And you're worried about Vaccine Passports???

[JamesE]

Worry about this:

https://www.neom.com/en-us

No, seriously. This is something worth worrying about.

[Rain]

Not real.

[JamesE]

49 minutes ago, Rain said:

Not real.

Not yet. It's been funded to the tune of US$600 billion, though.

[MrStretch]

I used to live in that Kingdom and keep abreast on the news and developments.

They talk big - about everything - but accomplish little.

The two great projects they have on the boards now are a city from scratch that will house something like 30 million people, and the "Line" a city built on a linear model.

I don't expect either of these things to happen.  Saudis love high flying rhetoric, but as a people they are incredibly disorganized, corrupt to the point they eat each other, and they won't have the financial wherewithal to complete these projects because they only have oil for income...and that won't be enough to save them.

The want to exceed what Dubai and the Emirates have done, but they are 20 years too late.

[9S_]

I’m lost. 
 

Why should I worry about the Saudis building another city in the desert?

[Bob20]

1 hour ago, JamesE said:

Not yet. It's been funded to the tune of US$600 billion, though.

 

41 minutes ago, MrStretch said:

I used to live in that Kingdom and keep abreast on the news and developments.

They talk big - about everything - but accomplish little.

The two great projects they have on the boards now are a city from scratch that will house something like 30 million people, and the "Line" a city built on a linear model.

I don't expect either of these things to happen.  Saudis love high flying rhetoric, but as a people they are incredibly disorganized, corrupt to the point they eat each other, and they won't have the financial wherewithal to complete these projects because they only have oil for income...and that won't be enough to save them.

The want to exceed what Dubai and the Emirates have done, but they are 20 years too late.

Why seriously worry JamesE?

They didn't do badly with other extraordinary innovative projects.

When I was at school, they predicted oil would run out early 21st century, but still no end in sight as for supply, only for limiting its use.

And before the wealthy there run out of money, we'll all be gone. 

There are serious question to be asked about these projects, but I'm sure they're going to happen in some form.

Not sure it's the best place to be with near 50 degrees in summer and only sea water around, drawing on huge amounts of energy for cooling and water-treatment alone (hopefully from a few km² of solar panels in another sandbox), but in a way it's good that they are spreading out and not just making already overcrowded cities larger.

As long as the population keeps growing, they'll need a place to live.

I can think of worse places... 

[Jcamry1]

What is the connection between this and Vaccine Passports?

[JamesE]

18 minutes ago, Bob20 said:

As long as the population keeps growing, they'll need a place to live.

I can think of worse places... 

The engineering/liveability of the place will be phenomenal. My concern is with the social engineering aspect of the project. Over the course of my lifetime people have become increasingly disconnected from the systems that allow them to live. They don't know - or even care to know - where their clean water comes from, where their sewage goes, how they're fed, or who it is that are feeding them. I think this city bodes for more of the same. A smart city that will curate your experience of it through AI to maximize your growth. What of the people who provide the things that make that possible? They won't be living there. What do we become when the disconnect between us and the people who make "us" possible is complete?

9 minutes ago, Jcamry1 said:

What is the connection between this and Vaccine Passports?

Vaccine Passports are one of the current memes encapsulating the loss of personal freedoms that the modern world requires. Riffing on that meme, my take is that this linear city is envisioned as the end point of that loss. A Minority Report-like environment where your experience of that environment, and the tracking that allows it, is controlled by a select few backed with substantial computing power and AI.

[Bob20]

2 minutes ago, JamesE said:

The engineering/liveability of the place will be phenomenal. My concern is with the social engineering aspect of the project. Over the course of my lifetime people have become increasingly disconnected from the systems that allow them to live. They don't know - or even care to know - where their clean water comes from, where their sewage goes, how they're fed, or who it is that are feeding them. I think this city bodes for more of the same. A smart city that will curate your experience of it through AI to maximize your growth. What of the people who provide the things that make that possible? They won't be living there. What do we become when the disconnect between us and the people who make "us" possible is complete?

Vaccine Passports are one of the current memes encapsulating the loss of personal freedoms that the modern world requires. Riffing on that meme, my take is that this linear city is envisioned as the end point of that loss. A Minority Report-like environment where your experience of that environment, and the tracking that allows it, is controlled by a select few backed with substantial computing power and AI.

Re: The first part, I can only agree. Yet the lack of knowledge re: where everything originates from or disappears to isn't just a concern in such a new city. Plenty of people here have no clue either. And in Europe, I remember city folk visiting the province with their teenage kids to see a live cow that they only ever saw on tv or their dinner plate before... It could be said that with the conscious development of a new ecosystem that must take sustainability into account from inception, people might be more conscious of it. Let's hope so.

But I didn't get your specific concerns from only "No, seriously. This is something worth worrying about."

[JamesE]

1 hour ago, Bob20 said:

But I didn't get your specific concerns from only "No, seriously. This is something worth worrying about."

As my school books used to say: "The proof is left up to the reader." I've got no problem with the direction humanity is heading in because, as you say, it won't be directly affecting me. But that we're not choosing to go that way is a concern. It's like we're falling into the future chasing after on shiny object after another without anybody asking if that's where we really want to go.

[Bob20]

3 minutes ago, JamesE said:

As my school books used to say: "The proof is left up to the reader." I've got no problem with the direction humanity is heading in because, as you say, it won't be directly affecting me. But that we're not choosing to go that way is a concern. It's like we're falling into the future chasing after on shiny object after another without anybody asking if that's where we really want to go.

Agreed, I just didn't get those specifics from your initial concern.

[Rain]

On 8/31/2021 at 8:18 AM, 9S_ said:

I’m lost. 
 

Why should I worry about the Saudis building another city in the desert?

Because they've deemed as a wannabe and connected enemy. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by HappyExpat
Breaches of Forum Guidelines Rules 2 & 4

[AussieBob]

Corruption using the 'environment fears' to spend money on themselves and their friends - this will be yet another utopian pile of dung in a few years time. 

And why have we started to stop worrying about 'that' asteroid, and have become more worried about 'sustainability'.  One is real and is going to happen and will happen - it is just a matter of time. The dinosaurs learned all about it, but us mammals seem to think that somehow we are immune.  Just give us a tax break to buy, insure and register electric cars/trucks, and provide free electric 'filling' stations, and the problem is solved inside 10 years.