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- RichPowers, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27Reminds me of the Arcology buildings from SimCity 2000. I'd love to live in one of those launch arcos.
http://www.ridiculism.com/albums/album01/exodous.jpg - LazloHollifeld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23The main problem with the Millennium Tower sky scraper from Discovery Channel and this building is that they would require the entire worlds steel output for well over a decade to build.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+28This could be a potential target for terrorists. :-/
- lysdexic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21There's already a group of people who live their whole lives in a building. They're called prisoners.
No, thanks. I like my space. - dougmwpsu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21If we build 200 of them, will they launch into space?
- phatalbert, on 10/12/2007, -6/+23the article says SEVERAL hundred billion dollars. so you know maybe about half an Iraq war.
- Gazpacho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Discovery Channel had an episode of Extreme Engineering about a structure much like this, but called Millennium Tower, Sky City, or maybe Sky Tower.
The idea that a structure this larger could possibly be built that would allow residents to essentially live their whole lives in the building is just amazing, along with the cost of the project. - tdogg241, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17In Soviet Russia, building lives inside you.
- superrcat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Tower of Babylon?
- superrcat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8A crowded town centre is also a target for terrorism (such as suicide bombings), but people still gather in town centres and live their lives. Maybe it is because the terrorist attacks in the United States are recent, but you can't expect people _not_ to build tall buildings because some insane individual or individuals may try to destroy it.
- pseudojd, on 10/12/2007, -9/+16That mentality can not be the deciding factor or those sand maggots have won.
- Ravenhaft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6yeah, you think about the size, the entire thing is 6 kilometres across? If terrorists have weapons like that we may as well all lay down and die. also, it's shaped more like a pyramid, so the structural integrity would be sound even at the top. That'd be one amazing view, up at the top.
- DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The fact that the keyword 'terrorism' has come up several times in this discussion already tells me that, at least in America, that the so-called terrorists have alredy 'won'. We don't live our lives like that out here in the "rest of the world", but they sure seem to have you Americans on your toes!
Makes me wonder, is 'terror' the new invocation for Godwin's? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Saw that episode too. Pretty impressive, but goof luck pulling it off.
- cybernetic798, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6There are a few super-tall structures that were designed/planned. None are actually due for construction, at least in the near future:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Seed_4000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illinois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_1000 - GT35R, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7nuclear reactor are a lot safer than you think. They dont just "blow up".
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7The potentially hazardous aspect of this extraordinary feat is any acts of terrorism or natural disasters. If something goes wrong; years of planning, billions of dollars, unlimited resources, and MILLIONS of lives could be lost. In other words, hopefully they designed it to withstand the unexpected.
- foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5X-Seed 4000 huh? sounds like one of those Doomsday contingency plans.
- catbeller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Sigh. Soleri lived in vain. Arcologies as a concept are older than Sim City. Sometimes I wonder if I should digitize all the Popular Science magazines of the last three decades, so that new age geeks can catch up...
- kubudubudubuntu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5good luck catching an elevator
- Dissipate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5From the article:
"A tiny quantity of individuals, if you take into account that the technology to “fabricate” mature adult individuals from raw materials is probably only a few decades away."
Say what?? - DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5In America, the income from billboards, advertising, naming rights, etc, *completely* funds the construction of the building, then would-be inhabitants are charged *$200,000* for the privilege of living in "The Coca Cola Building".
I wonder how it would work in Soviet Russia... - TiberiusDRAIG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Of course it could be a potential target for terrorists. EVERYTHING is a potential target for terrorists. That's the point. It's to insight fear in you - you never know where they could be. If you succumb to that fear then you are letting them win. By the sounds of it BehnoodMarvazi, they have already beaten you.
Steadfast people. The bastards won't win if YOU don't let them. - dietprozac, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Look to Bolivia and you'll see that La Paz, a city of about 1 million people is located at 11,800 feet.
It also appears that the vast majority of the space in the tower is at a lower altitude, due to the taper of the structure. Assuming that the upper levels aren't intended to be used for habitation and are devoted instead to automated industry and power generation (where the high winds would actually be a boon) this type of project seems theoretically feasible enough, even though today it might be beyond our economic reach. - EricJD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Sim Tower was one of my favorite Sim games ever!
- Ravenhaft, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I seriously doubt that a nuclear reaction would take place. Maybe you're not up with the times, but the new, more robust ceramic reactors have virtually no risk of a meltdown.
- diceone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4sim tower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim_Tower - kubudubudubuntu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4i bet the idea has already crossed the architects/investors minds
- Haroldx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_1000 - Eccles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I love the general idea. Considering how much of my time is spent dealing merely with maintaining my suburban house (or adding rarely used functionality to it), I'd love to have no lawn, no siding, perhaps no HVAC, etc. to maintain, but (assuming it's surrounded by parkland) plenty of of green space when I need it. No 15 minute drive to tennis, indoor soccer, or the gym, they're an elevator ride away. If I need a bigger house, I just move to a bigger apartment -- presumably without the extortionate 6% to a real estate agent. And my kids would have hundreds, even thousands of potential friends in the neighborhood, but the bullies would be relatively easy to avoid.
If my office is in the building, I'd rarely need a car. Maybe my relatives would live there too. And the environment? Much less driving, less need for highways and parking lots; the world's entire population could probably live comfortably in less area than Switzerland.
Note that the specific building size seems questionable, but a 3000 foot pyramid could be a fair bit more practical. Make a bunch, connect them by rail. I'd been thinking of a design along these lines myself. - mitrovarr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5The designers did consider that possibility. These megastructures are much larger and more durable than current skyscrapers, so having a plane flown into them or a truck bomb detonated at the base wouldn't cause them to collapse. Still, either a very large single bomb (like a small nuke) or a lot of smaller explosions set off at the same time could conceivably take them down, with terrible results.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Who says the airplanes can't go around the building?
- icekold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Can you imagine the fire drills?
- SkeletaLlama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3History Channel had a thing about a skyscraper Frank Lloyd Wright planned for NYC that would be a mile high and have room for 100,000 office workers. It was never built because NYC couldn't handle all the traffic from morning and evening commutes all coming from a single location.
- smartpatrol, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Dude, the article totally already pointed that out.
- ferrari_f50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why would building this thing on the sea alleviate the weight issue? That would create even more of a challenge....
and @i440: Why would anyone want to be in a massive man made structure during an earthquake, especially one that pushes engineering to the limits already? - redneckblues, on 10/12/2007, -5/+81 million in one shot. Damn.
- kaeel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It reminds me of a lot of cyberpunk type futurism. Will this set up an 'elite' and a 'peasantry' those who live in the city and those who serve the city.
- dustko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It reminded me of SimTower
..... mmm SimTower, it puts you in a trance like state similar to Windows Solitare. - Rickler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Or you could like.. you know, move.
- Aidenag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I recently summited Mount Rainier in WA state at 14,411 feet. And from my experience at High Altitude i dont think we have the means to do this safely... I mean seriusly, just while i was on the mountain 4 people had to be Rescued due to weather by a Blackhawk Heli.. Just imagine the temp at that altitude.. not to mention at those hieghts wind and storms are Brutal. i almost fell into a crack in the Continental US' largest glacier while on the mountain from a massive(and i mean massive) gust of wind.
To me this seems like it is at least 50 more years away, if even then.. This makes a working Space Elevator seem EASY - Acexorz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That...is...insane. Wait so if the oxygen got thin, would masks come down from the ceiling?
- sl4x0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i totally thought the same thing...here's better pics of all the arcology buildings in simcity 2000. eerily similar.
http://www.angelfire.com/hi/gigabyte2/arco.html - WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4And the whole ting will be built and owned by a corporation, and the people who live in it will be completely dependent on that corporation for their water, food, heat/cool, even for their AIR.
And they will certainly have to go along wth watever kind of interneet access, and any other electromagnetic things that will be provided or forbidden by the corporation!
HOW CREEPY!
It is the wet dream of faascists, to have such total control over so many people's lives. - antitab, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Meier: Arcos were only in SC2K. 3K and 4K didn't include them, disappointingly.
- cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -1/+3What would happen in a terrorist attack?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3can anyone say outbreak?
- wallish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well played. Well played indeed.
/Alpha Centauri quote for those not in the know.
/HIGHLY suggested game. - ChrisGranger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Heh, I noticed that too... I'm saving up my pennies so that in a few decades I can have a copy of Monica Bellucci fabricated.
- korteenea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2X-Seed 4000. Wow. I want to know who came up with that name.
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