching out to the skies above in search of space. In the fastest developing economies of the world, such as Dubai and China, buildings are sprouting on previously barren land, altering cities’ skylines in a matter of months. Construction companies are branching out, building manmade islands and offering more exotic space to eager customers.
True, there is a difference in perceptions of time and space between a simple villager and the modern urbaner. The two might not be as expensive concepts for the former as they are to the latter. Nevertheless, as the world becomes a global village and as more and more people migrate to big metropolitan cities for a better view which they probably won’t have time enough to enjoy anyway, tomorrow’s development and city extensions will be at the cost of taking over the villager’s land to construct shopping plazas, hotels and residential villas. When it all reaches the point of saturation, will human beings become aliens invading neighboring planets? Furthermore, with time on the clock’ and space not so open anymore, will the average man be nothing more than an overworked robot living in cubicles the size of Excel cells?
