This seems like a good setting for near-future SF, something for Peter Watts I reckon:
Petrobras plans to turn science fiction into reality to extract oil from the vast pre-salt oil fields discovered off the south east coast of Brazil.
...
The plan is to construct 'cities’ more than 2,000 metres under water, containing machines, giant pieces of equipment and robots that could inspect the systems being used to extract millions of barrels of oil. Many operations would be fully automated while others would be controlled by humans at a distance.
Petrobras plans to turn science fiction into reality to extract oil from the vast pre-salt oil fields discovered off the south east coast of Brazil.
...
The plan is to construct 'cities’ more than 2,000 metres under water, containing machines, giant pieces of equipment and robots that could inspect the systems being used to extract millions of barrels of oil. Many operations would be fully automated while others would be controlled by humans at a distance.
9 comments:
This is the kind of stuff that's going to get the worlds economy going again. The worlds needs challenging hi-tech sophisticated civilian projects. That could at some point bear fruit when we actually get our arses off of Earth and into our own solar system (and beyond hopefully).
Welcome to Rapture!
That just has to be a pic from Bioshock.
It's interesting reading the bits over on http://nextbigfuture.com/ about new gas and oil discoveries and production ramping up. The Hubbert Peak keeps on retreating into the future. It's just a shame that all the new discoveries and technologies are being hampered by the new religion.
Just a picture I snaffled after a search for underwater cities, Fader209.
Not to act like a downer but how economical is an underwater settlement? I can see it as an oil rig perhaps but I don't see it turning into a economical city. the upkeep cost would be that of a small nation.
As romantic as undersea and other world colonies sound I'm reminded of Bruce Sterling "I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert". Theres plenty of inhospitable places on land that are far easier to populate than an undersea or space colony.
Again, sorry for the downer
It's no downer, Ryan, they're actually talking about automated undersea plants, but it's nice to have a little SF dreaming.
When can we start moving in??
Seriously, i'd love to live in something like this, and it would be great practise/development platform for self sustaining extra terrestrial habitats where resources are available, but not in the necessary, ahem, formats...
(sob) i wanna live in the Polityyyyy
PS upkeep costs are an artificial construct, just like time, deities and democracy...when the AI's take over, we'll build it just because we can.
(sob)
Neal, you've ruined my life, because you wrote basically my life long political fantasy and I'll never be happy until I get to live there (and meet a gabbleduck...) lol, i'm such an sf dork
"when the AI's take over, we'll build it just because we can"
I agree Nate. If we had AI and robot workers the cost for everything after becomes zero in terms of human effort.
Neal is there any particular part of your books that describe the economy of the polity? Personal funds and money are mentioned a lot and I seem to remember reading that the AIs use a horrifically complex ecology of equations to distribute resources but ive always wondered how the average polity citizen earns/recieves money. I get the impression its a bit of a capitalist system with extensive wellfare so that money is only needed for luxuries.
a docu where robots get sick, one commits suicide, then replaced by "bio robots". all this and Chernobyl:
http://tinyurl.com/23qmyj6
stick with the docu, there's a lot of between the lines stuff going on.
Brasil is seriously moving up the line financially. being a catholic country they are sorta fukt since the population may always exceed the means to support it.
a saying from Rio:
"Eles tem filhos no chao, um na barriga e meia duzia mais no pensamento"
"There's kids out on the floor, one in the belly, and half a dozen more in their thoughts"
Post a Comment