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Construct artificial continents and islands on top of the natural ones, with shock absorbing roller bearings in between (leaving a gap of 500 - 1000m), then scrape off all the landscape from the natural surface (leaving it smooth and flat) and put it on the top of the fake one, leaving the lower surface
exposed and handy for industrial plant, transportation and power distribution systems, and mineral extraction, like a sort of large scale roof garden built over an underground car park
There would be steps or ladders at the edges, of course, and lifts and other accessways in the centre.
The edges would be open to allow ventilation.
large scale perforation lines
large_20scale_20perforation_20lines
The inspiration for this idea [8th of 7, Oct 29 2009]
[link]
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Why stop there? Process magma into successive layers of industrial systems, until all that is left is a vast cuboid structure. [] requires magic robots. |
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[marklar-for-deletion] to(o?) expensive. |
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Since when has expense been an issue? |
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"The edges would be open to allow ventilation."
For what? |
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Would't it be easier just to start tunneling from the west coast, leaving a trail of ball bearings in your wake? Saves you a lot of dirt moving. |
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We could call them incontinents. |
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// dislike the idea of scraping the landscape off // |
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The landscape wouldn't be damaged. If you don't like the scraping idea, then it might be possible to undercut the landscape in sections, and then just lift it up in chunks, completely undamaged - a bit like lifting the icing off a cake, but with a much bigger knife. |
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This is kind of baked in Venice, but lifting sounds like a much better idea. I think you could start with Holland and then do some of those Malaysian islands that are going under. As an added bonus this would probably be great Tsunami protection. (+) |
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You would need to go mine asteroids for enough material to make your new continents out of. And the weight increase on each continent would likely have some interesting effects on vulcanism and plate tectonics... |
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//a bit like lifting the icing off a cake// Hmm... I suppose it works for turf. You'd just need to scale it up for deeper root systems. I wonder whether you could store and transport it in rolls, like turf. |
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What are the rollers for? |
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Moving the continents around, of course |
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//incontinents//
<snigger> |
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That's true, if you lifted all the land masses, with enough soil to support trees, how much would that increase the inertial moment and slow its rotation? |
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Are not cities doing this but in a more stylised and
unconnected way? |
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Somebody would set up winches in Dover & Calais, and have a tugging contest. Pretty soon, [8th] could sleepwalk to the vinyards of Bordeaux... if it weren't for the razor wire and guards around his "flat". |
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Since the french couldn't pull the skin of a rice pudding, that contest is likely to be a bit one-sided. Nothing wrong with that, of course. |
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Besides, Calais is a pest-hole. Rouen might be a better destination. |
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// until all that is left is a vast cuboid structure // |
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Bugger, we've been sussed. We would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that pesky [sninctown] ..... |
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