Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Damien Broderick <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au> writes:
>
> > At 08:19 PM 29/02/00 +0100, Anders wrote:
> >
> > >BTW, apropos the "one way" fountain in your _The White Abacus_,
> > >wouldn't frictional heating in the atmosphere heat it above the Curie
> > >temperature?
> >
> > Ratio mentions this in a flurry of reasons why it'd never work (before it's
> > shown working, and you can't argue with empiricism). My reply: *desperate
> > handwaving*... and that candy-pink coating on the iron ingots, maybe. :)
>
> OK, that explains it :-)
>
> The real question is of course: why would such an aesthetic society as
> the one you describe use candy-pink coating? :-)
>
> When I become an aristos, I plan to build vertical cities on my
> beanstalks and keep most of the planet below as parkland. My biggest
> problem is simply getting enough people to fill out a few 35,000
> kilometer long cities... (xoxed uploads don't count, since they will
> likely not need much buildings)
Ah, but thats the rub. Vertical transport of mass is a waste of energy. Its the
main reason why the multi-floored mills along the rivers of the eastern US lost
out competetively to single floor factories elsewhere. Using a narrow
footprint/large vertical structure is economical for industries that involve the
transport of information, which is why you don't see automobiles being made in
skyscrapers. The bankers, lawyers, architects, and other executive disciplines
locate in such structures because their main product, information is relatively
massless and of extremely high value per lb. Software companies should be located
in skyscrapers, not in office parks.
But you knew this Anders, I posted this to the list three years ago... ;)
-- TANSTAAFL!!!Michael S. Lorrey Director, Grafton County Fish & Game Assoc. http://www.lorrey.com/gcfga/ Member, Extropy Institute http://www.extropy.org Member, National Rifle Association http://www.nra.org "Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils." - General John Stark
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