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"We are coming to a point in our history in which we need to start looking for more space," Han Admiraal, a civil engineer with over two decades of experience in underground space, told AFP on the sidelines of this year's World Tunnel Congress.
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"Underground spaces could easily be used for growing crops," he said, as he toured the cavernous Bourbon Tunnel, dug deep under the Italian city of Naples as a potential escape route for King Ferdinand II of Bourbon after the 1848 riots.Scientific developments in areas like aquaponics—where vegetables and fish are farmed together—could help relieve the pressure on the food supply chain, and dramatically cut transport costs if such new farms were situated under cities.
Isn't excavation expensive?
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What if the Only Way is Down? Subterranean Survival Opportunity
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Hey, wait a minute!! I want a divorce!! ... you're not Clint Eastwood!!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 10 2019, @01:11AM (6 children)
With free energy, excavation is easy in rock and if you've got sand, just fuse it into rock with heat.
Turn the top kilometer of the Earth's crust into a foam of caverns, 3 dimensional cities with inverted towers - protected from weather and rogue airliners... grow food down there, low rent housing, warehouses, etc. You can put all the lighting down there you want/need, control the temperature and humidity - if we get really good at material science we can even reject waste heat into the core, helping to keep the mantle fluid.
Without free energy, we're pretty screwed. Even with free energy, the population growth of the last 100 years can't continue for the next 1000, there's just not enough volume in this rock to house that many human bodies.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JNCF on Friday May 10 2019, @01:55AM
If we were willing to get our hands dirty with uranium and chalk up a Chernobyl every once in a while to learning experience power wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday May 10 2019, @01:58AM (1 child)
With free energy and the capacity to direct it in large amounts over distance we are screwed in the first 5 minutes.
Tool, weapon... the distinction is only who is the unlucky who stands at the receiving end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 10 2019, @01:21PM
Sure, we've had the H bomb for ~70 years now, what we need is that amount of power harnessed into a distribution system like the electric grid, and no harmful pollution or waste byproducts.
Fusion power - 20 years away for the last 60.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 10 2019, @02:52AM
Magrathea?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday May 10 2019, @04:32AM (1 child)
I think that you would find that under your scenario heat would start to be a problem.
OTOH, if there's enough energy available, then space habitats could be just as large, or larger, than those underground cities, an could provide a wealth of different options that wouldn't be available underground, from slow trips to distant stars to topopolis. You might need to be a bit out from the sun, but with enough energy that ceases to be a problem. And excess heat can easily be radiated.
For that matter, if energy ceased being expensive, building in space might be a lot cheaper. You wouldn't need to pay someone else for the real estate.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Friday May 10 2019, @08:31AM
You wish!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford