π We Live Like Royalty and Don't Know It →
February 20, 2025 • #Charles Mann on the unseen, unappreciated wonders of modern infrastructure:
The great European cathedrals were built over generations by thousands of people and sustained entire communities. Similarly, the electric grid, the public-water supply, the food-distribution network, and the public-health system took the collective labor of thousands of people over many decades. They are the cathedrals of our secular era. They are high among the great accomplishments of our civilization. But they donβt inspire bestselling novels or blockbuster films. No poets celebrate the sewage treatment plants that prevent them from dying of dysentery. Like almost everyone else, they rarely note the existence of the systems around them, let alone understand how they work.
The invisible, yet essential, layer of infrastructure heβs describing becomes extremely visible during something like an extended power outage during a hurricane. Even with our communications still up, generators in our yards, and food in our refrigerators, even a few days without power are like an eternity.