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It's time to build: a New World's Fair

cameronwiese.com

171–180 of 237 posts

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a lot of environmental challenges ahead of us. A forward-thinking World's Fair could paint a picture of how we get from here to a carbon-negative economy: solar & wind, battery tech, autonomous cars and less car-oriented cities, better telepresence, carbon sequestering, architecture, etc.

For me the concept of Solarpunk(as opposed to cyberpunk) is leaning in the right direction that way. Solarpunk needs a lot of development though. One issue seems to be it too often coincides with someone's idea of a futuristic Utopia. Hence it is conflict free, rather boring and doesn't do much to stir interest.

I like the term solarpunk! I'm gonna describe myself that way from now on.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#172
post #162
post #73

The last really prophetic world's fair was New York, 1939. That's famous for GM's vision of the future of 1960, the original "Futurerama" . Freeways everywhere. RCA had television. AT&T let you make free long distance calls. All that stuff happened. The 1964 World's Fair had another GM exhibit. Colonization of the Moon. Underwater cities. None of that happened. What could we have in a World's Fair now that looks ahea…

> What could we have in a World's Fair now that looks ahead? I want a roboticized home that cleans itself, that is able to do autorepairs, rooms reconfiguration. I want an auto-laundry and an auto-kitchen. I want it smart enough to manage air flow, temperature and humidity efficiently. I want all that to be voice activated. Please make it offline to not depend on some cloud thingies. I want a powerwall and solar pane…

Only 1/2 joking but there was an automation exhibit at the 64 world's fair. It was by Disney and then moved to Disneyland for years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney%27s_Carousel_of_Pr...

It showed the progress of the kitchen over the years and ended with a push button kitchen like The Jetsons

I agree with you though. I want all of the things you listed. In particular, I want something that can dust (clean all the dust from my shelves, tables, books, etc..). I wonder if it could be done with small drones that can fly into the shelves with tiny dusters.

I want my walls and ceiling to be displays like from Total Recall for cheap (say under $500 per wall)

I want sound proofing between apartments, also cheap so there's no excuse for an apartment not to have it.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> profitable > we look forward to doing so again in 2028 Oligarchs and capitalists benefit, the masses lose though. Especially those most vulnerable socioeconomically.

The hope for the 2028 olympics in LA is more public transportation which is currently being built. It's exciting to see the new lines currently popping up.

Sports is the opiate of the masses — Karl Marx, probably

As long as the government doesn’t lose money, I’m happy. Plus it will be nice to get to LAX without driving a 30 minute loop through the terminals. I’m very excited about that line.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#174
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very much pro World Fair revival. But I am also very Cold War revival. We should be launching competitive science wars with each other, not unlike the Olympics. Set objectives, set time periods, when the time and objective expire all knowledge gained is pooled and published for the world, for free. National or International propaganda campaigns to recruit for teams. Spies, espionage, moles. Not just a science fa…

> I am also very Cold War revival. Complete with threats of total annihilation? > We should be launching competitive science wars with each other Don't we have this now with competitive global capitalism? I guess it's not the nationstate so much now as the multinational corporation, though, that are the entities competing. I can kind of understand your wish for a Cold War revival - we certainly had more of a sense of…

> But it was driven by fear of the other and I'm not sure that ultimately that's a good motivation.

That’s already here again. We may as well do something good with it.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#175
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with hanging your country’s flag? I’ve seen people from all over the world wear or display their own country’s flags. Have you taken a look at yourself?

It's abnormal behaviour. There's no reason to hang your country's flag in front of your house. I mean... maybe if you live near the Canadian or Mexican border and are feeling particularly patriotic or insecure. > I’ve seen people from all over the world wear or display their own country’s flags. You may have imagined it. If not, could you say where? It is a uniquely American thing. I mean, Indians will pull out a fla…

There are plenty of union Jack’s in England, and Tricolores in France.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#176
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget that you don't have an electric ground

That’s why in non-American English it’s called earth. :) I had no idea. Hackaday explains as well as some other things I’d not though about. https://hackaday.com/2017/08/17/living-on-mars-the-stuff-you...

Like you call the ground earth or you call ground earth? I fail to see how earth is less ambiguous.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#177
post #170
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Should everyone wait until their kids turn 18 to start teaching them their own morals and values? You keep saying morals and values. Which part of the pledge pertains to morals and values? It was still said during a time of complete racial segregation. Did the practically unchanged pledge teach children about the morality and values of that? Or domestic internment camps during WW2? What about during the Vietnam war…

> Which part of the pledge pertains to morals and values? Pledging allegiance to the things that protect and serve you. Support for something larger than yourself. The American ideals in the constitution and on the statue of liberty, even if you don't feel others support them as much as they should. The USA is a tremendous country that has done more to build protections for people into its law than almost anywhere el…

Even if all of this were true, there's no reason one should be pledging allegiance to the state. You can be proud of your country, your state, your city, and your community but to have to make pledges in front of other people to signal your patriotism is weird to anyone who wasn't brought up within that bubble of propaganda and jingoism.

Have you seen footage of North Koreans pledging their allegiance to their government? Dial that down a little and you get (some) Americans. It might seem normal to you, having been born into that bubble, but believe me the average patriotic North Korean feels the same.

Patriotism is just tribalism, and while it was crucial five centuries ago, it's a cancer on any modern society.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#178
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget that you don't have an electric ground

Electric ground? Can you expand on this?

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. The core on Mars stopped spinning so there is no longer the electric dynamo and thus there isn't a potential. So everything has to be a floating potential. That isn't to say that you can't make reference grounds, but it is much more convoluted than "sticking a fucking metal rod into the ground".

Actually if you pay attention to HI-SEAS[0] this has been a cause of an accident (since they replicate Mars habitat.

This problem also, obviously, applies to any planetary body which does not have a magnetosphere. So you don't have magnetic north and you don't have a safe potential ground.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HI-SEAS

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#179
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why in non-American English it’s called earth. :) I had no idea. Hackaday explains as well as some other things I’d not though about. https://hackaday.com/2017/08/17/living-on-mars-the-stuff-you...

Crazy. I just presumed the planet acts as a ground. Presumably same challenge on the moon?

> Presumably same challenge on the moon?

Yes. It will be true for any planetary body that does not have a magnetosphere. But Venus has a magnetosphere. So you can do the old "stick a fucking metal rod into the ground" trick as long as your metal rod doesn't melt... because Venus.

Re: It's time to build: a New World's Fair

#180
post #29

No mention of Expo 2010, which had representation from 65 different countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2010_pavilions . I didn't go, but the photos of the architecture from the different countries were beautiful. > After the six-month run, the Expo had attracted well over 70 million visitors. The Expo 2010 is also the most expensive fair in the history of World's Fair, with more than 45 billion US dollars…

2015 World Expo in milan was pretty sad despite having 145 countries.

The architecture was pretty good in a few instances, but the cultural elements were about as good as I'd expect from a board of tourism.

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