City in a pyramid - architectural marvel of the Tyrell Corporation

[DigitalBuddha]

City in a pyramid

The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a proposed project for construction of a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay in Japan. The structure would be about 14 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza, and would house 750,000 people. The structure would be 730 meters above mean sea level, including 5 stacked trusses, each with similar dimensions to that of the great pyramid of Giza.

This pyramid would help answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space, although the project would only handle 1/47th of the Greater Tokyo Area's population.[1] The idea partially stems from the fictional architectural marvel of the Tyrell Corporation, which appears in the science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), as a duo of futuristic pyramidal structures.



Massive pad you got here - http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/02/07/article-1354540-0D133175000005DC-475_964x486.jpg

[Hominid]

As an IT guy, I look at this and go "Dude: HUGE single point of failure". It wouldn't take much to bring a disaster to such a structure. That said, more of the world may have to move in this direction.  I just hope that our financial world can survive the necessary population growth limitations that will be required to not strip the world of its resources before we go tits up for good.

[RighteousDude]

I just hope that our financial world can survive the necessary { ... }

I'm not into prophesy, but the nihilists have already poured the gas on our LTD, Dude.

[Hominid]

I don't think watching the result of a 1,000 year trend qualifies as prophesy! Unless we have a near extinction event that severely reduces the strain our population puts on the planet, we'll continue to head to self destruction. Countries don't cooperate, many are not civilized enough to even have a civil war, the biggest superpower's policies are based on getting re-elected, and the world's biggest food producer - that controls the world's food supply - has that same mentality.  It's not being negative or nihilistic, it's being realistic and pragmatic. Love is the answer, but for the most part, short-sighted greed runs this little blue dot.

IMHO 

[RighteousDude]

The great fuckero of the whole thing is that none of the problems that face us, save the ongoing loss of cropland and fresh water, are even all that difficult in and of themselves. The big fucking glitch in every solution is "who's going to pay for it?".

I propose eminent domain as the solution to that problem. Turn the tables on the rich fucks. Take the wealth of the top 10% worldwide, all of it, and leave each of them just enough to live at the standard of living of the median non-executive wager earners in their countries of residence for three to six months. After that they can just "get a job, Sir!". This means, logically, shutting down the stock exchanges of the world, the mega banks, the World Bank, the IMF, the US Federal Reserve, and their counterparts around the globe, and handing over the ownership of publicly traded corporations to the employees who are employed by them, too. But when we liquidate the assets of the top 10% worldwide, we've solved the "who's going to pay for it?" problem so the rest become much more easily solved.

We can't solve a fucking thing, though, while our ideologies blind us to the possibilities arrayed before us. I've never really got the hang of ideology, though, so it looks easier to me than it does to all of those who may well be correct when they say that I'm crazy.

[Hominid]

Fuck it all dude, let's go bowling.

[DigitalBuddha]

Fuck it all dude, let's go bowling.

And drink beer. 

[milnie]

The great fuckero of the whole thing is that none of the problems that face us, save the ongoing loss of cropland and fresh water, are even all that difficult in and of themselves. The big fucking glitch in every solution is "who's going to pay for it?".

I propose eminent domain as the solution to that problem. Turn the tables on the rich fucks. Take the wealth of the top 10% worldwide, all of it, and leave each of them just enough to live at the standard of living of the median non-executive wager earners in their countries of residence for three to six months. After that they can just "get a job, Sir!". This means, logically, shutting down the stock exchanges of the world, the mega banks, the World Bank, the IMF, the US Federal Reserve, and their counterparts around the globe, and handing over the ownership of publicly traded corporations to the employees who are employed by them, too. But when we liquidate the assets of the top 10% worldwide, we've solved the "who's going to pay for it?" problem so the rest become much more easily solved.

We can't solve a fucking thing, though, while our ideologies blind us to the possibilities arrayed before us. I've never really got the hang of ideology, though, so it looks easier to me than it does to all of those who may well be correct when they say that I'm crazy.

The trouble is dude that there isn't enough money to liquidate the "wealth" of the wealthy. Most of their wealth only exists on paper and in real terms doesn't exist.  What really screws with my head is the idea of country debt owed to another country, which in turn owes money to the IMF which also owes money to the first country; so if everyone owes each other money, how can there be debt?

[RighteousDude]

The trouble is dude that there isn't enough money to liquidate the "wealth" of the wealthy. Most of their wealth only exists on paper and in real terms doesn't exist.

But it can be made to exist for all practical purposes, so that's a non-problem. It doesn't matter if they're real as long as people will trade real goods and real labor for them. That's the whole secret of the world economy, right there.

What really screws with my head is the idea of country debt owed to another country, which in turn owes money to the IMF which also owes money to the first country; so if everyone owes each other money, how can there be debt?

Countries don't loan money to other countries. What they do, when they say they're loaning money, is to guarantee the loans made by bankers.

There is currently so much debt obligation on Earth that it literally can never be repaid. All of the money on Earth (including the stuff that's just database records) is just a fraction of the debt. That's why the world economy is trapped in expand-or-expire. Without expansion there's no way to make the interest payments. But with expansion there is need for increased money supply, which drives up the debt. That's why I propose we just put a stop to it before it causes widespread real suffering when the shithouse blows up.

There never was any fucking money, man!