Globally Rational

This is the second post in my View From Above series. Click here to see the first, which covers Kuwait, London, New York, and Boston.

As I write this, I’m flying over central Indiana as part of my trip from Kansas City to Baltimore. Out of one corner of my window, I can see that we are about to fly over the very upscale and academic town of Bloomington. Out of the other corner, I can see the metropolis of Indianapolis, about 60 miles off to the north. Most of the land seems barren in the dark, but there is a trail of light going south along the highway that leads from Indianapolis to Bloomington. There are also a couple of other highways that carve a similar trail going south from Indiana’s capital, one that probably heads towards Evansville and another whose destination is likely Louisville.

As I approached Indianapolis from the east, I mostly just saw a sea of light in the distance. We were entering the twilight hours here in the Midwest, so I wasn’t actually sure if the source of the luminosity was a city or just the reflection from a huge patch of maize. I was more interested in crossing the Wabash and looking at my former hometown of Terre Haute, which was very recognizable thanks to its unique pattern of urbanization; there is a path of light leading from the main city to each set of outskirts in the South, East, and West, where a single major road seems to be the only hint of civilization.

Bloomington reminds me thoroughly of Columbia, Missouri, where I currently spend most of my time. The city is built around the Indiana University campus, which is full of classical architecture and a road system that, unlike any non-academic area, is simple because not every building needs to be beside a street. IU is obviously the type of school where most of the students spend a significant portion of their time on campus, unlike commuter universities like the local University of Missouri – St. Louis.

Between the small patches of light that I saw through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, it is no surprise that most of the land was covered with farms. I noticed the most interesting part, however, after darkness struck: there are no lights in those areas. During my countless trips between Columbia and St. Louis, I have seen no lack of rural areas, but I never noticed (until now) that the lights in those areas are always off. Looking back, I can now remember a trip to an area about half an hour outside of Columbia where, after we turned off our headlights, the moonlight was the only way for us to see outside. The resources there are untapped; the land is empty. I’ll visit it again in 20 years to see how commercialized it will have undoubtedly become.

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