A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies, there is no end to the air.

However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements.

When their activity is large their field is large.

When their need is small their field is small.

Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. 

Excerpt from the Genzo Koan, Written by Dogen Zenji, in Mid-Autumn of the first year of the Tempuku Era (1233 BCE),

It has long been held that certain means of travel must be accessible to all.  Waterways, roads, airspace - all create infinite potential, limited only by their geography, and certain constraints in the interest of public safety.

These are rights, and constraints, that we all take for granted in the conduct of our lives.

As a culture, we understand the constraints imposed by geography.  Distance, topography and capital resources limit where the roads can go.  Boats need water, and boats needing deep draft can’t use creeks.  We know that we are each obligated to provide our own conveyances, or to participate in the creation and use of public transport systems.

These capabilities and constraints are so obvious as to be transparent to us as we conduct our daily lives.  We know it is unrealistic to start a transport dependent business in a back hollow, hours away from rail, sea and highways.  We congregate near ports and crossroads in order to readily trade in all manner of human products - culture, commerce and community.

Just now, we face a new opportunity, one that flies in the face of all the geographical reflexes and assumptions we've long taken for granted.  We are extending geography into cyberspace.  This simple sentence has paradigm transforming implications.

First we must concur that there is geography in cyberspace.  On it's face, this is an abuse of the term - geography.  In the old world, humans don’t make geography from scratch, though we may alter it, and there is a geography in human systems overlaid on the earth.

However man-made dreams cannot be geography, we’ve long believed.  Our old paradigm for the products of human culture is that they are fantasies, not to be confused with reality / geography.  As many, including Kevin Kelly, have asserted, this is no longer true.  Our technologies have become extensions of our biological reality, socio-biological constructs that have tangible impacts on our biological viability.

In cyberspace we have created an extension of the geology we have always known - a landscape we choose to travel to, just as we might choose to go for a hike, go shopping, hang out at the pub or go the a museum.  In fact fro many of us, our well-being depends on the continued existence of this geography.

There's one major difference - this is a landscape of our own making - being made, just now - and one where we are not constrained by earth's geography in the ways our ancient conditioning expects us to be.

It is a truism that "geography is destiny".  It has long been one of the cruel facts of life that access to capital resources and related infrastructure was tantamount to destiny.

Maybe, in the context of our burgeoning broadband geography, these facts of life no longer must hold true.

Bottom-up, not top down

Flatness overlaid on geography so geography can shape flatness.

Lexicon, mapping not practical.  Planning of connectivity and capabilities.  Collaboration at a distance.

Smart grids.  Nervous systems intelligence in infrastructure.