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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

#131

Post by notahacker »

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…

It's also super similar to the dystopian cyberpunk of the 1980s. With the added dimension that it's ruled by an absolute monarch who presently deploys moral police to stop outrageous things like women stepping outside the house without male relatives accompanying never mind outrageous capital crimes like protest, journalism or homosexuality, which is the sort of society you really don't want to have smart autonomous systems monitoring everything. And a petrostate, so theoretical eco-credentials are going to be taken with a pinch of salt.

The actually built utopian housing and retail projects of the 1960s are widely regarded as dystopian in most Western countries too...

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

#132

Post by teleforce »

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.

It's mainly a European pandemic. During the 14th century CE when the Black Death occurred, China and India were the two biggest and richest empires with the most literacy in the world. The probability that such significant event was not properly recorded is very low. Most of the Asian countries' history that we know today including Japan are known from the ancient and later Chinese writings [1].

[1]Japanese History Documented in Chinese Writings:

https://studycorgi.com/japanese-history-documented-in-chines...

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

#133

Post by Ekaros »

baby wrote: post #130

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.

To me it kinda made sense. A beach front single family properties. Suburbs are a thing so why not one even more upscale version.

The world however was lot more questionable.

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

#136

Post by Dan42 »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #128
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.

Hmm, I guess this argument makes sense for the more hippie-oriented types, but as an urbanite the idea of having the convenience of a big city without the overcrowded downsides has me downright drooling.

I go camping once a year to connect with the environment; I wouldn't want to spend the 360-ish other days that way.

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

#137

Post by taink »

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…

Reminds me of atrium-like structures but extended to a massive scale to fit cities. [1]

Regardless of the feasibility of this mega-project, what concerns me is how difficult it would be to escape from living in what is essentially a big mall. Maybe that's what feels dystopian to most people here?

[1] https://youtu.be/VuOyygDRN-w

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

#138

Post by barry-cotter »

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.

> Another question, WHO will live in Neom? Saudi Arabia only have 19-20 million native citizens, the rest are all expats.

People from extremely poorly managed countries or countries unable to attract investment because of lack of law or other factors. The UAE is 90% or so migrants who will never become citizens. If you have quasi-competent government and are willing to allow migrant workers in you can print money. Paying people from a country where the average daily wage is $2 $20 per day leaves a lot of room for profit margin even in low profit margin low skill manufacturing like textiles, the classic way to kick start the transition from agricultural to manufacturing based economies.

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

#139

Post by Ekaros »

dmurray wrote: post #116
missedthecue wrote: post #84

I don't think there is enough extractable riversand on planet earth for that amount of glass.

Glass is made from melted sand, so taking the raw materials from the desert is just fine.

Yes, that is easy. Now the concrete inside this thing on other hand...

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

#140

Post by cynusx »

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…

The dystopian side is the lack of squares to protest on ;)

In all seriousness though, the project does look very realistic and I can't find any major flaw with it except that the glass wall will need to be a triple-mirror which is ridiculously expensive.

The other unknown is how an idealized architecture like this stacks against real-life humans who don't care to maintain anything if they're not paid for it.

I do hope they build it.

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