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Saudi Arabia's City of the Future
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Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
posted
quote:

The Jetsons Come To Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince wants to fill a barren stretch of desert with a Jetsons-style city-state of the future. The project, outlined in planning documents produced by a group of U.S. consultants, is so ambitious that it incorporates some technologies that don’t even exist yet.

1. Flying Taxis: Scientists might take a flying taxi to work. “Driving is just for fun, no longer for transportation (e.g. driving Ferrari next to the coast with a nice view),” planning documents show.

2. Cloud Seeding: The desert won’t always feel like the desert. “Cloud seeding” could make it rain.

3. Robot Maids: Don’t worry about household chores. While scientists are at work, their homes would be cleaned by robot maids.

4. State-of-the-Art Medical Facilities: Scientists would work on a project to modify the human genome to make people stronger.

5. World Class Restaurants: There would be fine dining galore in a city with the “highest rate of Michelin-starred restaurants per inhabitant.”

6. Dinosaur Robots: Residents could visit a Jurassic Park-style island of robot reptiles.

7. Glow-in-the-Dark Sand: The crown prince wants a beach that glows in the dark, like the face of a watch.

8. Alcohol: Alcohol is banned in the rest of Saudi Arabia. But it likely won’t be here, say people familiar with the plan.

9. Robot Martial Arts: Robots would do more than just clean your house. They also could spar head to head in a “robo-cage fight,” one of many sports on offer.

10. Security: Cameras, drones and facial-recognition technology are planned to track everyone at all times.

11. Moon: A giant artificial moon would light up each night. One proposal suggests it could live-stream images from outer space, acting as an iconic landmark.


WSJ article - paywall


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 34814 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
(self-titled) semi-posting lurker
Minor Deity
Picture of ShiroKuro
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Can't get past the paywall (without some browser gymnastics) but...

So only scientists can live in this city? Confused


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Posts: 18302 | Location: not in Japan any more | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
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You can get to the article by going to Google News and doing a search for A Prince’s $500 Billion Desert Dream.


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We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home. - Australian Aboriginal proverb

Bazootiehead-in-training



 
Posts: 37702 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
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I can't get to it now either. Maybe somebody with a subscription will cut and paste?

The biggest problem I see is going to be water. Cloud seeding has not worked in the past and is not likely to work now. Desalinization is a possibility but on that scale it will take a tremendous amount of power.


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 34814 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"I've got morons on my team."

Mitt Romney
Minor Deity
Picture of Piano*Dad
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How 'bout a simpler idea:

Some people have more money than sense.

Engineered cities often work less well, much less well, than cities that have evolved slowly within dynamic societies.
 
Posts: 12490 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
(self-titled) semi-posting lurker
Minor Deity
Picture of ShiroKuro
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quote:
Engineered cities often work less well, much less well, than cities that have evolved slowly within dynamic societies.


That has always been my impression.

P.S. thanks for the tip, WTG, that's what I meant by browser gymnastics. I can actually access WSJ and most any other newspaper by going through my university's library website I'm just too lazy to perform that many clicks unless it's a piano ad. suave


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My piano recordings at Box.Net: https://app.box.com/s/j4rgyhn72uvluemg1m6u

 
Posts: 18302 | Location: not in Japan any more | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Mary Anna
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quote:
Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
I can actually access WSJ and most any other newspaper by going through my university's library website I'm just too lazy to perform that many clicks unless it's a piano ad. suave


Ditto.

Sometimes I'm amazed at what I can access through the university library. I'm even more amazed at how far students can get through the university system before they realize what's available to them.

I once told a PhD student that he could access the major newspapers through his student account at the library and he was gobsmacked. He had a master's degree in journalism from an Ivy League school, he had two nonfiction books in print, and he'd held an editorial position at a newspaper in one of the country's top ten markets. It had just never occurred to him that he had that resource.

We're drowning in information, y'all.


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Mary Anna Evans
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MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

 
Posts: 15502 | Location: Florida | Registered: 22 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
(self-titled) semi-posting lurker
Minor Deity
Picture of ShiroKuro
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I'm teaching online this summer, so students aren't on campus and they don't realize that if they access Google or Google Scholar through the library's webpages, they won't hit paywalls (for popular press or academic articles), or if they can find a title of an article they want, they can search for it directly through the library website and get it for free.

I have this information plastered all over the course in multiple spots, I have all the links, the how-tos, everything. But I always get a student who will say "I can't write this paper because I can't afford to pay for the sources." Bang Head


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My piano recordings at Box.Net: https://app.box.com/s/j4rgyhn72uvluemg1m6u

 
Posts: 18302 | Location: not in Japan any more | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Mikhailoh
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That 10th one...in a nation known for repression. What could go wrong?


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Posts: 13518 | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Axtremus
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Say, that "city-state of the future" wouldn't happen to also codify religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, and equal rights for women, would it?


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Posts: 12676 | Registered: 01 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of CHAS
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Want the robot maids.
The rest can wait.


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Posts: 25667 | Location: Still living at 9000 feet in the High Rockies of Colorado | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
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quote:
Originally posted by Axtremus:
Say, that "city-state of the future" wouldn't happen to also codify religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, and equal rights for women, would it?


Aside from the availability of liquor it sounds like the city would be the same as the rest of the country.


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 34814 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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