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

cameronwiese.com

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

#51

Post by cosmodisk »

poisonborz wrote: post #35

I admire the optimism and motivational tone of the article, but fairs and expos are a thing of the past. We don't need to build elaborate, carefully constructed single-use cities to showcase the scientific advances of the world. Those showcases happen day by day on the internet and mass media.

Yes and no. I do agree that probably nobody's going to build another Eiffel tower or Crystal Palace any time soon,but we need spaces to explore science, innovation,and simply have for people to do something more interesting than just mindlessly walking through shopping malls. Fairs and expos inspire. I still remember going to a tech expo as a teenager and seeing all these latest gadgets and thinking: I want to be part of it! Now imagine going to one of these in the middle of last century and seeing rockets, nuclear car prototypes and things like that. You almost instantly want to sign up or at least show it to your kids.

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

#52

Post by harles »

> Unfortunately, this all started to change after the U.S. put a man on the moon. While this was certainly a "giant leap for mankind," we lacked an understanding of what our next step would be.

Is there supporting evidence of these assertions? There are some interesting ideas in here, but I’m not seeing anything to back them up.

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

#53

Post by dgellow »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #50
dgellow wrote: post #41

> Now, flicking your wearable token with impatient fingers, you feel a slight force as your Hyperloop pod comes to a stop. You lost me at “Hyperloop”. How is that a vision of the future when we know for a fact that the idea doesn’t make practical sense?

The US already has established air travel. And mass transit via trains is not a technological problem, it is a political and a marketing problem. Hyperloop has the potential to solve the political and marketing problems.

Hyperloop may solve political and marketing problems, but doesn’t solve the “cheap, safe, and fast transport problem” in any ways. That’s a completely impractical concept.

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

#54

Post by temp0826 »

dgellow wrote: post #41

> Now, flicking your wearable token with impatient fingers, you feel a slight force as your Hyperloop pod comes to a stop. You lost me at “Hyperloop”. How is that a vision of the future when we know for a fact that the idea doesn’t make practical sense?

It’s the monorail of the future!

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

#56

Post by Johnny555 »

From the article:

...wait eagerly for Jessica Watkins to take the first step on Mars

There's an unfortunate name collision, I didn't know who Jessica Watkins was so Googled her, and the top results are for a Jessica Watkins who participated in the attack on the USA Capitol... I spent a moment pondering what her link to Mars was.. but farther down the results list is NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins.

It's a shame that the astronaut has her search results cluttered by the insurrectionist. Back when I was doing online dating, I shared a name (and similar age and nearby city) with the brother of a recently convicted serial killer, searching for my name brought up articles about him... I warned potential dates that if they looked me up online, I'm not that guy (which, I suppose, is exactly what the brother of a serial killer would say).

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

#57

Post by jcranmer »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #50
dgellow wrote: post #41

> Now, flicking your wearable token with impatient fingers, you feel a slight force as your Hyperloop pod comes to a stop. You lost me at “Hyperloop”. How is that a vision of the future when we know for a fact that the idea doesn’t make practical sense?

The US already has established air travel. And mass transit via trains is not a technological problem, it is a political and a marketing problem. Hyperloop has the potential to solve the political and marketing problems.

Hyperloop struggles mightily with the "mass" part of "mass transit." Its theoretical capacity is easily ⅒th of an equivalent rail line, and even then you're making some heroic assumptions about how frequently the "pods" can be safely dispatched.

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

#58

Post by jonathannat »

ipsum2 wrote: 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…

[flagged]

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

#59

Post by thepasswordis »

klenwell wrote: post #43
ipsum2 wrote: 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…

> I didn't go, but the photos of the architecture from the different countries were beautiful. Apparently, the American pavilion was not among them: Now that the US Pavilion has been open for several days, its reviews, to be generous, are mixed. Visitors, after a two-hour wait, enjoy the upbeat attitude of the student “ambassadors” who greet them in Mandarin — but few are impressed by the three films that constitute…

The US seems to have largely decided that any amount of national pride is something to be ashamed of.

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

#60

Post by purple-again »

minikites wrote: post #5

We as a species gave up trying to solve difficult problems and now we're only concerned with inflating asset prices to feel "wealthy". Smart engineers are working for HFT firms instead of NASA. We've equated "wealth" with "progress" and we're now discovering how hollow all these fake numbers are.

I’m a pretty smart guy, or at least I keep getting told that, and I work near HFTs in the finance world. I am also a huge space nerd thanks to a love for things like Star Trek and Star Wars in the 70’s 80’s. I would take a significant pay cut to work for NASA because that work would feel amazing compared to the grind I’ve been in.

I am 100% confident I would not be hirable by NASA, confident enough in that assertion to shut down without trying. I think you may have some bias from your media bubble coloring your perception if you truly believe what you wrote is true.

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