Scientific changes post-revolution (Earth, birth control, mission, advent, verse)

[GeneCosta]

For socialists, what scientific and architectural changes do you see happening after the revolution? I thought this would be a fun topic to distract our minds from the political discussions happening elsewhere on the forum.

I see the re-emergence of zeppelins as a means of travel. While planes would certainly exist, the need to shuffle people around quickly would be replaced by the highly mobile, safe, and lucrative zeppelins. Instead of sitting in a cramped space for 2 hours you could enjoy a slightly longer flight with drinks and dance and views of the scenery below. There wouldn't be a large need for air traffic controllers like there is with airplanes. Plus, they use a lot less energy. By only traveling at a height of one-thousand miles above the Earth, the risk of dying is dramatically reduced. Not to mention helium is about as flammable as water.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Flying from a different perspective

I also see the formation of aesthetically pleasing households/cities with the decrease in birth rates that comes with industrialization and birth control. With more land available, we could see real works of beauty for every person to live in. I'm especially fond of the ideas for water cities that are completely resistant to hurricanes. The designer of the Venus Project has discussed ways of creating these houses with minimum human labor.

The Venus Project - The Redesign of a culture

Some other concepts I have are desalination plants lining particular coastlines to guarantee the production of water, biodegradable wrapping and containers, mass underground transit, increase in space exploration missions, underwater turbines [for the sea cities], remote operated mine devices... None of this being possible in the immediate future under capitalism due to social necessity being reduced to purchasing power. Society would see these tasks as temporarily more important than producing a whole new assembly line of "different" mp3 players that can cook bacon while you snort crack!

[Buttercup]

I really like the idea of this thread and it's one I want to give some thought to.....I'll be back.

[Scuba Pete]

Originally Posted by GeneCosta

By only traveling at a height of one-thousand miles above the Earth, the risk of dying is dramatically reduced.

A mere one thousand miles above the earth??? Hey! They can replace our fleet of space shuttles which cruise at only about 250 miles above the earth!!!

[GeneCosta]

Originally Posted by Scuba Pete

A mere one thousand miles above the earth??? Hey! They can replace our fleet of space shuttles which cruise at only about 250 miles above the earth!!!

Feet.* Good catch.

[Buttercup]

I'm still thinking up my Utopian socialist world but I've just gotta say......the idea of a zeppelin as normal, every day transportation shares the heebeejeebees outta me. Sounds like a fun adventure to do once, but I can't get the picture out of my mind of some idiot shooting one down with his hunting rifle or a terrorist plucking off a couple just for grins.

[Bathsheba]

Originally Posted by GeneCosta

Some other concepts I have are desalination plants lining particular coastlines to guarantee the production of water

pretty cool...

"The world’s desalination capacity is expected to double in size over the next twenty years, resulting in an installed capacity of over 10.5 billion gallons per day. Historically, most of the installed seawater desalination capacity has been produced through thermal distillation processes. Since the late 1990s, reverse osmosis (RO) membrane systems have become the fastest growing segment of the seawater desalination market."

http://texaswater.tamu.edu/readings/...Techtrends.pdf

[GeneCosta]

Originally Posted by Buttercup

I'm still thinking up my Utopian socialist world but I've just gotta say......the idea of a zeppelin as normal, every day transportation shares the heebeejeebees outta me. Sounds like a fun adventure to do once, but I can't get the picture out of my mind of some idiot shooting one down with his hunting rifle or a terrorist plucking off a couple just for grins.

Isn't 600 yards pushing it for long-range guns? As far as I'm aware zeppelins can travel up to 3,000 feet above the Earth. You've got to remember these things withstood blazes of enemy fire during WW1.


Bathsheba, do you know whose backing the production of these plants?

[Bathsheba]

Originally Posted by GeneCosta

Bathsheba, do you know whose backing the production of these plants?

Hi Gene,

From the first link the summary includes:

The US Bureau of Reclamation has recently developed a Desalination and Water Purification Technology Roadmap to serve as a strategic research pathway for desalination technologies.

I found this link but it still isn't clear to me who is paying for what.

Desalination and Water Purification Research Program

"In November 2005, Reclamation awarded over $1.7 million for 16 desalination research and cooperative agreements. Including matching contributions, the total investment in desalination research amounted to over $6 million."