Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday July 23 2016, @11:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-certain-values-of-utopia dept.

Paraphrased: a Bloomberg Businessweek report that Nicole Antal, a librarian in Sharon, Vermont discovered that a Utah-based foundation had quietly purchased more than 900 acres of nearby farmland adjacent or close to the birthplace of Joseph Smith.

The mastermind of the purchases, a wealthy engineer named David Hall, made contact with Antal and was very forthcoming about his vision - sustainable, high-tech, high-density communities across the globe; with a trial run in Vermont based on the Plat of the City of Zion. While all that sounded a bit farfetched, Hall revealed that he already had more than 150 engineers working on technology and architecture for the project.

Vermont, famous for being fiercely proud, idealistic, and ornery (this guy being one of the more famous residents) were stirred into a frenzy, with the opposition concerned that Hall was attempting to start a cult.

Hall is a fourth-generation Mormon. "Joseph Smith was just the wildest guy out there," he says. "Lots of things he did were stupid, but in my view, he was a sage or a seer and didn't even understand what came to him." The more futuristic aspects of his plans include pedestrian communities which sustain individual privacy and views of nature. Rooftop farms will make use of advanced techniques drawn from marijuana cultivation, and box-shaped greenhouses will improve yields and prevent the spread of disease and insects. Ground-floor spaces will be occupied by businesses, all connected by enclosed walkways and space for moving "pods" that transport the sick and elderly.

The article is a bit long even for an adequate summary here, but there are many technological aspects of Hall's plans worth reading about, and it is refreshing to see that somebody is concentrating on the positive rather than the negative. What do you think?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 23 2016, @11:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 23 2016, @11:51PM (#379223)

    Get to what really matters! How many wives do we each get? (I'm assuming the engineers somehow fix the gender ratio for this to be possible [Robot wives are ok, especially if they come with off and mute switches])

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 23 2016, @11:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 23 2016, @11:54PM (#379225)

    Thanks to equality, the question we REALLY need to be asking is: How many Husbands is a woman allowed to have?

    Once you've sorted that out, and accounted for individual demand for a woman, the leftovers can go on to be wives to those crustry looking polygynist menfolk.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @01:41AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @01:41AM (#379250)

      You are only a century or two out of date with this idea -- check out Mark Twain's comments on females in general and his wife in particular (she might have been a bit of a nymphomaniac?) He was looking for help from other men to keep her satisfied...or so he wrote in one of his later books, sorry have forgotten the title.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @08:26AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @08:26AM (#379334)

        sorry have forgotten the title.

        I believe that one was "Cuckoldberry Finn".

    • (Score: 2) by jcross on Sunday July 24 2016, @09:02PM

      by jcross (4009) on Sunday July 24 2016, @09:02PM (#379506)

      Easily solved: a woman is allowed to have between 1.0 and 0.25 husbands ;).

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 24 2016, @12:12AM (#379230)

    Really, you don't want that.

    That much concentrated... femininity under one roof makes for frayed nerves and heavy drinking, which since it's Mormons, means you're fucked (no, not that).

    Actually happy to see people trying alternative communities again (seemed to be a lull lately). As it is, modern cities have stagnated and ossified. Need flesh blood.