Holy Skyscrapers Batman!

[Koshaw]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbc ... 90386/1008

[Jarden]

That's just like that Sky City the Japanese are thinking of building.
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/en ... ctive.html

[Fenrir]

I seriously don't trust those buildings' stability

[Scott Gardener]

I'm less worried about stability and more security. Interesting new buildings are likely to be targets. We here in the U.S. are still getting over that plane crash thingy.

Still, I'm happy to see both projects getting going. The U.S. needs more interesting architecture instead of more plain Lego pillars, and Japan needs all the land it can spare. It looks like the Tokyo design is intended to absorb vibrations from earthquakes. But, I hope it can handle the occasional typhoon. (Considering I spent about 22 1/2 hours of last year evacuating from our version of the things.)

I'm mostly confident that the architects have already thought of these things. But, human engineering, as marvelous as it may seem, is by no means perfect.

Probably the ultimate skyscraper would have to be the Space Elevator concept. It's 57,000 miles tall.

Image: http://www.mondolithic.com/06Gallery08.htm

Article: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology ... 327-1.html

[Set]

Probably the ultimate skyscraper would have to be the Space Elevator concept. It's 57,000 miles tall.

Being the optimist I am, I can't help but seeing just how many ways that could go horribly wrong...

[Scott Gardener]

It's only a ten billion dollar project. (That's about 163.9 Freeborns.) Still, that's cheaper than the Space Shuttle program, which, obviously, has its own fair share of opportunities for things to go wrong.