Re: Arcologies

Chris Hind (bholat@earthlink.net)
Sun, 08 Sep 1996 04:56:08 -0700


><Arcologies!! Imagine having a 50 story view looking down on a
>rainforest? Cool.>
It's spelled Arcologies. Lookup Arcosanti or play SimCity 2000, whichever
you prefer.

>The economics of the architecture requires that most people wouldn't get
>any kind of view at all, living and working in the interior.
Thats simple, 3-D displays as psudo-windows that way everyone will have a
beach-front view or rainforest view. Whichever you prefer. Imagine an
arcology sitting in the middle of a future 'jurassic park' so that you'd be
looking down onto a prehistoric world from the sky.

>Secondly, if
>people were allowed "ouside" for recreation, that rainforest would get
>trampled for some distance.
Telepresence. How about those floating webblimps w/stereoscopic vision? Or
even nanotech utility fog you could control remotely, whatever.

(What population density are we talking
>about in this archology?)
Depends how large it is.

There's too much monkey left in us.
So what? Thats what we are. Heres another interesting question: Why do most
people see monkeys as an icky disgusting creature? Are they? or are we just
looking down on them because they're a lesser form of human?

>BTW, if that window view of nature is so important to your determination
>of "cool", doesn't it seem likely that a connection to nature is somehow
>necessary to the human psyche,
absolutely. They've found that staying space for long periods of time is
easier to deal with when there are green plants on board the spacecraft as
well as people who have house plants live healthier then people who don't
and pets relieve stress.

perhaps more than an archology can
>offer.
Nope.

How about this line? "Arcologies!! Imagine having a view looking
>at all that plumbing and airvents? Cool."
Funny you say that. I know a guy who *does* like plumbing and airvents as a
view in his office, he states it's gothic looking.

>Now mile high buildings within a traditional city are another matter. That's
>cool! (But who will put up with a five minute elevator ride several times a
>day?)
Maglev propelled elevators? You'd have to control the acceleration rate
though or they'd either rocket through the roof or liquify during the rapid
acceleration.

>Okay, I know Max Moore is going to pummel me on this one, but are we
>all sticking to the party line that FTL travel is really impossible? Even
>teleportation?
I myself don't really care if FTL travel is possible because we'd still have
two other possible technologies which are breaking into planch's length and
leaping to a higher dimension to cut the time in half OR wormholes. And I'm
all for teleportation via nanotechnology. The sooner the better! Commutes
suck! Imagine all the media coverage on the day they finally begin tearing
down the nation's superhighways being rapidly replaced with teleporters.
That would be incredible and I hope to live to see that day.