I don't buy Climate Change, 42, the overall carbon in the atmosphere is 0.004% of the total atmospheric composition, at 0.002% plant life becomes unsustainable due to not having enough carbon to convert into oxygen, if 0.002% was the planet at it's most struggling moment then 0.004% is surely it's most idealistic amount to promote plant growth and bring in more biodiversity as well as making this planet more evenly temperatured and less harsh for life! I think you mean well, but I don't think you've educated yourself enough on this one! We are in the ideal range for total carbon, now if that number jumped up again to say 0.006% percent, life would become more favorable to plants and fungi and diseases would come into existence that we never even conceived of.
Funny coz there are more empty houses then they are ppl that are homeless. A ratio of 2 to 1. The ppl in power are not wanting to end anything. They like it the way it is.
This is giving very scifi and dystopian vibes. For me, I'm kinda scared of dark enclosed spaces, so personally I would hesitate living underground. Great video as always.
In Coober Pede in South Australia people have turned abandoned mines into underground homes. I have no idea how this works but when I heard about it I was utterly enchanted by the idea
A w'hole (pun intended) lot of friggin digging and roof supports is how it works. The same as opal mining. Watch some vids about opal mining and it'll soon make sense mate.
It's not that far underground those houses i've seen them, this guy is talking about locking millions underground and people would never see the light of day again, sinister huh
It’s so hot there during the summer, even I who hate closed in spaces ventured into a ground dwelling back in the early 80’s, there were many reasons for them building homes just below the surface, 1, claim jumpers could not get to your mine without going through their home first. 2, it’s so dam hot all year around you don’t need to run aircon in the underground dwellings. The one I was in was a nice home it was not dark, or creepy, there was a lot of natural light from the skylights, it’s been the only time I have never been scared underground. They are not so deep that it’s needing reinforcement either. And they did not put cement over the walls for reinforcement it was not needed, you need a blooming jackhammer as it is to dig into 90% of Coober Pede. At the “back door” is really the entrance to this families Opal mine, it had first been dug out by their grandfather and then by their father and now them, they still mine for opals and as the family has grown so has the home. I enjoyed my time there even got to help sifting the rocks the men dug out before it went to waste pile on the surface. Would love to go back one day but I’m now 60 and walking is very hard to Dow😹😹
I'm so glad I live in the center of West Virginia, in the mountains. It will likely take my lifetime and beyond before there's a city even close by. It's a hard life sometimes, being so far from everything, but a blessing at the same time.
"I live in the center of West Virginia, in the mountains." That still doesn't explain why you are subscribed to channels such as 'Jiles with a J'... or maybe it actually does? 🤷♂
Fire fighting and evacuation would be a nightmare. We also have the problem of groundwater, which will try to float the building, creating a huge lifting force.
@@peopleofearth6250 And things inside will still burn, and the only way out will be at the top, which is where the fire will spread the fastest. As for heavy materials, there are no materials heavy enough to stop the floating effect, as it still needs to have lots of air inside. It needs to be anchored into the bedrock, with extremely strong connections.
@@danieb4273 Have the evacuation points where the fire is least likely to spread, at the bottom, and evacuation stair shafts which are a separate fire cell.
The only downsides I can see to living underground is getting less sun and the risk of flooding, and it sounds like this plan would deal with that. That aside, I love caves. I'd totally live underground. Can confirm Montreal underground is amazing. No one *lives* there, but it's a very cool commercial area. That ocean spiral sounds amazing too!
He said that they can use fiber optics to bring sunlight down so it would be lit during the day. Fiber optics are fibers that light can travel through. He also mentioned a drainage system which could connect to the sewers so there wouldn't be flooding.
The big problem with building underground is that it's incredibly expensive. I've seen estimates for underground 4-story parking compared to surface parking, and it's something like 30 times the cost to go underground. And going further underground would likely increase costs, not lower them.
Any 'new' concept is expensive but the more they do it the less it will cost. My fear is that building firms like to cut corners and building a tall building with saving a few bob could be lethal.
@@alexfernandez1234 If you could be on Mars, you would never see the blue sky. You would never hear the sounds of nature. You would never hear or smell the sound of the surf. You would never have the simple pleasures that comprise living. Surviving and living are not really the same.
On a much smaller scale (and as perhaps a soft entry to get people used to the idea) most nonresidential buildings have no need to be built above ground. Electrical utility buildings, warehouses, factories, logistics centers, could all be built so that their "roofs" are slightly below ground level. How hospitable and pleasant would are world be if each of those types of buildings had parks, walking paths, or even gardens built over them?
The only one of those examples that sorta true (but not really) is the electrical buildings. The rest need immediate access to the outside for frequent loading and unloading operations. You know... Because all the damn trucks and trains are out there. For the electrical buildings, doing that requires subsurface power lines. There are a crapload of pro's and con's to that. It works well, except where it doesn't.
I hate to live with millions of other people anywhere! Overground, underground, no matter where the d@mn building is located. Small towns are my place of choice.
@@Tordogor 100% agree! I had to live in a city with 7 million and was absolutely miserable. The thought of being underground and living like that sounds even more soul crushing. At least outside, you can see the sun, breath fresh air (sorta) & where I was, sometimes I could see the mountains. It reminded me that I was getting out of there and back where I belong.
The Forum Shops at Cesar's Palace Casino in Las Vegas always gave me the feeling of being underground... under the ocean more precisely, and i loved it. As long as we don't make the underground feel so dank and give it a little life, many would be happy to love underground. But if you make it no more pleasant than a subway, people will hate you.
@@TheDramacist I agree, which really helps give the impression of being outside, along with the extensive plants. The Bellagio has an amazing indoor display of plants and a high celing with extensive skylights.
Toronto also has PATH which is similar to RESO in Montreal. They are fantastic for not having to go outside when trying to navigate downtown Toronto in the nasty winter weather. Calgary does a similar thing but with elevated covered crossings above street level which connect many downtown buildings. With extreme winters many northern cities have networks of indoor pathways and shopping tunnels so you don’t have to brave the insane weather.
@dv9239 think of it like a massive shopping mall in a large web(there are maps online though it is still expanding pretty rapidly) with transit connections, escalators into the various above ground businesses and facilities. There are sections of it that are just connected corridors but most of the space that I have been in had some sort of shop, transit, etc. Using the space
Yes, it blew me away years ago when I could just go downstairs at my hotel and get on a train that took me to the mall, all without walking in the cold weather. The walking PATH also sounds great. Living in Michigan if I can avoid going outside in winter I do!
Was glad to see you mention Montreal's Reso, it's a very good example indeed, even though as you said, is mostly a world of shopping malls. However, the metro transit system, as one would expect, is also interconnected with the Reso, and many residential and commercial buildings are also attached to it, so technically, one can live, commute, work, and shop throughout the city without needed a coat, a car, or ever going outside during those brutal winter months if one chose not to. And even while Montreal is beautiful in the summer, it gets incredibly hot and humid, with temperatures reaching 30°c, so the Reso is actually really appreciated all year round. 🇨🇦
When I visited NYC some years ago, we visited a below ground restaurant and shopping area. While we enjoyed our overpriced meal, I speculated rather than moving up it should be looked into opening up more subterranean areas. I'm glad someone overheard my conversation and is trying to make it a reality.
It's not so much that someone overheard your conversation, but rather scientists looking at science fiction and taking ideas and concepts to turn into science fact.
Well, people these days aren't easily identifiable as "regular" so the group should still be picky about who they allow in. Ignorant and awful people can die with our species. A good mixed group of the lower classes who are open minded, intelligent and can work together as one people for the good of all of them. Essential during early days.
Well the rich still need their slaves, er uhm, employees, so “regular” people will have to be brought along with them. Do they even know how to keep house?
So we poor people will become Morlocks, living underground and toiling endlessly - while the wealthy will become the Eloi, living in the sunshine and enjoying themselves. As I recall, the Eloi became sheep and food for the Morlocks. It's a cruel world.
As a carpenter I see this as a fling. We were doing this with green building such as planting gardens on the top of skyscrapers, wearhouses, and factories. Though it did not last long. The reason they didn't want to hire someone to take care of the garden.
I think the big problem is people are unrealistic about their expectations. We already have things like missile silos that extend quite a bit into the earths surface, which could easily provide 10 levels of 2000+ sq feet. Which would be roughly equivalent to 10 houses or 20 apartments. I think a more reasonable way of thinking of it is like an underground apartment complex or small condominium. 10 stories up, 10 stories down. Don't start out with skyscrapers, and don't try to make it a self contained city with it's own water and food supply.
Public transportation is one of the key things we need to start looking back into. We need to stop making the roads wider and actually make things liveable, for people who don't want cars.
Hopefully they make everyone take Vitamin D pills. Less skin cancer is a plus but you could be trading it for more lung cancer since the air isn't fresh and they'd have to have a great air filtration system. I'd miss candles and fires though. Not likely burning anything would help out the air.
@@marniekilbourne608, yea I can imagine they’ll run into a slew of unforeseen problems. I wish future people the best but it’s still a no thanks from me. And yea fuck winter lol
Cool that you talk about Montréal! I live near and work there, went a couple of times in that underground mall. Pretty special. Note: here summer gets very humid especially in jully and august, so it's a nice place to avoid 30°C + hot days too, not just the cold winter days. 😉
I lived in Montreal back in the 1980s and even then one could spend their entire lives only occasionally going outdoors at all. Which considering Montreal winters can be the only way to survive living there.
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj Haha I live on the north shore of Montreal and I really don't need to go underground to survive living here! Winters are a lot warmer since many years, so it's really not like it's always minus 30°C. Coldest we get is a couple days around -20°C to -30°C sometimes. I am much more worried about the near 0°C as there is more and more freezing rain each year and we lost power for a couples days this year because of the weight of the ice on tree branches falling on power lines. At least with cold temperatures, we keep power. I prefer -10° than 0°.
Wow you've really been misinformed on what a "15-minute city" is. The whole point is MORE freedom, through not needing to travel too far instead of requiring a car. You've been manipulated into treating all these forward-looking ideas in terms of points gained/lost between two teams, even at a cost to yourself.
@@Vaeldarg not really. It's an idea based on communistic "equality" where class/economy doesn't matter. But it only concern low and middle class. Everyone above that will have luxury outside of those "communities". One step away from "you will own nothing, and you will be happy".
I would assume it would be less of a cost selling said dirt and whatever minerals and what not to other companies. It could probably even be cheaper than regular buildings. The safety on the other hand, IF something (let's say a war) would happen, is another story :P Can't really escape anywhere, if bombs are falling on top of it.
Now that you talked about "earth scrappers" it would be nice if you make a video about San José, Costa Rica, that is the capital of such country, it has a very interesting story and also it has the only underground upside down pyramid in central America that is also a museum. As any other capital of a country in the world it has its own problems but it is a pretty much interesting place for a topic conversation, by the way you're welcome to visit us some day haha.
Cities here in the USA are being abandoned as we speak due to horrible management so hopefully we can turn this tide since it would seem that the processes in making "green" energy is much more damaging than doing without for now until the actual process can be developed without throwing out the baby with the bathwater.....
I can only see people fleeing bigger cities, as a good thing. Smaller cities would bring higher security, since the area per district could be manned easier.
@@Schmorgus Correct. Communities should be no larger than a few thousand people. If you need to build sky scrapers and whatnot, it should be a clear sign that there's just too many damn people on too small of an area.
Not defending this, but fire burns up, and I am pretty sure whoever builds this thinks about removing all the oxygen from that floor fast. My brains thought about energy needed to pump garbage from 65 stories underground. Gravity ain't our friend down there.
I'm in my 50's and I've been into documentaries for as long as I can remember. I also remember being disappointed and dissatisfied most of the time. They never really answered anything or left me feeling satisfied with the time I spent tuning in. I'm an avid viewer of this channel and love it, by far, more than any other RU-vid show. I have now reached the counterbalance of the entire 40 years of crap documentaries that I've endured, by attending these episodes. I may not be smarter, but I feel smarter! Thank you Thoughty2!!
I feel like the biggest downside and something that is unfortunately super realistic, is that if this becomes the norm, affordable housing will end up being underground and only the wealthier people will have access to living spaces with direct sunlight and better air quality
It can also do the opposite: not every industrial/commercial building needs to be aboveground, either. Can compress industrial parks and free up space for housing. There are also the people who are fine with not living aboveground (maybe they're more of a party animal who only goes home to sleep) that if choose the underground option, frees up aboveground housing for someone who prefers that. It doesn't need to be forced, just provides more options.
This leaves me with a few questions: Where would they put all of the dirt and rocks they exhume to make these? What happens if they come across some archeological finds while doing these massive projects?
It sounds good in theory. But in reality it's a lot harder to achieve. First off there is a whole lot of Carbon Monoxide, Radon, Buthane, Methane etc.. Not to mention the manpower and resources it would take to build and maintain such a construction. Good idea for a book or movie though!
What wonderful ingenuity. Perhaps my grandchildren will live to see all these advancements. I have lived long enough to see the introduction of the domestic refrigerator from the wooden icebox with the iceman leaving the large ice brick on the front doorstep. The television, and, the washing machine evolving from the outdoor copper boiler on a back yard fire. The indoor flush toilet’s evolution from the “Dunnyman” jumping backyard fences to collect our deposits from the lavatory in a huge bin flung over his back to be emptied in the Dunny truck at the end of the street😊 Then too of course the progression to today’s many wonders. Cheers…
In the UK you have had so called "iceberg" constructions in London city for a long time. Neighbors are not too happy about it. EDIT: Imagine the construction disturbance in the center of a major city not for one resident, but for for tens of thousands of residents. EDIT2: an engineering problem for sure though. I don't see this happening in a short while.
They would have to build completely new cities on empty lots (arable land?). And in general, I can see so many problems with the concept that every scenario seems catastrophic.
@@ronmayweather802 The literal bedrock is being pushed down by the weight of the buildings in large metropolitan areas (eg. New York, Bangkok, etc.). Building underground infra won't improve that. While you dig up a bunch of dirt, the amount of steel and concrete will still be heavier than the offset of the dirt.
Why would it be depressing? With sunlight coming in, i think it would be extremely relaxing. No noise, no bad weather to deal with, etc. Compared to a ground level house, yeah sure you could say you lose the ability to look at the window, but let's be honest ... in a city, all you'd look at is yet more concrete.
@@detaart The problem with bringing sunlight in is surface area though. If you only use the footprint of the building to collect sunlight, the amount each resident can have gets less and less intense the deeper the building is because it has to be divided among the various rooms.
Thoughty2 I love your channel and every Monday I can’t wait for the weekly video but this week was weird you didn’t upload yesterday and early this morning you uploaded a video that I couldn’t wait to watch, but the video is gone snd this is up either way I love your content
Anyone growing good smoke knows the amount of energy it takes for the lights, ac, dehumidifiers to grow indoors is insane. We are along ways from underground farms.
I love this idea. I live in Toronto and rents and home prices here are off the charts. We also have a 30 Km underground network beneath all of the big office towers downtown as well as other areas of the city. The infrastructure is already there, we just need to re=envision different uses for it, like residential instead of commercial. I would live in an affordable, below ground, climate controlled, quiet apartment there. It's not as far fetched an idea as it seems.
I have no idea why, but ever since I was a kid, the idea of living underground has fascinated me so much. The thought of a civilization existing underground is just wild... for whatever reason. There's a couple of old anime that show this in different ways (one where the world was filled with skyscrapers and big buildings, and was then devastated by earthquakes, forcing the survivors to live in tunnels underneath the city) And another where they lived underground after a planetary invasion, too afraid to go back up under the assumption that they would be killed, so society went on existing underground. I'm not saying it sounded like fun, but the way of life seemed so... contained and limited, I guess I felt a sense of familiarity with the way we're stuck on this planet, slaves to routines that came before we existed.
You'd probably enjoy either the underground villages in yhe Hest of the deserts or large underpasses in Central European cities like Budapest - these might also be in Russian cities too.
Sometimes I imagine being in a cave or underground bunker when I'm having trouble sleeping. For some reason the idea of being somewhere enclosed and hidden puts me out fast. I'm sure a smart person would be able to break down some deeper psychological meaning to that.
I love the concept but would hesitate to live on the lower levels. Even above ground, sewage leaks can be horrendous - I couldn't imagine how bad that could get in failure/blackout conditions when the pumps can't remove waste from the lower levels.
If you join all the roofs of all the buildings in a city together, layer dirt on top for plants to grow, then you get Earth Scrapers. Floods and bush fire issues become a thing of the past. But earth quakes are the big issues. They'd need sheer lines, where the structure can sheer without destroying the structure, like how earthquake buildings have room to move relative to each other. So the infrastructure between buildings, strengthening them, would need to be like that base of earthquake proof buildings.
I feel like this increases the chances of sinkholes, and makes earthquakes way more dangerous. Also, this sounds bad for both the insects and soil health. Repairing things seems like it would be annoying, too.
As opposed to what? Existing skyscrapers are already more vulnerable to earthquakes, destroy soil health, and insects. Is it possible that you are looking at change through the lens of Normalcy Bias,
@@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj Well, I'm already opposed to skyscrapers, honestly. I don't really think any building should be higher than 5 floors. I get why they have to be built a little, but they feel impractical and overkill.
+ i think highly costly needs more steel, pipes, pumping air from surface, more electricity, in case of leaking gases or a water pipe get damaged... Doesn't look safe and cheap .... So everything will remain a sci-fi scenario
Plenty of places dont have earthquakes or sinkholes. My city is is more or less build direcly on granite bedrock and plenty of buildings in downtown have 5-6 floors underground as well as a labyrinth of tunnels build during ww2. The only reason this is not the norm already is cost. Very efficient way to make use of space in areas of high landvalue.
It sounds kind of cool. Think about how much more natural space we can help to create if we move our buildings underground. Parks for us and preserves for plants and animals would be great.
Consider that you might need a special pass to go back to surface. But if you behave yourself, you might earn 2 hours of supervise park walk per week. Those rules will be in small print at the very bottom of the bottom.
I don't live in a city and I won't ever. Getting stuck in traffic or surrounded by rude self centered people doesn't sound like an enjoyable life. I'll take trees and people who know they are going to see you again so politeness is key, any day. Lol
One major issue is claustrophobia and isolation. Consider a major issue in major cities of people feeling or actually being isolated within the urban environment. Now put them in a confined space underground. Challenges of light and vegetation aside, I can see a huge problem with people going insane living underground. I also see other issues with this kind of megastructure city planning. Having seen critiques by architects about the Line city in Saudi Arabia or other similar megastructure cities, this idea is cool but I feel it would flop in practice.
The thing is it costs a lot of recourses to build this and we already have skyscrapers build in a lot of places. Especially all these extra things that have to be taken care of, like the advanced systems for water and earthquakes, will take lots of extra recourses to build. I'm not an expert but I don't know if the pros will outweigh the cons.
I've often wondered how the residents in ancient underground cities like Derenkuyu got their oxygen, before the invention of air pumping systems. Seems like the CO2 from all the breathing people and animals being housed underground would accumulate in the lower levels and would have suffocated everyone. The amount of oxygen consumed, and CO2 emitted, by one human in a day is massive.
Hey Thoughty2, could you make a video about Sergei Krikalev. The man who was lost in space for 311 days because the Soviet Union collapsed and they couldn’t bring him back down to Earth.
he was never "lost" he maintained contact with ground control the entire time.. USSR dissolved Dec 26 and he returned March 25, so 3 months he was stranded. 311 was the total mission length
Underground storage, car parking or maybe shopping mall - very cool idea. Living underground ? - who of those rich millionares will sell their lofts in sky scrapers and go live underground ? I want see that.
If cities move underground, I will become that weird bearded old guy living on top of the giant oak tree - located in the only Nature Park at earth ground level...
I suggested to a friend many years ago that repurposing old open pit mines as cities would be a much better use of the spice. After all, you've already got a huge, deep hole with roads and access already there. Instead of filling it in our letting it become a lake over time why not start constructing buildings in the bottom, slowly filling it all the way to the top and cover with a glass dome that would allow some light in but also generate electricity with solar panels and wind turbines?
Funny thing about those damping system in Japanese high-rises... they work because there's a structure sticking up into the air independent of the ground (aside from its base). Going down into the ground, you've got a whole different set of problems. I also think it's kind of funny that Mexico City wants to dig down, when Lake Texcoco and Lake Xochimilco seem hell-bent on recovering their ancient lakebeds with new versions of themselves... 🙂 Some of the ocean-based "let's go down instead of up" construction projects look a bit more hopeful, assuming waste heat & general wastes can be handled properly. I'm *not* saying earthscrapers are impossible or always a bad idea, I just think that they way they're presented here is far too over-simplified.
I'm watching it. The first thing I thought of was how unhealthy it would be to live underground from the scenes from Silo. All the people looked pale and unhealthy. No sunlight and breathing recycled dank air.
The concept, as portrayed here, is on the right track, but it's individualized design philosphy is unnecessarily expensive and still makes the mistake of dividing this "subterranean" space with expensive dirt walls and retaining walls. The ideal concept for this is to excavate a singular massive basement with a massive unified structure in it, and then put a living green roof on top of it all. I've been working on this concept in AutoCAD for about 3 years now and hope to start sharing renderings soon. PS: I also feel like mentioning that we need to get away from burying utility lines in dirt as well. It's literally the worst possible environment for this expensive infrastructure and it's no wonder cities spend millions to billions of dollars digging up the ground year-round to try and keep up with it. All of it should be indoors, inside our unified structure, where lines we're currently replacing every couple of decades, due to premature failure, could in fact last longer than a century without issue.
Yeah, or we could stop diluting our metals with inferior metals first! We could stop spraying our electrical components with zinc amalgamates that purposely make them fail! The world is trying to go electric on worse components than they had in 1920! Our landfills are filled with broken electronics that degrade every two years and cost a fortune to replace! You think this is going to be good for environment when we add unnecessary factory processes, strip mine cobalt without wetting it down so the tiny metal particles don't go airborne, or wind up in the ocean, ooh and we're really going to have it bad with the wasted solar panels, wind turbines and battery waste, can't wait until that starts degrading and leeching everywhere! And how the F are we going to keep our parts greased and lubed without petroleum? I don't think the vegans are going to let us go back to using animal fats! F there's so much that could be done to fix the problems before they drive us underground, but it's like they're going the complete opposite direction! They want to drive us into some kind of totalitarian prison! It's sooooo obvious! They aren't doing this science for the betterment of mankind, they are doing Mad Science!
This reminds me Isaac Asimov's "steel cave cities" in his Robot novel series. While an underground city idea is interesting, I don't think many people would want to live there. It's too claustrophobic for lots of people. No sky, no wind, only filtered air etc. Also even if one thing goes wrong it would be a disaster with no escape route. But it might be a very good solution if someday we start to colonize planets with no breathable air. If we want more open space in our cities we should focus on decreasing the population, because we humans breed too much, especialy in uneducated societies and underdeveloped countries. Breeding and invading nature like grasshoppers is dooming our future.
1. air flow/humidity 2. sunlight 3. costs 3. depressing If we are to give it a sci-fi pass, the issues with living underground with no natural sunlight would require generations or social and genetic change, and we're not even considering the engineering challenges. With the same amount of effort, you could solve the pervading issues that prevent us from optimizing our use of space on the surface. The answer is not building down instead of up. It's a fantastical solution as in, it can only exist in the realm of fiction. Costs increase exponentially as you go building further underground as certain things you take as a given will need to be delivered, produced or removed in there. You keep saying "there will be" but you're not asking yourself "how". Even fantasy dictates you would need some sort of apocalypse happening on the surface to push people underground. It's a hostile place, only readily available to exploit if you're playing Minecraft or analogue where building and living underground is as difficult as holding the left mouse button for a while and putting a trap door as entrance. Until convenience will surpass costs, building upwards will always be better.
As a northerner where we routinely deal with SAD, my first thought was “but what about bioavailable vitamin D? You only get that from adequate sun exposure.”
In Mexico City I really don’t think that will ever happen. There would be an uproar. Many people would consider sacrilege to even dare touch that place. And then, the massive amount of traffic it would generate over such a long period of time while it’s being built.
Since there are natural sinkholes R they worth checking out to put in an earthscraper. I understand sinkholes are weak unstable soil but if it makes it easier to make them stable instead of taking the time to dig down, y not?
Not to mention that the urban cemetery could flourish literally... off the window, thus substantiating the Platonic idea that life is but a preparation for death.
As much as I would enjoy underground living, I could see this going south, where only the rich live on the surface, enjoying the sun and weather. While others live far below and have to travel up at a cost
Earthscrapers sound interesting, but also supremely expensive. Central Texas doesn't have basements to any of our buildings because the limestone is so hard to dig in. Pools are usually blasted into the ground. It's expensive
You know the underground will become a poverty stricken zone while the surface will become highly sought after and too expensive for anyone underground to achieve
The book The Time Machine by H.G. Wells covered this and implied that the poor went underground, and the wealthy literally got the high ground, and the two groups [spoiler] evolved into two separate species over millenia. While those developments technically fixed the problem per se, it sets a very dystopian precedent, in my opinion.
‘Parks bestow bountiful benefits on residents in cities’, yes, but just think how much money developing them bestows in back handers to planning authorities and politicians 😮😮😮
First time I heard about this idea was in 2020 im personally really interested in it I'd absolutely love to live in a building like this the ideas that could be done are fascinating
We need young people to! I feel like I'm too claustrophobic and despite my allergies I need fresh air and nature. It ought to be warmer and honestly snow free in winter which I hate!
A funnel shape would be better than an underground tunnel. The top can then be strategically capped so that light and air can get in, and the temperature can be controlled. The water reservoir at the bottom can be used for growing, drinking, washing, and cooling. Excess can then be pumped out and sold or dumped into nature.
I wrote a short story with a detailed description of “earthscrapers” (though I didn’t call them that) and how they might function. That was years ago and I always thought, if this becomes a thing and I don’t participate I’m going to be pissed. So, I’ve got ideas! Sign me up!!
It only starts to make sense if you had safe efficient energy, to drive the environmental system and lights, but in a confined space like a city, renewable wouldn’t work at that density, a SMR of a Thorium Molten Salt Reactors for a area with manufacturing, or a Focus Fusion reactor for residential facility when it becomes available.
11:39 Kansas City, Missouri also has a series of underground parts of the city, although it's more a Free trade Zone Warehouse district/Film Archive/Stamp Archive/etc. it is called: SubTropolis
Putting *some* things underground makes sense. Offices, sport stadiums, shopping centers.... And if you move transportation networks underground then the earth will be much less congested
