Once upon a time an eccentric architect, with the eccentric name of Buckminster Fuller, came up with an extremely eccentric idea to build a clear shatterproof dome over Mid-Town Manhattan.
Yes, decades before Donald Trump thought America needed a big useless wall across the southern border, this dude thought that a big dome over midtown would literally shield this most busy part of the city from the elements, from danger, and increase energy efficiency. It was a bold idea ...
... and, predictably, it went nowhere fast.
Fuller proposed his dome in the 1950s, in the years after the war, when there was lots of building going on in NYC and America, and the idea of protecting the city -- and the world -- from another catastrophe was certainly understandable.
And, crazy though Fuller's idea was, it wasn't nearly so bad as Robert Moses' idea of ramming a highway though lower Manhattan (which was, thanks to Jane Jacobs, mercifully killed).
Personally, I don't think we should build a dome over NYC -- instead, we should develop the kinds of electromagnetic "Shields" like they have on Star Trek that protect the Enterprise. So whenever a storm or something threatening approaches NYC (and Lord knows that's happened!) the mayor could just yell "Shield's Up!" and we are thus protected.
... and, predictably, it went nowhere fast.
Fuller proposed his dome in the 1950s, in the years after the war, when there was lots of building going on in NYC and America, and the idea of protecting the city -- and the world -- from another catastrophe was certainly understandable.
And, crazy though Fuller's idea was, it wasn't nearly so bad as Robert Moses' idea of ramming a highway though lower Manhattan (which was, thanks to Jane Jacobs, mercifully killed).
Personally, I don't think we should build a dome over NYC -- instead, we should develop the kinds of electromagnetic "Shields" like they have on Star Trek that protect the Enterprise. So whenever a storm or something threatening approaches NYC (and Lord knows that's happened!) the mayor could just yell "Shield's Up!" and we are thus protected.
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