This is a relaunch of another such plan over a decade ago. Yawn.
Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
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Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#52Both awe inspiring and frightening, considering the source.
Technological utopia meets sociological dystopia.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#53Dictator announces mega city, just like dozens of dictators before him. See: New Cairo City
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#54What will this solve? What if a fire breaks out? Can protestors block a single street? Where are people going to dry clothes? Won't those who live at the base feel claustrophobic?
Most of these problems are probably already solved or could be solved. You are of course using dry cleaning services in some form. Fire suppression systems are built in. The structure is quite narrow, so you have a view to the outside from pretty much anywhere, and it's not much worse than any skyscraper, better probably because of (hopefully) better design.
As to social aspects... That is my major concern also. Of course this city has a police force and would clean up anybody blocking the central hubs. There is no street btw, but rather different kinds of corridors for walking and trains of different speeds and ranges. I guess it is relatively easy to disturb the system, on the other hand if realized there would probably be an authoritarian kid of police force making sure nobody does.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
> humanitarian disaster in the Red sea that needs less than $20M more to start offloading the oil The Safer is at a Yemeni port [1], with recent UN safekeeping attempts having been inhibited by the Houthis. The environmental damage and economic cost will be borne almost entirely by western Yemen. Houthi territory. TL; DR This is irrelevant to Riyadh’s global standing. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Safer
Look at the winter map - over half of the coast is Saudi by week 3.
> over half of the coast is Saudi by week 3
So the proposed strategy involves taking out the main rebel-controlled ports as well as their fisheries while doing aesthetic damage to Saudi Arabia? (Yanbu won’t be disrupted by an oil spill that far away.) This is nonsense. Hell, I see more sense in Riyadh busting the tanker.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#56Make it a circle, get rid of the mirror, fill in the center. Bam! You got yourself a city.
Nah, keep the mirror. Then you can focus the light into the middle and you have a built-in incinerator for any dissidents / journalists who might pop up.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#57Make it a circle, get rid of the mirror, fill in the center. Bam! You got yourself a city.
A circle is harder to build and has more issues regarding sunlight. The sun hitting the building(s) is both a benefit (solar cells) and a problem (heat generation) at the same time. A linear structure will get a much more even energy distribution than a circle.
Also one of the goals of the project is to reduce the energy needs of the population by making ways shorter. If you spread a city out on a circle, you got a much more complicated and expensive transportation problem than just the linear structure presented here.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#58Isn't sand going to start piling up on the side that the wind usually blows from?
I think it would have regularly spaced tunnels traversing the structure and they would just move sand with machines if necessary.
They could also put nets some kilometers in front of the thing to catch most of it and deposit itself as dunes there, maybe try to fixate is with some vegetation if at all possible.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#59Isn't sand going to start piling up on the side that the wind usually blows from?
If I were building this I would leave a large space open on the bottom, I would not have the walls go all the way to the ground. Aside from sand, it also lets animals, humans, and vehicles pass through.
Doesn't matter how large the space is, it will fill up eventually.
Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people
#60$500 billion..and to think bezos + musk + one google fonder can fund this alone. crazy but it would probably cost way more than $500 billion
Already reports of the project being unable to retain key executives because of irrational demands by government officials. [0]
This is going to be much harder than anyone realizes.
0: https://www.wsj.com/articles/expatriate-executives-flee-saud...