Proposed Ideas in history too unrealistic to work

There were many proposed ideas or proposals in history. From merging or splitting a nation, to a new invention.

However, there are some ideas, that the guy proposing thought it was a good idea, but in reality, was too outlandish or insane to ever happen

So, what are some ideas you read about, that seemed interesting, but was just unrealistic to ever happen?
 
There were many proposed ideas or proposals in history. From merging or splitting a nation, to a new invention.

However, there are some ideas, that the guy proposing thought it was a good idea, but in reality, was too outlandish or insane to ever happen

So, what are some ideas you read about, that seemed interesting, but was just unrealistic to ever happen?
Does Joshua Abraham Norton declaring himself Emperor Norton the first of the United States, and Protector of Mexico count? He seemed to think his rule would resolve the issues which faced the United States at the time. He was even apparently recognized by the Hawaiian monarchy instead of the legitimate United States government.
 
Have we mentioned Habakkuk yet?
Or Project Ploughshare?
Or my personal favorite, sadly lacking its own wikipedia page, Geoffrey Pyke's proposal to sedate troops (and presumably fit them with SCUBA gear or something) in order to send them across the channel to the Normandy beachhead by propelling them through pipelines?
(His cousin Magnus Pyke's proposal to use a temporary surplus of blood available in blood banks for transfusions at the end of the Battle of Britain to create Black Pudding to feed the British civilian population is up there to, now that I think about it.)
 
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[ Families will live in luxurious 20'×21' two-story concrete apartments, with electric monorails in the basement and a promenade for walking or bicycling on the roof. ]

[ Oh, and with built-in vacuum cleaners and an electric bed-making machine that automatically hangs the mattress out the window to air out each morning ]
 
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Surprised no one has mentioned Generalplan Ost yet. The whole scheme was a smorgasbord of utterly insane and impractical ideas, and yet it was perhaps the closest of all these to being at least partially implemented. Some features of the plan included:
  • Turning Moscow into a huge reservoir and annihilating every other major city in the Soviet Union
  • Drastically reducing Germany's population density by forcing the population out of cities and into small towns and farms
  • Linking the conquered territories together by massive trains on 3 meter gauge tracks
  • The ultimate extermination of 100 million+ conquered Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, etc. through starvation and the deportation of millions more into Siberia
  • A "wehrbauer" culture of armed peasants living in perpetual warfare (now I know where Starship Troopers got its inspiration)
Speaking of Russia, Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign was pretty fanciful as well.
 
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Surprised no one has mentioned Generalplan Ost yet. The whole scheme was a smorgasbord of utterly insane and impractical ideas, and yet it was perhaps the closest of all these to being at least partially implemented. Some features of the plan included:
  • Turning Moscow into a huge reservoir and annihilating every other major city in the Soviet Union
  • Drastically reducing Germany's population density by forcing the population out of cities and into small towns and farms
  • Linking the conquered territories together by massive trains on 3 meter gauge tracks
  • The ultimate annihilation of 100 million+ conquered Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, etc. through starvation and the deportation of millions more into Siberia
  • A "wehrbauer" culture of armed peasants living in perpetual warfare (now I know where Starship Troopers got its inspiration)
Speaking of Russia, Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign was pretty fanciful as well.
Thing was, the Virgin Lands Campaign was quite successful in a couple of growing seasons, in terms of crop yield... I'm tempted to say that with a few tweaks (and a few less loony ideas) and better organization (in distribution of tractors and equipment, etc), it could've been made more successful, or at least sustainable...
 
I'm quite surprised that no one has mentioned yet the most favorite controversial planned operation of WW2 of this forum... ;)😛
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Thing was, the Virgin Lands Campaign was quite successful in a couple of growing seasons, in terms of crop yield... I'm tempted to say that with a few tweaks (and a few less loony ideas) and better organization (in distribution of tractors and equipment, etc), it could've been made more successful, or at least sustainable...
Sure, it was marginally successful, but it also fell far short of the initial goals that were set. In fact, Khrushchev's plans for the Soviet Union in general were pretty far fetched - his dream of the Soviet Union surpassing the United States in wages, agricultural and industrial output, and overall quality of life by the end of the 20th century is pretty laughable in hindsight.
 
I think some us politician advocated for a super super battleship that is just way too heavy and big (and this js in the early 1900s if i remember it correctly)
 
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