Re: Art, Environment and Architecture(was)Extropic Flare In NY Art , Scene

Bryan Moss (bryan.moss@dial.pipex.com)
Fri, 24 Sep 1999 18:03:05 +0100

Anders Sandberg wrote:

> [...] the city *I* want to live in is the waterfall city on the artificial
> continent Forrest Bishop and I discussed two years ago on this list (maybe
> we ought to write it up and do some engineering calculations on it). I
> want to live in a tower high up in a city built in and around a series of
> great waterfalls. At the top there is a freshwater lake that falls down in
> cascades through this very 3D city, at the bottom the water vanishes into
> a dense jungle. The building-towers are connected by bridges and movement
> is mainly by elevators. Terraces with gardens dot the city, covering most
> buildings with greenery.

Anders, the only two dreams I've ever had that contained 'extropian' content were about future cities, one of which was built around waterfalls. The other was a interconnected lattice of archologies rising high above a giant sprawling city, and was probably the result of playing Sim City 2000 too much. The waterfall city dream may have been inspired by yours and Forrest Bishops ideas although I can't remember the actual thread. The city was a giant structure of interlinking metal 'pipes' that 'suspended' buildings throughout the waterfalls. In the dream I started to rise from ground level to these hundreds of buildings suspended in midair (not unlike some Japanese archology designs I've seen since). Eventually I found myself inside one of the buildings and was suprised to find it had a transparent floor revealing the cascading waterfalls stretching down to a haze of rising steam below. The buildings didn't appear big enough to live in and I'm unsure how you were suppose to travel from one to another, but then dreams are rarely practical. (Also, the whole thing had a tendency to sway in the wind, which would probably cause motion sickness.)

BM