⤵️ 5 megaprojects that America didn’t build (but should have)
These are some of our worst decisions of the past half century
✈ A quick note: I will be traveling through the middle of July and will be posting a bit less than usual, and perhaps a bit shorter than usual.
What sorts of megaprojects might the future bring? As a sci-fi guy, a number of things come to mind. First and foremost for me: a space elevator. This concept, dating to the late 1800s, involves a cable from Earth to a geostationary counterweight, allowing "climbers" to transport cargo and people to space. It could revolutionize space living and exploration in the 21st century, serving as a bridge to the Solar System. Space elevators could enable orbital, lunar, and deep space economies more cheaply and safely than rockets. With materials science advances, experts believe they could become reality within 20 to 30 years. (More about this in my 2023 book, The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised.)
A space elevator doesn’t quicken your blood? How about a global hyperloop transportation network, a Mars colony (heck, terraforming Mars!), or that classic megaproject of Up Wing 1.0 (the 1950s and 1960s), an underwater, bubble-dome city.
Or instead of futuristic sci-fi, perhaps with a retro twist, how about alt-history? Envision an alternate America on Earth-Two that embraced a more progress-oriented. Up Wing approach over the past 50 years. In this parallel world, many ambitious megaprojects proposed but abandoned on our Earth-One were successfully implemented. Here are five megaprojects that we didn’t get but could have and should have.
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