😲 The Las Vegas Sphere is pretty cool. Important, too.

It's a magnificent piece of technology that offers both an amazing audio-visual experience and Up Wing inspiration

Quote of the Issue

“The history of civilization is the history of us trying to foolproof existence, to create safety and stability out of a dangerous and unstable world.” - Greg Ip, Foolproof: Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe

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I have a book out: The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised is currently available pretty much everywhere. I’m very excited about it! Let’s gooooo! ⏩🆙↗⤴📈

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble

• Books-A-Million

• Target

• Walmart

• Bookshop

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The Essay

😲 The Las Vegas Sphere is pretty cool — and important

My wedding anniversary prompted a trip to Las Vegas where, in the span of a few hours, I visited two engineering marvels just 40 miles apart: Hoover Dam and Sphere, the new immersive music and entertainment venue. Both are incredible feats of human ingenuity. To experience them on the same day is pretty awesome.

Hoover Dam, begun in 1931 and finished in 1936, is taller than the Washington Moment and as thick as two football fields as its base. At the time, it was the tallest dam in the world and the largest hydroelectric plant. (The structure was built with enough concrete to supposedly put a sidewalk around the Earth at the equator.) The dam’s massive 17 generators supply hydroelectric power across the American Southwest, harnessing the power of the flood-prone Colorado River. “This morning I came, I saw, and I was conquered, as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind,” said President Frankling Roosevelt at its dedication.

I was wowed at the sight of it, just as FDR was. Same goes for Sphere, which opened in September. It’s the largest spherical building in the world, covered inside with a wrap-around, 16k LED screen and covered outside with LED panels, making the steel-and-concrete structure almost visible from Hoover Dam. Besides the amazing visuals, concertgoers will enjoy speakers with beamforming and wave field synthesis technologies. Although I have no idea what those things are, U2 — Sphere’s current artist-in-residence — sure sounded great. And when that LED screen lit up, people started screaming like it was the Rapture. (The video below really does not do the experience full justice. Also, gang, sit high up!) The evening I came to Sphere, I saw, and I was conquered, as everyone who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind — U2 fans or not — almost certainly will be.

So, yay for my wife and me, right? Sure.

A pair of marvels from the mind of man

But there was more to my experience than a sense of awe at what I saw, and that’s why I’m writing about it here. Hoover Dam and Sphere are stunning products of the economic eras in which they were built. Hoover Dam was made possible by advancements from the Second Industrial Revolution, such as improved materials like steel and concrete, and the development of heavy machinery and electrification. These technological advancements, along with innovative engineering techniques, were crucial in undertaking and completing the massive project.

So, too, is Sphere a culmination of the Third Industrial Revolution, also known as the Information and Communication Technologies Revolution.