Montreal at night. Photo: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Click on photo to make it even bigger and beautifuller

When I look at this photo, I am reminded of a neuron with its dendrites extending out to communicate with other neurons. “Dendrites are specialised for receiving information and form synaptic contacts with the terminals of other nerve cells to allow nerve impulses to be transmitted” – Brainexplorer.org.

Neuron and dendrite. Image: BrainExplorer.org

My second thought is just how gosh-darn beautiful a city can be when photographed from space.

The third thought is how relatively small it is. Beyond the bright centres of human activity in this world, almost everything else is darkness – at least at night time. Because most organisms don’t have lights to turn on at night.

How much of the world will be lit up at night in 2020, 2050, 2100? How much of the world can withstand the necessary environmental pressure that it takes to be lit up at night? Richard Florida’s despicable (in my view) theory of how hip cities with a strong “creative class” – of which Montreal struggles mightily to be one – are the engines of post-industrial economic growth, will surely hit the wall one day. These cities typically don’t power themselves, don’t feed themselves, and don’t water themselves. In fact, practically everything a city like Montreal actually needs to survive is found somewhere out there — in the darkness.