# The concept of infrastructure

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-concept-of-infrastructure/969841>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 17, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-concept-of-infrastructure/969841 "2022-08-17T18:49:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-concept-of-infrastructure/969841/1 "2022-08-17T18:49:59Z")

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In what ways might the concept of infrastructure be modernized to best reflect society as it is today. I am being slightly vague intentionally.

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-concept-of-infrastructure/969841/2 "2022-08-17T19:02:18Z")

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I recently saw a video talking about California’s attempt to build a high speed rail from LA to San Francisco and how local groups and individuals could exercise such strength through lobbying and lawsuits that, effectively, it was impossible to actually accomplish any large infrastructure projects any more.

So one could view infrastructure as a proxy metric for power between centralized and local governance.

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-concept-of-infrastructure/969841/3 "2022-08-17T21:14:31Z")

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I find the concept of infrastructure is constantly modernized and in the hands of modern users reflects society as it is today.

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**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-concept-of-infrastructure/969841/4 "2022-08-18T21:15:59Z")

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> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#):
>
> In what ways might the concept of infrastructure be modernized to best reflect society as it is today. I am being slightly vague intentionally.

I’m not really sure what you think you mean by this question. Conceptually, modern infrastructure is the same as “old” infrastructure like roads, rail, aviation, energy, and telecom. Like that stuff doesn’t go away because you add potential new infrastructure like data centers or social media.