h a l f b a k e r yNot so much a thought experiment as a single neuron misfire.
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Dig away the old fill dirt, and place the city of Atlanta on tracks. Then it can be pushed to the coast in the summertime. When there’s a tornado warning, push the city out of the way. Tracks can cross for movement in any of several directions. Move cities together for ease of commute, then back
in their spots on the weekend.
When Atlanta, Georgia was razed by General Sherman, the town was moved a short distance and rebuilt. Later, the old town was buried for the creation of viaducts for the train hub, and then built over the fill dirt. This city has a history of travel, which makes it a good test case for this idea.
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Just don't bother with any buffers at the
sea end of the track.... Once tested on
Atlanta, build the next set under Texas
and push hard. |
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I suspect that tidal motions might cause the entire city to rock back and forth. |
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James Blish came up with a similar idea in his book, "A Life For The Stars", although in that case the cities were capable of interstellar travel. |
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The idea of being able to evacuate an entire city by trundling it off to somewhere else is ingenious and worthy of further investigation. |
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The entry for mercury (Hg) in the Periodic Table of Science Fiction portrays a city moving over the surface of the planet Mercury to stay at a habitable temperature. Talk about baked! |
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... and irrational, as Mercury's day and year are the same length; one hemisphere is continuously illuminated. |
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The place to build a city would no doubt be somewhere in the Twilight Zone. |
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Ooops, we were thinking of the other one.... errr, what's it called.... axis of roatation is in the plane of the ecliptic..... is that Neptune ? |
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