Is civilization like a tree or a ship?

[onesteptwostep]

Question: has the progress of humanity been like a tree, where the development of its civilization has been spreading out, leafing and branching into whichever natural progression, or are we rather like a ship on a set course, weathering the seas, an ark carrying what is of humanity, steering at the helm of the boat?

Spoiler

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If answered:

Is the tree beautiful?

or is the ship is chosen;
Is the ship on the right course?

If the above is answered:

Is it the result of a gardener?
or
Is it the result of the captain?


mega bonus points for meta-analysis of question(s)

 

[Sinny91]

We're the tree which got chopped down and crafted into a sinking ship.

 

[onesteptwostep]

 

[Cognisant]

I think the tree is the better metaphor, a single hole can sink a ship but a tree can lose many branches before dying, and any sailor can tell you ship without someone at the helm isn't a ship it's a deathtrap.

If humanity is a ship the outlook is very bleak.

 

[Haim]

It is a once desert with few trees to a forest with optimal conditions(for trees)
The idea the human have certain progression like an RPG character is ridiculous, I mean there was/is some make sensible direction to develop, but there is not such thing as optimal path, or path at all, because there optimal state does not exist.
We are not one thing but of uncountable amount of individuals.
A culture is not divided into levels, and you can make many different builds of level 100.

 

[Ex-User (13503)]

http://www.bp.ntu.edu.tw/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/06-Alexander-A-city-is-not-a-tree.pdf

 

[onesteptwostep]

http://www.bp.ntu.edu.tw/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/06-Alexander-A-city-is-not-a-tree.pdf

Is that a paper for an urban planning class? There was a time a long time ago where I could have gone to NUS (another school in Singapore) but missed the chance to.

Either way that's a neat way to structurally analyse metropolises.

Humanity encompasses more than architectural planning, but it certainly does have a play in it. Kudos for the link.

 

[Ex-User (13503)]

Not sure. A friend recommended it to me a while back. It took me forever to get around to reading it.

 

[Intolerable]

It's very obvious to me that despite many who think too highly of themselves trying to craft a ship out of human progress that it retains a tree shape with various branches breaking free of human perception time and time again.

The only thing we're truly limited by is what we can imagine.