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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?
(Score: 1) by lcall on Monday July 25 2016, @09:02PM
People said very many false things be cause they felt threatened. People continue to say many things, on both sides. Wikipedia has a more balanced treatment, in what I've seen at least, and is full of references. The main thing is to find out for oneself as described in my other post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @08:21AM
Wikipedia has a more balanced treatment, in what I've seen at least,
Well, of course, my dear Elder! Anyone can edit the Wikipedia entry, and no doubt the Elect have assigned a crack unit of Mormon Internet Missionaries to the task. But, this does not fool anyone, you know. I, for one, am personally aware that Joseph Smith once had carnal knowledge of a horse, because an Angel with a flaming sword forced him to. True story! Look for it soon on Wikipedia!
(Oh, Kolab? Not a real planet. Oh, Jesus? Son of God, so God. Satan? Angel, a creature of God, so not a God. President of the Church of the Latter Day Saints? Just Late, latter as in late, as in slow, as in retarded. Maybe you should consider Scientology? )
(Score: 1) by lcall on Tuesday July 26 2016, @02:39PM
Wkp can be useful as a way to refer to further references without having to rewrite them all myself, which is the use I had in mind here. It's easy to mock. The information is available for anyone whose purpose is to learn. I know what I have experienced and learned for myself over many years. Thanks for the discussion and best wishes.
(ps, off-topic: I provide source code for my AGPL personal organizer at https://github.com/onemodel/onemodel [github.com] , tutorials & FAQs etc are at http://onemodel.org [onemodel.org] . Like emacs org mode today in some ways, but stores info in postgres for present & big future capabilities that I missed there, like an easier UI, treating data like adhoc-modeled OO, and (hopefully this year or next) structured sharing between instances.)