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I propose to build a skyscraper downwards. Maybe use a disused mineshaft. Obviously the view out of the windows would be pretty abysmal and so I propose to build a tower above the skyscraper onto which I would mount HD cameras at an elevation above ground corresponding to your depth below it. These are
connected to giant HD TV sets replacing your windows such that (apart from the eriee feeling that you get when the elevator goes down when you think it shuold be going up) you do not know that you are not up in a high building.
In fact, with the dawn of the interwebs you could chose where to have your apartment - Your 'windows' could be connected to a tower in Hawaii or even Paris!
Underground City
Subterranean_20Civilization
...which may well be the idea I was thinking of. [DrCurry, Sep 12 2007]
World's first 'ground-scraper' hotel
https://www.abc.net...n-shanghai/10510522
[xaviergisz, Nov 19 2018]
We're gonna need a bigger building...
https://imgur.com/gallery/kVijn6r
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 21 2018]
[link]
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Why not just one camera on a tethered balloon so that everyone can have a penthouse view? |
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You get what you pay for. (Near to the-)ground floors are cheaper than the (basement) Penthouses. |
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Build them at sea - avoids the need to
excavate. |
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Why couldn't you do this with conventional high-rises? Particularly in a crowded downtown core where your 20th floor view might simply be 3 other skyscrapers. |
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There would have to be some monitoring of choices for the "windows" so the perv on the 13th floor doesn't look out into a girls dorm somewhere. |
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I'll have mine scrolling through a sunny summer day in Vancouver, a crisp fall morning at Niagara Falls, sunset over a snowy Whistler Mountain, and springtime in Halifax. |
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//a crowded downtown core where your
20th floor view might simply be 3 other
skyscrapers.// This gives me an idea... |
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I've read about this in books before--science-fiction, mostly. I recall one where the "window" was the screen of a film-type projector, and the film burned, melted and broke in the middle of a conference--to the folks who didn't realize what was happening, it looked like the end of the world. |
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Plasma screen TVs are everywhere now. They are windowlike. What is needed are highdefinition webcams in picturesque areas to provide the feed for plasma screen windows. |
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I could imagine unused plasma screen TVs defaulting to this as a sort of screen saver. It would be nice to watch the progress of the sun over the mountains as you went about your business. |
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I am sure that someone posted this idea before, although I cannot now find it - probably lost in one or other account deletion or server crash. |
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Oddly enough, building downwards does not remove the problems you face in building up - structural safety, emergency exiting, power and light, air supply. Add in that most people get claustrophobia living underground, and the whole thing becomes unattractive. |
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Not really a skyscraper though, is it? Going to have to have a new name. |
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dirtscraper? holescraper. how about wormscraper? |
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The main reason that I got this idea was to avoid another 9/11 type incident. |
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"Sir, one of our tunnel diggers has just been hijacked." "My god, if we don't do something in the next 72 hours it'll be carnage." |
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And the fire escape goes where? |
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Down. No wait, up. Yes that's it, up. That was a tricky one, I really had to think about thaT. |
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Sorry. To clarify - If there was a fire at ground level (or near to) the people on the floors below do what? |
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aren't they all "ground level?" |
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buttscraper? you sure you annoed the right idea, [drc]? |
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// If there was a fire at ground level (or near to) the people on the floors below do what?
// |
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the same as those in a normal skyscraper. |
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Google on "alice city" I think the plasma screen widows could help with the whole claustrophobic thing. |
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//The main reason that I got this idea was to avoid another 9/11 type incident.// |
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Terrorists tend to use the element of surprise to their advantage. They never strike the same same way twice. |
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They could probably come up with a hundred ways of killing people in an deep underground building (=giant human trap) that are easier than hijacking a plane. |
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One example: They could block the air vents and fill the building with nerve gas. |
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The problem with building downwards is cost. It is actually more expensive to dig down through hard rock than to build up (not to mention issues with flooding if you go down far enough to hit the water table). That being said I swear I saw a special on exactly that being done with an unused mine some years ago, although I can't find any references at this point.
For a mine to work it has to be something where large volumes not narrow seams were pulled out, as mines are rarely dug any taller than absolutely neccesary. |
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And there's a problem with using monitors in place of
windows. Monitors cannot yet simulate the depth of field of
an actual view, and your brain is not fooled at all. |
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Why not build skyscrapers sideways? |
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Spent a year and a half tiling a 20 story building here. Before we started the tower they built show-suites with back-lit window boxes showing folks what the view from their potential apartments would look like from that elevation. |
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If the screens were substantially larger than the windows they are seen through it would fix that depth of field problem as long as they curved underneath so you could look down when you got close. |
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But why bother with electronic devices which 'will' fail at some point?
Why not periscopic windows? |
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//It is actually more expensive to dig down through
hard rock than to build up... |
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Someone will invent hard air, but not me at this time
in the morning. (goes to get more coffee) |
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//it would fix that depth of field problem// Not really. For
one thing there's parallax, and for another there's focussing
distance - your brain can tell whether your eyes are having
focus on something 3ft away versus 300ft. |
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//Why not build skyscrapers sideways?// |
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Actually, there was a fashion for those things in the 1990s. They
were called groundscrapers. I think the Merrill Lynch building in
Farringdon was an example. |
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// Not really. For one thing there's parallax// |
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Yes that one is a pickle. You could create a lenticular screen which projects two distinct images approximately a standard human eye separation distance but it would only work well on people with average eye spacing. |
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// and for another there's focussing distance - your brain can tell whether your eyes are having focus on something 3ft away versus 300ft// |
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Sure, when you get three feet away. Until then your brain would be telling your... other brain that what you was seeing was ligit but it's another reason for periscopes rather than screens. |
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Check out this link. Not entirely on-topic but not entirely off of it either... Give me a bit. |
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Ha! First hit...
...it's the little things y'know?
[link] |
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