6 ms·

I am torn between shaking my fists at the ‘oligarchs’ and going ‘well done, boys!’. I would do the same if I had a billion dollars or two to spare. The future

I am torn between shaking my fists at the ‘oligarchs’ and going ‘well done, boys!’. I would do the same if I had a billion dollars or two to spare. The future is city states and networked small towns of 10k mixed population ..use the same seed idea as the Dunbar Number. Fwiw, I have already designed such cities for my own amusement with high density housing in 10% of the total land and the remaining as forests and food producing acres..underground tunnels for intra city transport and above ground, self driving cars and efficient public transport(maglev)… it will be a three tiered city with skyscrapers, underground city and ground infrastructure. Etc etc. What’s the point of being a billionaire if you can’t even build your own city?

tinco 3y ago
I fully agree, although it's a great way to quickly lose your billionaire status. Only the greatest of billionaires could afford to build an underground railway system for a city and still have money left to build some apartment buildings for people to live in them. Only a couple of them on the entire earth could pull it off probably. One of them has already done 3 similarly grandiose things and is now dabbling with social media. One of them is in his party on a yacht fase. One of them is starting to get a bit geriatric but also has always cared more about the people on the planet than the planet itself. And one of them seems to be on an internal journey discovering his masculinity. There's a couple more for sure, but I guess they're not in the media enough for me to know what their excuses are.
YeBanKo 3y ago
Yeah, the article reads like a “late stage capitalism” vs nasty nimby localism. On one hand I don’t like the idea that a lot of land end up in hands of a small group of people, but on the other hand the accusation that they are tearing apart the community is a little weird, given than they have not started building anything yet. And most of land around Travis AFB is prairie, so used for grazing. On top of that the lawsuit they filed against farmers is weird. Did they try to intimidate them into selling or got screwed by an alleged price fixing?
Sawamara 3y ago
>>Whats the point of being a billionare if you cant even build your own city? Are you even hearing yourself? Cities existed before billionares did. Society existed before pricks with god complexes started thinking that order and society organized the other way around. Get off from Rand. Learn some actual history.
- archibaldJ 3y ago
  It’s not God complex. Society doesn’t come into existence by itself in hunter-gathering time. It starts off with someone self-identifying as the chief/shaman and who is socially approved. Starting a small settlement / community is not a small feat. It requires lots of organizing top-level-down. And then fast forwards million of years later we have religions and government and we start paying taxes without asking lots of questions while also taking everything for granted. Religions and governments were considered a progressive thing 2000 years ago. But then gradually in the past 100 years we started to see disentanglement between these two. And now we are here. And now we are starting enter the aeon of AI. Now it is good time to fix many real-world problems.
  - piloto_ciego 3y ago
    > Society doesn’t come into existence by itself in hunter-gathering time. Ummmmm… like how do you think cities got started?
    - microtherion 3y ago
      There's no single answer. Most of them did indeed get started organically, but some got started by dukes who were in the city starting business: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Zähringen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Zähringen Some got started by Roman Emperors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg Some got started by a country wanting a new capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasília https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasília And some grew organically, but were at some point or other subject to a massive master plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Pa... https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
The domed city trope is coming to life. Usually a metaphor for physical separation of classes. The rabble have to deal with the environmental consequences of the elite's abuse of the planet, the elite shut themselves in. Of course that's not what's happening here, it is the shining elite leading us to a better model of civilization! Right?

tinco 3y ago

I fully agree, although it's a great way to quickly lose your billionaire status. Only the greatest of billionaires could afford to build an underground railway system for a city and still have money left to build some apartment buildings for people to live in them. Only a couple of them on the entire earth could pull it off probably. One of them has already done 3 similarly grandiose things and is now dabbling with social media. One of them is in his party on a yacht fase. One of them is starting to get a bit geriatric but also has always cared more about the people on the planet than the planet itself. And one of them seems to be on an internal journey discovering his masculinity. There's a couple more for sure, but I guess they're not in the media enough for me to know what their excuses are.

YeBanKo 3y ago

Yeah, the article reads like a “late stage capitalism” vs nasty nimby localism. On one hand I don’t like the idea that a lot of land end up in hands of a small group of people, but on the other hand the accusation that they are tearing apart the community is a little weird, given than they have not started building anything yet. And most of land around Travis AFB is prairie, so used for grazing. On top of that the lawsuit they filed against farmers is weird. Did they try to intimidate them into selling or got screwed by an alleged price fixing?

Sawamara 3y ago

>>Whats the point of being a billionare if you cant even build your own city? Are you even hearing yourself? Cities existed before billionares did. Society existed before pricks with god complexes started thinking that order and society organized the other way around. Get off from Rand. Learn some actual history.

archibaldJ 3y ago
It’s not God complex. Society doesn’t come into existence by itself in hunter-gathering time. It starts off with someone self-identifying as the chief/shaman and who is socially approved. Starting a small settlement / community is not a small feat. It requires lots of organizing top-level-down. And then fast forwards million of years later we have religions and government and we start paying taxes without asking lots of questions while also taking everything for granted. Religions and governments were considered a progressive thing 2000 years ago. But then gradually in the past 100 years we started to see disentanglement between these two. And now we are here. And now we are starting enter the aeon of AI. Now it is good time to fix many real-world problems.
- piloto_ciego 3y ago
  > Society doesn’t come into existence by itself in hunter-gathering time. Ummmmm… like how do you think cities got started?
  - microtherion 3y ago
    There's no single answer. Most of them did indeed get started organically, but some got started by dukes who were in the city starting business: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Zähringen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Zähringen Some got started by Roman Emperors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg Some got started by a country wanting a new capital: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasília https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasília And some grew organically, but were at some point or other subject to a massive master plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Pa... https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org https://thegreatestgrid.mcny.org

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

The domed city trope is coming to life. Usually a metaphor for physical separation of classes. The rabble have to deal with the environmental consequences of the elite's abuse of the planet, the elite shut themselves in. Of course that's not what's happening here, it is the shining elite leading us to a better model of civilization! Right?