TEDX and poetry

Last Saturday, for the second time I played at the TEDC conference in the Perm Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (what TEDH is, I think, no one needs to explain to anyone). The theme of my speech is “The city as an open living system”.

My beloved modern poet Vsevolod Emelin has a poem “The Hurry Song” or “Sloboda and Posad” about the life of the city outskirts. At first I decided that the epigraph to my report would be just this poem, but then I thought that there was nothing original in this, and the verse is sad.

In general, literally in the morning, on the day of the conference, I sketched something and then presented the public. I immediately warn that the poem is written in imitation of the maestro Emelin. I hope he will appreciate:

Now standing up in a dimensional
Gloomy light everywhere,
On injector sledges
I'll go to Ted.

I'll tell the fellow citizens
About Kruchin
And all with views of important
I will sing the epic.

About the capital, villages,
Sloboda and Posad
And about the network of oblivion,
What hangs with a curse.

I'm not afraid of condemnation
The eloquent - for us.
I would be a bit of inspiration
Gather it right now.

With gratitude sincere
I will worship you in the belt.
And as if he had done everything,
I'll get drunk today!

In general, these are the lines. The hall applauded me out of politeness.

After that, I moved to the actual report, which, incidentally, radically changed right before the start of the performance.

He began by the fact that in the world there is a certain hierarchy of laws. For example, physical laws (bodies on bodies) are always in force everywhere and always apply the law of world gravity or the law of OMA, for example. At a broader level, chemical laws are in effect - laws on substances. Moreover, the effect of physical laws does not stop. For example, new substances are created, but they also obey the laws of physics. Even more “multi -tiered” laws - biological - laws on life. For example, we think - protein is produced, that is, a chemical reaction occurs, but physical laws (for example, electromagnetic) also act.

A person obeys physical, chemical, biological laws. But at the same time, it is the only phenomenon of nature that also lives in the social world, where humanitarian laws acts, which are even wider than physical, chemical or biological.

The appearance of these laws is divorced in time. First, physical laws appeared - during the origin of the universe, then only the primary elements existed. And then, already with the “navigation” of new chemical elements, chemistry appeared. Similarly, biological laws began to manifest with the origin of life, and social - along with the advent of man.

Dialectics tells us that we need to expect the appearance of new "groups of laws" that will appear in the "social zone".

What does all this have to do with the city as an open system? And the most straight!

The city is at the same time something physical, and something chemical, and something biological, and something social, and something even wider.

The city as a system is:
- location, its territory (where?),
- buildings, structures, streets, etc. (what?),
- City ecology (how?),
- Residents (who?)
- History, urban culture and, most importantly, the city mission (why?).

Each of these elements is equally necessary and important, but from the point of view of the hierarchy of laws, the latter (mission) is most interesting to us.

What are the missions for cities? Historically:
-Gorodistress city,
- The city is a shopping center and a city - an industrial center,
- The city is a place of residence.

In the XXI century, the last mission of cities is the last place of residence. A person can work anywhere without leaving his home. Therefore, the main criterion for the competitive advantage of the modern city should be convenience. And it is for the city’s inhabitants that they begin to compete now.

And the main criterion is the quality of life in which, as in the system, along with safety, ecology, quality of medical care and other, a significant element is culture.

In general, a modern city is a city convenient for life, with which the audience, of course, agreed.

I think my reporters liked my report, coupled with the epigraph. At least after the performance, ten people came up to me with questions.

And we will continue the TED at the Economic Forum in April.