From: Patrick Salsbury (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 03/20/00
Message-Id: <200003201017.CAA00799@bootstrap.sculptors.com> Subject: Re: The road problem Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 02:17:21 -0800 From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com>
Jim sent me some notes about a month ago, and he poses some good
thoughts and questions, so I thought I'd answer them here, where
others can join in or take the thoughts in new directions...
(Jim, aren't you glad we did that live chat session a few weeks ago?
I *told* you it'd be a while before I answered these... :-) Current
mail count: 1027 unseen messages. Sheesh! Wish I could just
keep up with how fast they come in...)
> Hi,
> I've been reading reality.sculptors.com, more specifically (just now)
> http://reality.sculptors.com/~salsbury/House/housing.txt
> Cool stuff. Nice to see that other people besides me are psyched up to
> do some reality sculpting.
>
> As far as this problem goes,
> "This does bring to mind one question, though. J. Baldwin
> (author of "BuckyWorks") posed this one to me recently at a
> conference, and I don't yet have a good answer: 'How do you sever the
> last umbilical? How do you get rid of the need for roads?'",
>
> ... I'm really not sure. But it's connected to a larger problem, which
> is the need for physical land space. People feel the need to gather, but
> also to have personal space (these two needs vary in importance
> depending on the population you're talking about...). Lots of people
> need better living options; but where are we going to put them?
> F'r'instance, a huge (and ever-increasing) proportion of the global
> population lives in cities, which are pretty much the antithesis of the
> autonomous house idea. Where would they all go if they had autonomous
> housing?
Actually, I just heard a stat that about 70% of the world's
population lives in rural zones, leaving only 30% in the urban/
suburban areas. And really, only about 25% of the earth's surface is
land, so that would be more like 12.5% urban, but really, the
majority of humans only live in the relatively cold/temperate/
tropical regions. Sure, we've got people at the South Pole, but only
a couple dozen of them. (And they live in a really cool 45 meter dome!
;^) ) And if you look at a globe, you'll see that roughly half of
the earth's land is frozen under ice sheets either in Antarctica, or
the frigid northern regions of Canada and Russia. There's a *LOT* of
land that's unpopulated, or extremely low-populated.
I actually ponder about the overall health of cities. When
you look at large-scale urban habitation, most of the support systems
break down after a certain size. Then you have crime, pollution
(water/air/ground), and a litany of other problems. I think
autonomous housing might provide a way (for those who want to) to go
back to a smaller, friendlier, more tribal-sized community.
But to be honest, the autonomous houses should work just as
well sitting on top of a skyscraper in Manhattan as they would on top
of Mt. Fuji. (Although Mt. Fuji is going to have decidedly cleaner
air. ;^) )
People could get an autonomous house, park it on top of a
building (Bucky actually lived on top of a 20-story building in NYC
for a time, back around the 1930's or 40's, I think.) and not have to
worry about an electric bill, water bill, etc.
> I wonder if we could follow the quasi-pipe-dream of a mass migration to
> the oceans; floating a-houses in a loose and ever-changing network,
> drifting with currents, tethered to an anchor, or roped together in
> enormous mats or pods or islands... travel by fast efficient
> watercraft... there's certainly plenty of room on the ocean surface to
> put housing. I'm not sure how exactly one goes about making a stable
> floating house though; it would probably have to be that more house-like
> units would have to be for larger communities simply for stability
> reasons, and versions sized for one or a few families could be more
> boat-like.
> Or why not make it modular, like I was sort of getting to before?!
> Somewhat boat-like housing that also locks together to form bigger
> structures, allowing easy and rapid construction of bigger structures
> for community gatherings, storm shelter, etc. as well as easy and rapid
> departure if someone gets wanderlust again...
> Hmmm. I need to get more sleep. Let me know what you think
> --Jim
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a
> human soul in this world--and never will. --Mark Twain
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> jmorash_at_mit.edu http://web.mit.edu/jmorash/www
>
I think you're on exactly the right wavelength. :-)
There are some hull designs for how you could join floating
parts into a larger whole at:
http://reality.sculptors.com/~salsbury/Oceana/index.html#hulls
I would like to see these things take to the oceans,
eventually, but that may be a little farther down the road. Say,
perhaps by version 3.0 of the house? Might be a good time to plan out
the major stages. I'm thinking of something roughly like this:
1.0 - First rev of the house. Should survive in most places on land
around the earth. May not be completely suited yet for extreme tundra
environments, but we'll see.
2.0 - ??? Not sure exactly what would constitute a major revision
here to warrant a full point-rev. I'm sure it will present itself as
time goes on. :-) Perhaps a version that can float under its own
balloon and fly around the atmosphere. Imagine spending several
months aloft with beautiful sunrises & sunsets!
3.0 - Self sustaining anywhere on the earth, including the ocean
surfaces.
4.0 - Works under the ocean as well, to a certain depth. Opens up new
possibilities for ocean researchers.
5.0 - Offworld. Should now be able to deposit one on the moon or
Mars, and have it work with self-contained supplies of air/water/etc.
6.0 - (Possibly at same level as 5.0?) Orbital modules. Once you've
got the atmospherics worked out and radiation shielding in deep
space, you can begin to look at linking them up into larger
space-habitats, too.
Pat
___________________Think For Yourself____________________
Patrick G. Salsbury - http://reality.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
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