The Three City Problem and the New Fremen
What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem — and what do either have to do with Silicon Valley?
I’ve just written this essay for the Ideas section of WIRED Magazine titled:
“THE THREE CITY PROBLEM OF MODERN LIFE: What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem — and what do either have to do with Silicon Valley?”
It is about my belief that the world is clustering into at least three different groups, each one with its own epistemic and metaphysical presuppositions. This makes it extremely difficult — some think impossible — to co-exist with the others.
These three groups, which I refer to as cities (each with its own rulers), are more fundamental categories than political categories. In other words, there are people on the Right and the Left who live almost exclusively in Athens, Jerusalem, or Silicon Valley. The inhabitants of the cities have more in common with one another than the inhabitants of a ‘party.’ They are secretly mixed together.
Here is an adapted excerpt from my essay:
Two-body problems, like mapping the movement of one planet around one star, are solvable. These binary orbits are easy…
