In this thread the goal is to make construction project that are WAY oversized and preferably world changing on a gigantic scale, but don't require ASB intervention.
Construction Wank
- Thread starter Mike Stearns
- Start date
Max Sinister
Banned
I suggest a tunnel under the Atlantic, for a vacuum maglev. (It's wank, but going from Europe to America with 10000 km/hour would be so cool...)
NapoleonXIV
Banned
The Greater Asteroid Belt Mining Co.
Bringing Asteroids to Earth Geosynchoronous Orbit, shipping Gold and Uranium down the Space Elevator. (Since 2125)
Bringing Asteroids to Earth Geosynchoronous Orbit, shipping Gold and Uranium down the Space Elevator. (Since 2125)
The Ryugyong Hotel. It had planned for 3,000 rooms and 7 revolving restaurants, and cost 2% of the national budget but in 92 construction stopped due to lack of funding, acute electricity shortages, and the prevailing famine.
A firm, the Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management Co., was established to attract a hoped for 230 million dollars in foreign investment. A representative for the North Korean government promised relaxed oversight, saying, "The foreign investors can even operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges if they want to."
A firm, the Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management Co., was established to attract a hoped for 230 million dollars in foreign investment. A representative for the North Korean government promised relaxed oversight, saying, "The foreign investors can even operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges if they want to."
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If you are looking for something that is world changing in a very literal sense, then you have to look for Terraforming projects, which, I could imagine, are very frequently discussed in the Future History Forum. The Terraforming of Mars is the subject of a science fiction trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, the books are called Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. I would not call terraforming plans "construction wank", because, as far as I know, the people who describe these plans generally know and concede that these are plans for the far future. An introduction can be found in this wikipedia article on Terraforming.
Something that was probably not beyond the technology of its day but meets the "way oversized" criterion quite perfectly - Hitlers project of a wide track railway.
If you want to compare the size of a human being or a "normal" locomotive with those projected for Hitler look at this.
And then there is the freedomship.
The little thingie on its starboard side is a present-day luxury cruiser.
One guy who discussed the more
dreamlike or visionary aspects of this project on one of his websites seems to have been forced to close it down, so I am
not applying a certain W-word to this gargantuan scheme. Let's just say that there are no port facilities for this fine feat of maritime engineering and let's also praise it for annihilating the elitist or snob appeal of smaller cruise ships by crowding 70.000 individuals into one ship.
Something that was probably not beyond the technology of its day but meets the "way oversized" criterion quite perfectly - Hitlers project of a wide track railway.
If you want to compare the size of a human being or a "normal" locomotive with those projected for Hitler look at this.
And then there is the freedomship.
The little thingie on its starboard side is a present-day luxury cruiser.
One guy who discussed the more
dreamlike or visionary aspects of this project on one of his websites seems to have been forced to close it down, so I am not applying a certain W-word to this gargantuan scheme. Let's just say that there are no port facilities for this fine feat of maritime engineering and let's also praise it for annihilating the elitist or snob appeal of smaller cruise ships by crowding 70.000 individuals into one ship.
Throw in Alantropa and a bunch of the Plowshare projects...
Not sure if you had it included, but if not:
The Congo Dam!
http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html : the Ultima Tower would be an interesting thing to see, and what about an orbital elevator?
Dr. Strangelove
Banned
Le Corbusier's Ville Contemporaine for 3 million people:
And its adaptation for a real project., the Plan Voisin for Paris: let's blow up downtown Paris except the monuments, then let's substitute it with skyscrapers and parks:
And its adaptation for a real project., the Plan Voisin for Paris: let's blow up downtown Paris except the monuments, then let's substitute it with skyscrapers and parks:
I assume you mean a gravity train? If so, yeah that would definetly fall under the category of construction wank.
Re: super-broad gauge railway
It does look pretty magnificent. I'm pretty sure Brunel tried to get the government interested in a broader standard gauge, but was ignored or rejected. I found another site (in German) with a few more pictures. The most interesting of which may well be the attached.
Why would you do that? Why?
It does look pretty magnificent. I'm pretty sure Brunel tried to get the government interested in a broader standard gauge, but was ignored or rejected. I found another site (in German) with a few more pictures. The most interesting of which may well be the attached.
Why would you do that? Why?
For some reason, it reminds me of the Soviet Union's massive canal system, which allowed many of the Soviet Union's big ocean-going ships to be constructed thousands of miles inland.
I don't know, but you have to admit that it would be be pretty damn impressive.
Hmm. That I didn't know.
I just thought - would the Sea Dragon count?
I think a rocket weighing about 18,000 tonnes fully fuelled counts, simply by virtue of being so much larger than even a Saturn V or an N1.
I mean, look at these for comparison (scroll down. I would attach them but it won't work
). These are to about the same scale.Insane. But so nice!