https://motherboard.vice....xEkA80OyIU

Why We Should Build Cloud Cities on Venus

"At 50 kilometers up, Venus is remarkably Earth-like, excluding the need for any serious terraforming projects."

Geoffrey Landis, 59, of Columbus, Ohio, is a scientist and prolific science fiction writer. Last year, he was the recipient of the Robert A. Heinlein Award, given in honor of the sci-fi author; in 1992, he was awarded a Hugo, the sci-fi equivalent of the Pulitzer, and in 2011, he received a Hugo nomination for a short story entitled "The Sultan of the Clouds." A sci-fi tale with the sepia tints of Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, "Sultan" tells the story of a technician living on Mars named David Tinkerman as he accompanies his secret crush, the scientist Leah Hamakawa, on a mysterious voyage to the second planet from the Sun. Upon entering the atmosphere, Tinkerman describes what he sees:

"The surface of Venus is a place of crushing pressure and hellish temperature. Rise above it, though, ​and the pressure eases, the temperature cools. Fifty kilometers above the surface, at the base of the clouds, the temperature is tropical, and the pressure the same as Earth normal. Twenty kilometers above that, the air is thin and polar cold.
Drifting between these two levels are the ten thousand floating cities of Venus."

The first paragraph is completely accurate. The second is not, of course, but Landis, who has worked as a scientist at NASA for 26 years, has spent the last decade and a half attempting to change that.

Venus's gravity is 90 percent of Earth's, and it's easier to get to than Mars, reachable in just five months as opposed to nine for Mars.

At NASA, the idea of sending humans to Mars and Venus was first proposed in the run-up to Neil Armstrong's historic moonwalk, during the Apollo program, when the space agency was giddy with exploration and rich in funds. Public support for the space agency was also on its way to heights it would never otherwise reach. It had begun sending probes to Venus in 1961, as part of the Mariner program. For ​the human​s-to-Venus proposals, which would repurpose Apollo hardware, engineers determined that the three astronauts on board would only have time for between 45 minutes and two days for close observations. Even with nuclear engines (also theoretical) this wouldn't be enough time to make the 400-day trip worth it. Going the extra distance to Mars, meanwhile, was considered practically impossible. To explore these planets, robots would have to be enough.

A conceptual image of a terraformed Venus.

OMG.

Artist’s impression of a futuristic Dyson Shell structure under construction.






A Dyson Ring (left) is the first step in the construction process of a Dyson Swarm (right).



Artist’s conception of a stationary Dyson Bubble.




The Dyson Shell from Star Trek The Next Generation (Lol, where is that light coming from?)

I love how Star Trek used these concepts

onlyforaminute said:

Artist’s impression of a futuristic Dyson Shell structure under construction.



The Dyson Shell from Star Trek The Next Generation (Lol, where is that light coming from?)

Can that future be here already? They all look/sound great to me.

Wong Kim Yuen- On the Edge of Spaces: Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell , and Hong Kong's Cityscape

1. It is now widely acknowledged that Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982/ 1992) initiated a whole tradition of cult movies later grouped under the label "cyberpunk." Blade Runner's style draws its images from urban spaces all over the world, including such Asian cities as Tokyo and Hong Kong. Science fiction film critics are less aware, however, that when anime film director Mamoru Oshii was looking for a model of the city of the future in a computerized world, he turned for his primary inspiration to the cityscape of Hong Kong. Through his art designers, actual spots in the city of Hong Kong were transformed into the mise-en-scène of Ghost in the Shell, first released in the United States in March 1996.

https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/80/wong80art.htm

https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/80/wong80art.htm

The Analysis emphasizes that Ghost in the Shell 's artists made meticulous sketches on location before actual shooting, sketches that emphasized chaotic crowdedness and a mad profusion of signs and icons. Hong Kong seems to be the only city in the world with such a degree of confusion -- with gigantic signs and neon lights protruding into the space on and above the street and fighting for limited and precious visual space. The artist remarks on this phenomenon:

In the midst of the profusion of signs and the heat of the messy urban space, the streets are remarkably chaotic. Passers-by, shouts, cars, all kinds of mechanical noises and human "sound pollution," all merging into one, forcing itself into humans' central nervous systems through their ears. But why do people succumb to this "destructive" environment? Now that the artificial has replaced the natural, humans are like animals in the past, deprived of the characteristics of being human as a whole. Pulled directly into the whirlpool of information through the stimulation of visual and auditory senses, their feelings are henceforth numbed. On the other hand, countless mutually interfering and uncertain data pass through cables at light speed. This is the way informatics continues to expand its domain. Are people then like tiny insects caught in an enormous spider web? No, it cannot be. Humans are not tiny insects trying to escape from the web. It's not like that. In fact humans have willy-nilly become part and parcel of the spider web. Humans now have no idea of what their destination might be; they are like one of the silky-threads of the spider web. (Nozaki n.pag.)

OldFriends4Sale said:

I had to put this somewhere because it's funny.

Isn't that one ancient?

iZsaZsa said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Isn't that one ancient?

iZsaZsa said:

I don't know, I've never seen Star Wars. But there are some old things that always look like they're back from the future.





Never stop making these.

I really enjoyed ALTERED CARBON on Netflix.

Their dystopian society is very probable...with a small ruling elite of people so fantastically wealthy that they live forever and normal people struggling to make ends meet...

iZsaZsa said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Isn't that one ancient?

I don't know, I've never seen Star Wars. But there are some old things that always look like they're back from the future.

WHAAAAAA? never seen star wars? you must. I II II IV V VI are a must.

My favorite is II The Empire Strikes back. This was the SW movie that really broadcasted the vastness of that universe. I would visit Cloud City, Bespin

inspired from Hopi women hair styles

She could hide weapons in her hair.

I have this...




I can see this...

that is pretty cool

cocoon-like egg bed called ‘Lomme’ (abbreviation of « Light Over Matter Mind Evolution »). his naturally shaped shell combines state-of-the-art sleep enhancement technolog...

by Shayne Rana

Sleep technology is on the rise especially when you have companies like İşbir Bedding designing beds that incorporate all the comforts you’ll need along with a few gizmos and gadgets to help with entertainment. Their latest offering, the Eclipse Bed, is part of their Isber Bedding’s Style Series that not only looks fashionable for those who are into style, but includes some high-tech entertainment features that will cater to the technology enthusiast in you.

Designed to depict a lunar eclipse (depending on your viewing angle), the aptly named Eclipse Bed combines comforts with entertainment by incorporating a high-end music system and mount for a flat screen TV along with some creative lighting functionality. Although it might look a little large, the set seems to be designed to be stylish, functional and all-inclusive. Starting with the twin bed size 120 cm x 200 cm, the set is also produced in 150 cm x 200 cm, 160 cm x 200 cm, 180 cm x 200 cm and 200 cm x 200 cm double bed sizes in a single base design are fully compatible with all mattress sizes and types available with company.

http://luxurylaunches.com...in-bed.php

I just started watching. This show could be a part of the Blade Runner universe @ the same time, talking about the original.

1 1/2 of me would attempt to explore every nook of this city

the other half would feel really lost lonely helpless

PurpleJedi said:

I really enjoyed ALTERED CARBON on Netflix.

Their dystopian society is very probable...with a small ruling elite of people so fantastically wealthy that they live forever and normal people struggling to make ends meet...

There is so much mirroring in this movie and Blade Runner

They are doing a really good job with this show. No androids (yet?)

the use of the saxophone, the 1st man accounts of things, the mix of future and 1940s/50s deco, the shade/shadows/smoke, the synth background sounds, the Asian/Latin expressions

so many similarities

PurpleJedi said:

I really enjoyed ALTERED CARBON on Netflix.

Their dystopian society is very probable...with a small ruling elite of people so fantastically wealthy that they live forever and normal people struggling to make ends meet...

[Edited 12/29/18 11:45am]

https://www.apnews.com/c4dc6858a32b4b61bdbc6aebf5459a91

you *know* they're already negotiating with the aliens to colonize the place....

This one reminds me of Total Recall

onlyforaminute said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

This one reminds me of Total Recall

onlyforaminute said:

Yeah it does, but it's not.
It's a city within an asteriod in the asteriod belt, hence the overhead dome of blue skies.

onlyforaminute said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

This one reminds me of Total Recall

Yeah it does, but it's not.
It's a city within an asteriod in the asteriod belt, hence the overhead dome of blue skies.

Well of course it is not the same as Total Recall lol Totall Recall atmosphere and landscape was red-dish

It's from The Expanse

NorthFront MidTownCeres Concept_B_v5

The Expanse S1x01 Life offworld on Ceres

A barkeep in Oakland, California, is among its most fluent speakers, along with the cast of "The Expanse."

[Edited 1/4/19 20:20pm]

[Edited 1/6/19 18:48pm]