4 A profound contrast between two very different forms

The roads occupy the space aggressively. Cars dominate the public land. The sidewalk are tiny […]: they provide little refreshment or opportunity for pleasure or human contact, discourse or play. The “gardens” are confined and made chiefly to satisfy a zoning setback regulation, so that even the private land is regimented, half of it useless, and none of it cooperating to produce larger wholes of open space which might provide joy. Finally the houses themselves are regimented in straight-line rows, the only opportunity for real harmony with the land being the design of the buildings — but not their shape, orientation, juxtaposition, or their space-making character. All in all, not a very pretty sight, and not very pleasant to live in.

Perhaps data is the “land” or space in software? Our data is a resource, and its ownership enables us to do certain things, just like a land owner is enabled to build things on that land. But there are regulations that prevent them to do anything they want, just like there are regulations and feature limitations that prevent us from doing anything we want.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/9 The reconstruction of an urban neighborhood#