THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CLIKC => Topic started by: BenRG on 13 Nov 2017, 09:24
-
For those of us who not only enjoyed BioShock but also enjoyed its story and philosophical themes, a bitter smile of foreknowledge threatens us at the bit of news reported upon today: World's first floating city set for Pacific Ocean by 2020 (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5077575/The-world-s-floating-city-set-2020-build.html). Billionaire PayPal founder, Peter Thiel says that the 'seafaring nation' will 'free the human race from politicians'.
To build a city at the bottom of the sea? Insanity. But where else could we be free from the clutching hand of the Parasites? Where else could we build an economy that they would not try to control, a society that they would not try to destroy? It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else.
-- Andrew Ryan
-- BioShock
Art has a curious habit of predicting history. Between Thiel and his Silicon Valley peers, we seem to be slowly getting a real life Art Deco sci-fi world of city-to-city rocket-ships, oceanic nations and people living in space. Even the time frame is often as predicted by the sci-fi writers of the 1920s and 1930s!
-
Holy shit you're right, this is basically Rapture. I'm surprised they don't have a lighthouse to keep ships from crashing into it, that would complete the picture.
It even comes with an overly simplistic view of how to fix society's problems. That bit about freeing the human race (i.e. a few hundred rich people) from politicians sounds just like a 16-year-old anachist's idea of the perfect world. And then there's this:
The Institute claims it will 'give people the freedom to choose the government they want instead of being stuck with the government they get'.
If inhabitants disagree with the city's government, they could paddle their colony to another city, forcing governments to work to attract citizens.
I can just see some hedge fund manager go "Yeah, I moved to this ultra-futuristic oceanic paradise city but I don't like the tax rate so I'm going get the building moved over to a place where I have to pay less." There's no way that could backfire.
Not to mention how utterly absurd the idea is that the only way to escape a dysfunctional government is to start a new one from scratch. Like, you know there are other countries, right? Many of them have very nice weather. You really have to ascend to a whole new level of privilege to come to the conclusion that, when you're rich enough to be able to move to literally any nation on the planet, you should instead build a new one.