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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

#121

Post by lrem »

pavlov wrote: post #98
apexalpha wrote: post #94

Bloomberg has a good running series on this 'city of the future'. As you will expect consultants are making good money on this. I personally can't get enough of this foolish mega-project, I love the dry reporting on it. Here's one of the latest: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-mbs-neom-saudi-arabi... There was also a very telling interview with architects, builders, concept people etc... and after talking abo…

"As more of them arrived, foreign employees began describing their experiences with a joke: When you start at Neom, you bring two buckets. The first is to hold all the gold you’ll accumulate, and with so many living expenses taken care of, it will soon grow heavy. The second bucket is for all the shit you take. When that bucket is full, you pick up your bucket of gold and leave. It often doesn’t take long; many peopl…

I work in the G and it doesn't seem to be like that. First point, the average tenure in my team is somewhere between 6 and 8 years.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#122

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #81
teleforce wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're refering to dark ages it's only applicable to Europe just like Black Death is mainly European based pandemic [1],[2]. When Europe is in their dark ages the rest of the world seems fine. Heck it is only applicable to certain parts of Europe because some of the European countries and regions are doing really well [2],[3]. You probably know this anyway hence new account for trolling. [1] https://en.wikipedia.o…

China and India likely had huge numbers dead due to the Bubonic Plague, but it's poorly recorded as far as I know. Definitely not 'mainly' a European pandemic, although it had such a great influence on European culture that we still talk about it today.

The Bubonic Plague and the resulting depopulation is the root cause of humanism, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and eventual recognition of human rights.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#123

Post by IIAOPSW »

ddalex wrote: post #112
planetsprite wrote: post #99

176 km. Why don't they make a 1 kilometer proof of concept then plan the other 175 once they've ironed out the kinks?

If you would be the designer of this thing, how soon would you want the gig to be up ? The purpose of this thing is not economical, or political, or social - the purpose is to satisfy the ego of an autocrat, and as long as that ego is getting stroked, the money will continue to flow.

Oh, so the purpose of this thing is political.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#125

Post by Dan42 »

I doubt it will get built, but they really have people who understand the fundamental concepts behind Arcology. Honestly I'm surprised at how many parts of the design are well thought-out and well adapted to the desert environment. Sunlight from the sides, but not so much that it overheats the city. Heat escapes up. 5-minute walkable neighborhoods. The proximity to services of cities combined with the roominess of suburbs. At least in theory it's the perfect place to live.

One thing I'm a bit puzzled about is why so many people here describe this as a dystopia or prison. This is super similar to the old utopian sci-fi designs from the 60s/70s. Sure today it seems a bit dated/naive, but hardly dystopian.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#126

Post by baby »

the_omegist wrote: post #106
_the_inflator wrote: post #92

Reminds me of the movie Snowpiercer in reverse: desert instead of snow, static instead of moving. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer

Which was an adaptation of a French comic from 1982 : Le Transperceneige.

Is it good? Worth getting?

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#127

Post by Jedd »

pavlov wrote: post #98
apexalpha wrote: post #94

Bloomberg has a good running series on this 'city of the future'. As you will expect consultants are making good money on this. I personally can't get enough of this foolish mega-project, I love the dry reporting on it. Here's one of the latest: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-mbs-neom-saudi-arabi... There was also a very telling interview with architects, builders, concept people etc... and after talking abo…

"As more of them arrived, foreign employees began describing their experiences with a joke: When you start at Neom, you bring two buckets. The first is to hold all the gold you’ll accumulate, and with so many living expenses taken care of, it will soon grow heavy. The second bucket is for all the shit you take. When that bucket is full, you pick up your bucket of gold and leave. It often doesn’t take long; many peopl…

Hmm, a friend of mine worked in Saudi in the mid 1990's, and the (similarly metaphorical) story he told me was slightly different.

When picked up at the airport you are presented the two buckets. When either one is full, it is time to leave.

I expect all employment requires the same trade-off consideration, but I gather in those parts of the world, for ex-pats, both buckets feel like they fill up at an alarmingly brisk rate.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#128

Post by hammyhavoc »

Dan42 wrote: post #125

I doubt it will get built, but they really have people who understand the fundamental concepts behind Arcology. Honestly I'm surprised at how many parts of the design are well thought-out and well adapted to the desert environment. Sunlight from the sides, but not so much that it overheats the city. Heat escapes up. 5-minute walkable neighborhoods. The proximity to services of cities combined with the roominess of su…

Because this is the exact opposite of trying to live at one with your environment. Not saying that cities aren't, but this just screams "wrong" on so many levels.

Why do people go camping? Because it feels so right to connect with the environment.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#129

Post by bambax »

baybal2 wrote: post #100
apexalpha wrote: post #94

Bloomberg has a good running series on this 'city of the future'. As you will expect consultants are making good money on this. I personally can't get enough of this foolish mega-project, I love the dry reporting on it. Here's one of the latest: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-mbs-neom-saudi-arabi... There was also a very telling interview with architects, builders, concept people etc... and after talking abo…

> There was also a very telling interview with architects, builders, concept people etc... and after talking about Neom in all enthusiasm for a bit the interviewer asked each a simple question: would you live in Neom? Another question, WHO will live in Neom? Saudi Arabia only have 19-20 million native citizens, the rest are all expats.

> the rest are all expats

That's probably the point. It's a "city"/prison for people who have no other choice.

Re: Saudi Crown Prince unveils plans for $500bn structure to house 9M people

#130

Post by baby »

I’m getting flashbacks of the dubai palm island when they were constructing it. Everyone was wondering why, and who would even live there. But they don’t care, these places are basically like NFTs, they make so much money selling spots that it does not matter.
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