Yes these are unintentionally beautiful yet windfarms are a complete eyesore (sarcasm)
The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
91–100 of 151 posts
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#92IMHO This type of beauty is something the "AI" image generators do far failed to reproduce. Sure, they are great at creating "out of this world" images but the beauty of those structures comes from our ability to reason about the features. When you look at these structures, you immediately begin thinking about what is this and why it is there and how would the life on it feel. It has logical cohesion.
When I was a kid I loved (who am I kidding, I still love them) the Incredible Cross-Sections books which have exploded-view drawings of tons of machines, real and fictional. The oil rig in particular sticks out in my mind because that’s how I learned they were movable and had their own engines. Seeing all the different parts and what they were for was fascinating.
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the video captures the otherworldliness of oil production and large scale infrastructure in a hypnotic way If you're in to that kind of stuff check out Koyaanisqatsi & Powaqqatsi
Or Baraka and Samsara if you'd prefer films of the same tradition, minus the somewhat over-the-top Philip Glass scores (which I enjoy more on their own than as part of the films).
Samsara is excellent. I watched in an indie cinema, and it really generated a mood without any form of judgement in what was being portrayed.
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a slave owner has a forced breeding program, should the children of his slaves praise the institution of slavery for the gift of their lives?
That’s not a really good analogies. The real question is: are the people complaining about all industry ready to live in a world without industry? To which the answer is obviously no for most of them. It’s akin to asking: do you want 90% of the global population to die of starvation?
I wouldn't mind if 90% of the population had never been born (even myself)
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lathe can turn precise bores. Those can be used to make guns, which can be used to kill people. From my perspective, the analogy is you're anti-gun violence, but going after the people who admire the precision of the metalworking tools. If you want to move away from fossil fuels, yes that's great. I'm with you. You're going to want the people with an appreciation for this kind of engineering on your side, as it wil…
Applying this metaphor to this case, you're admiring the weapon, not the tool that made the weapon.
It's very presumptuous for you to be telling me what _I_ admire. I get to make that choice.
I admire feats of engineering. I've toured facilities that pump carbon out of the ground, I've toured facilities that capture carbon and pump it into the ground. They're both impressive in their own right, and it's the same skillsets and technologies required to build both.
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#96One of my favourite videos is a striking self-promo clip commissioned by Shell in 1970s. The tech optimism is strong, with visuals that would feel much more at home in a climate shock video nowadays. the video captures the otherworldliness of oil production and large scale infrastructure in a hypnotic way. It really is quite beautiful. https://youtu.be/_zWjT59S_wk
I've always strangely found Oil Derricks to be aesthetically pleasing for some reason.
Maybe it's just because of There Will Be Blood.
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#97One of my favourite videos is a striking self-promo clip commissioned by Shell in 1970s. The tech optimism is strong, with visuals that would feel much more at home in a climate shock video nowadays. the video captures the otherworldliness of oil production and large scale infrastructure in a hypnotic way. It really is quite beautiful. https://youtu.be/_zWjT59S_wk
Industry and in some sense "machinery" itself is largely seen as inherently negative, destructive, "unnatural", "against" by many today.
Not very long ago the average human was David and Nature was Goliath. Vast swaths of land seemed to be unbreakable by mankind, yet now the tables have turned and for many it's cringe-worthy to watch the big Humans pummeling the land with ease at a rate where the land can put up no defense
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Applying this metaphor to this case, you're admiring the weapon, not the tool that made the weapon.
It's very presumptuous for you to be telling me what _I_ admire. I get to make that choice. I admire feats of engineering. I've toured facilities that pump carbon out of the ground, I've toured facilities that capture carbon and pump it into the ground. They're both impressive in their own right, and it's the same skillsets and technologies required to build both.
I didn't pick the analogy here friend.
lathe : gun :: _____ : oil drilling platform, you put your own words in there if you want.
Regardless I'm within my own rights to tell you that what you admire is bad and your admiration of it is obscene.
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#99Twitter being Twitter, there's a bluecheck fossil-fuel lover account in the replies trying to propagandize for this not being dystopian: https://twitter.com/AllthingsLNG/status/1651223136644259840
Re: The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs
#100Working in the oil field in remote parts of the Arctic was decidedly the closest to living on a space colony that I’ll ever get and it was awesome. I miss that environment and the work very much.