Reno's Empty Streets

View Larger Map "Here, in a speculative system, the collapse is perhaps a bit more predictable than within the algorithmic or complex system — with every bubble, there are those who recognize the bubble before it collapses — but the result is the same: a disastrous and typically sudden crash. In all three kinds of systems, I think, crashes can be said to originate with the actions of individually rational parts acting, in aggregate, in accordance with perversely misaligned incentives." From mammoth "Unknown Unknowns." Not all of Reno is like that, but there are a number of streets of perfect asphalt or cement that run into the desert, dead-end, with only scrub and sagebrush beyond. The city still struggles with its speculative past; but the state's blood is in part speculation, part hope. Someday, maybe, those streets will find houses. But not for some time.