Architecture

Non-terrestrial networks are a recurring subject I've been asked about over the last year or two. Interest amongst Automotive and IoT teams has been piqued by Starlink, and high-return space stocks like RKLB and ASTS have pulled NTNs into the public consciousness. So to answer these questions I'll skip the full telco perspective here and focus on practical deployment.

Call this the rising floor. Every useful machine absorbs the layer of work it can do better than people. The human contribution does not vanish. It moves upward, into judgement, selection, taste, and ethics, questions a machine cannot answer for you because they are not technical questions at all. That is where AI is heading now, into code, legal drafting, HR policy, marketing copy, the layer of execution that used to define a competent professional.

Wander around the North-West after time away and what jumps out is the architecture of the cotton and silk towns that initiated the Industrial Revolution. Terracotta that was visually resistant to the polluted air, Ruskinian Gothic straight out of the Stones of Venice, Corinthian columns supporting huge sandstone pediments, and above all many tonnes of red bricks.