There needs to be a graphic of the ring of satellite rock cities around the existing ground-level city to give the general schematic of the way this evolves. We must make the assumption you have seen at least one of the previous Parts or we will be repeating things all the time.
Note: thanks to Regina Vargas for the interest as we don't usually know who reads Ithaka but we see the +1's and they're appreciated.
Size
When you consider going one hundred stories into the ground, you're already taller than most if not all skyscrapers in America, probably the world. The construction is not going to have to spread far laterally to quickly exceed the space available in the city. In other words, the sprawl of the ground-level city can be heavily-compressed.
Before you start getting claustrophobic, keep in mind average homes in a city will generally be about twenty feet apart from each other. That will insulate most sound but not all and there are all manner of distracting visuals. Those things will not be problems when drilling these spaces out of solid rock.
Since homes in the underground will be carved out of rock, it's easy to think of them as jail cells in a maximum security prison but you can't see the walls of your house now. You probably have some form of decorative paneling or some such to jazz up the vibe to your taste. It's the same thing except you'll definitely need expanding screws to secure anything to a wall.
Lose the idea of regimentation since the spaces within the Rock City may be huge. Think of Mammoth Cave. OK, so we're going to build that. There can be colossal caverns since we will want public performances of whatever godawful excuse passes for music in this future time.
(Ed: crooners bleating ballads?)
Some things never change.
(Ed: how do we know this whole damn thing won't collapse like the Silver Bridge?)
We've got yer geologists, yer seismic engineers, all the high-falutin' cadre we can find to be assured of the geological stability of the build site and the specifications within it. Before you dig enough to sink a golf ball, there's got to be some fantastic planning since we will have one hundred stories of carved-out rock so how will the strata within that be divided for optimum function.
Sewer Level
The sewer needs of the Rock City should be mitigated by substantial improvements in recycling but needs will exist and the output from such a large facility will be enormous. All the pumps and conduits needed to perform that function should go to a dedicated level to ensure efficiency of process, etc.
Trash Removal
Most of the trash removal is performed by gravity. The principle is the same as within apartment buildings where they remove trash by chucking it into a hole in the wall. We have one hundred floors of gravity to deliver that trash to the outbound process but that's going to take commensurate piping to ensure it gets delivered properly, doesn't get blocked-up, etc.
Water
The tremendous water needs of such a system require a dedicated floor and also commensurate piping to deliver it. None of this is unique to building underground but the forms are different.
These elemental needs must be satisfied or the Rock City won't even get started but we have much more interesting thoughts for tasks for the other strata within it. The point at this stage is the immensity of the design task since there are no restarts after boring out solid rock.
(Ed: how does the Rock City expand?)
It doesn't. Consider what happens as you start building Rock Cities around the Earth. The capacity to house the entire population will be reached relatively easily (i.e. thinking in terms of decades of development as 'easy'). The problem, however, isn't housing the population but rather keeping everyone fed. We could relatively easily build housing for more people than the planet can support.
The assumption the population will grow indefinitely to culminate in a Malthusian explosion of excess protoplasm doesn't take into account populations in developed nations do not generally have a birth rate sufficiently high to sustain the population whereas people in undeveloped nations often have birth rates so high they can't afford to feed the babies. Someone's going to have to fix that or Malthus wins.
Note: here at the Rockhouse, we believe that problem is fixed by equal rights, equal opportunities for all, etc. When that much is true baby making should balance out nicely. I've asked many women about the need to make babies and none have ever said there was some burning physical need. Perhaps she wanted to feel 'fulfilled as a woman' and fair enough but none said they were trying to resolve some physical ache. Therefore, we are not bound like Moties to reproduce without consideration into some glorious Malthusian explosion.
(Ed: what if we make more farm 'land' underground?)
You may be getting too heavy with the ganja, Stoned Pony, but we can roll with it. Maybe you're not considering just how big your underground farm has to be as this isn't just a grow room for ganja now. You're talking about farms to feed a significant number from the world's population. We don't see this approach as realistic and we're willing to consider some seriously unrealistic things.
(Ed: so there's a finite population for the Earth?)
Yes. It will always be limited by the ability to feed it and existing farm land could be used more efficiently but even doubling the efficiency means at most now we can feed twice as many people. We pushed the limit higher but it still exists and then the farms are maxed. Now what.
I'll tell you now what. With the population of the Earth stabilized, there will still be explorers and those are the starriders. They won't be expanding this planet because they want to see other ones and you can see the validation of that from the number of volunteers for the various Mars missions.
Note: thanks to Regina Vargas for the interest as we don't usually know who reads Ithaka but we see the +1's and they're appreciated.
Size
When you consider going one hundred stories into the ground, you're already taller than most if not all skyscrapers in America, probably the world. The construction is not going to have to spread far laterally to quickly exceed the space available in the city. In other words, the sprawl of the ground-level city can be heavily-compressed.
Before you start getting claustrophobic, keep in mind average homes in a city will generally be about twenty feet apart from each other. That will insulate most sound but not all and there are all manner of distracting visuals. Those things will not be problems when drilling these spaces out of solid rock.
Since homes in the underground will be carved out of rock, it's easy to think of them as jail cells in a maximum security prison but you can't see the walls of your house now. You probably have some form of decorative paneling or some such to jazz up the vibe to your taste. It's the same thing except you'll definitely need expanding screws to secure anything to a wall.
Lose the idea of regimentation since the spaces within the Rock City may be huge. Think of Mammoth Cave. OK, so we're going to build that. There can be colossal caverns since we will want public performances of whatever godawful excuse passes for music in this future time.
(Ed: crooners bleating ballads?)
Some things never change.
(Ed: how do we know this whole damn thing won't collapse like the Silver Bridge?)
We've got yer geologists, yer seismic engineers, all the high-falutin' cadre we can find to be assured of the geological stability of the build site and the specifications within it. Before you dig enough to sink a golf ball, there's got to be some fantastic planning since we will have one hundred stories of carved-out rock so how will the strata within that be divided for optimum function.
Sewer Level
The sewer needs of the Rock City should be mitigated by substantial improvements in recycling but needs will exist and the output from such a large facility will be enormous. All the pumps and conduits needed to perform that function should go to a dedicated level to ensure efficiency of process, etc.
Trash Removal
Most of the trash removal is performed by gravity. The principle is the same as within apartment buildings where they remove trash by chucking it into a hole in the wall. We have one hundred floors of gravity to deliver that trash to the outbound process but that's going to take commensurate piping to ensure it gets delivered properly, doesn't get blocked-up, etc.
Water
The tremendous water needs of such a system require a dedicated floor and also commensurate piping to deliver it. None of this is unique to building underground but the forms are different.
These elemental needs must be satisfied or the Rock City won't even get started but we have much more interesting thoughts for tasks for the other strata within it. The point at this stage is the immensity of the design task since there are no restarts after boring out solid rock.
(Ed: how does the Rock City expand?)
It doesn't. Consider what happens as you start building Rock Cities around the Earth. The capacity to house the entire population will be reached relatively easily (i.e. thinking in terms of decades of development as 'easy'). The problem, however, isn't housing the population but rather keeping everyone fed. We could relatively easily build housing for more people than the planet can support.
The assumption the population will grow indefinitely to culminate in a Malthusian explosion of excess protoplasm doesn't take into account populations in developed nations do not generally have a birth rate sufficiently high to sustain the population whereas people in undeveloped nations often have birth rates so high they can't afford to feed the babies. Someone's going to have to fix that or Malthus wins.
Note: here at the Rockhouse, we believe that problem is fixed by equal rights, equal opportunities for all, etc. When that much is true baby making should balance out nicely. I've asked many women about the need to make babies and none have ever said there was some burning physical need. Perhaps she wanted to feel 'fulfilled as a woman' and fair enough but none said they were trying to resolve some physical ache. Therefore, we are not bound like Moties to reproduce without consideration into some glorious Malthusian explosion.
(Ed: what if we make more farm 'land' underground?)
You may be getting too heavy with the ganja, Stoned Pony, but we can roll with it. Maybe you're not considering just how big your underground farm has to be as this isn't just a grow room for ganja now. You're talking about farms to feed a significant number from the world's population. We don't see this approach as realistic and we're willing to consider some seriously unrealistic things.
(Ed: so there's a finite population for the Earth?)
Yes. It will always be limited by the ability to feed it and existing farm land could be used more efficiently but even doubling the efficiency means at most now we can feed twice as many people. We pushed the limit higher but it still exists and then the farms are maxed. Now what.
I'll tell you now what. With the population of the Earth stabilized, there will still be explorers and those are the starriders. They won't be expanding this planet because they want to see other ones and you can see the validation of that from the number of volunteers for the various Mars missions.
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