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<blockquote data-quote="Chrisling" data-source="post: 398089" data-attributes="member: 6816">Re: Crime, One Way Portals, and the Middle of NowhereIrda is so TOTALLY right about the economics of the portals.&nbsp; If they in fact do work forever, it doesn't really matter how much they cost, they'll eventually pay off.&nbsp; So, regardless of what they cost, all it would take is a society with sufficient far-sightedness to bother to do it.&nbsp; Before long, the obvious advantages of the portals would create widespread duplication.&nbsp; In short, if it can be done, it'd be worth doing.I also think it would lead to greater transfer of ideas.&nbsp; I mean, the idea of the interesting things happening when cultures meet (Boorstin called those places the &quot;fertile verges&quot;) won't, I think, lead to a static but a dynamic culture.&nbsp; The fertile verges won't go away -- they'll expand to cover all the world.However, I still wonder what with all this looking in towards the portals what would the world be like in the places without them.&nbsp; Would the Portal Kings care?&nbsp; I mean, it's not like those disorganized people without portals can threaten them in their cities without doors and where, in the case of some non-portal power attacking a portal city a million troops can be there in a couple of hours . . . .&nbsp; What would it be like?&nbsp; An alternate mode of civilization -- a syndicalist paradise?&nbsp; Would it be utter barbarism?&nbsp; Both?&nbsp; Neither?&nbsp; Other things?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Chrisling, post: 398089, member: 6816"] [b]Re: Crime, One Way Portals, and the Middle of Nowhere[/b] Irda is so TOTALLY right about the economics of the portals. If they in fact do work forever, it doesn't really matter how much they cost, they'll eventually pay off. So, regardless of what they cost, all it would take is a society with sufficient far-sightedness to bother to do it. Before long, the obvious advantages of the portals would create widespread duplication. In short, if it can be done, it'd be worth doing. I also think it would lead to greater transfer of ideas. I mean, the idea of the interesting things happening when cultures meet (Boorstin called those places the "fertile verges") won't, I think, lead to a static but a dynamic culture. The fertile verges won't go away -- they'll expand to cover all the world. However, I still wonder what with all this looking in towards the portals what would the world be like in the places without them. Would the Portal Kings care? I mean, it's not like those disorganized people without portals can threaten them in their cities without doors and where, in the case of some non-portal power attacking a portal city a million troops can be there in a couple of hours . . . . What would it be like? An alternate mode of civilization -- a syndicalist paradise? Would it be utter barbarism? Both? Neither? Other things? [/QUOTE]

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