What I would do if I was a billionaire
Rather than spreading my good works around, as Bill Gates has done, I would focus my efforts on a demonstration project. I would first have to find somewhere that I could build a country. One might for example purchase land similar to what the US did with the Louisiana purchase from France and the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Particularly likely places for this might be along the border of Algeria Libya Tunisia Morocco Egypt… I think I left out a country. Oh yeah Morocco. Someone like Bill Gates I believe could create a new countryAlong the border between two countries, or perhaps at sea, atop a sea mount.
Then I would recruit about 1 million of the 60 million refugees on earth to build a country there. I visualize an economy based on halophyte agriculture (growing plants which can be irrigated with seawater), solar power, and wind power. Solar power towers could be part of the power system in dry, hot areas such as along the Atlantic coast of Namibia, resulting in freshwater night fog above and beyond the level of moisture generated by halophyte agriculture. No detailed plan can be presented prior to actually defining where this new country would be. There are of course numerous other places on earth besides Northern Africa where a new country or a new city could be placed. One of my favorite thoughts is to put it on a seamount somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
I would create a constitution prior to inviting anyone to live there, and you can only move there if you became a citizen, agreeing to honoring the Constitution above everything else, including religion. I would create an army as needed to protect this place. A highly efficient transport system would be planned from the very beginning. All housing created would be made of energy efficient materials that would last thousands of years. No temporary structures, other than construction trailers would be allowed.
All the infrastructure would be planned from the beginning, including mass transit, roads, canals, performance spaces, and anything else I haven't thought of.
All the labor to construct this city would be the new immigrants to the city. I am absolutely certain that among the 60 million refugees on the earth today there are plenty of structural engineers and all sorts of skilled people to plan and build the city. Insofar as it's possible, the city would be built out of materials which are locally available. Here are a few examples that might work: sandstone, glass foam, glass, syntactic foam. Clearly there is a need for additional inputs such as polymers and metals, but as nearly as possible the entire structure of the city would be built from local materials.
I envision a deal with new immigrants in which every single immigrant gets a home. Some could buy their way in, and these folks would finance the whole project. Others could work for 10 years at the end of which time they would own their home. By paying very close attention to the longevity of the homes that are built, this process would lead to a city that would not degrade significantly with aging over hundreds of years.
My friend from graduate school at Akron University (I am a polymer scientist) was named Monsour TafTaf. he lived in a 2200-year-old home back in Damascus with his family before coming to grad school. It always struck me how much the wealth of the world would be increased if every house ever built was still livable. Later I realized that the key thing about the long life of his house in Damascus is that is it is very dry weather there, which allows wooden beams to last thousands of years. But then I did a lot of thinking about what kinds of materials could last even under humid conditions? One example is the old Grange in Ireland, which is estimated to be 6000 years old. Another example are the cave homes throughout the world, including the south of France and Turkey and probably a lot of places I don't know about. Though I really love old-fashioned traditional materials, I am a material scientist and I think there are better options today. Some of those ideas are still patentable, so I am not going to discuss those here.
When I was an undergraduate student studying physics, I did some simple calculations about what a self-feeding city would look like. I based my calculations on the city's food being supplied 100% by rooftop agriculture. I allowed 200 ft² per person for living space (this is much less than the average in America, but much more than the average in most of the third world). I also planned for commercial and recreational space; this implies an average building height of five stories. Note though that because of the fluctuation in the height of the ground, there might well be quite tall buildings down in the valleys. I also used typical yields from hydroponic agriculture, though the yield from well-managed organic soil is not that different.
I imagine a city which is zoned vertically rather than horizontally. To be specific, I envision that the rooftop level is completely devoted to agriculture, parks, walking trails, etc. When on the roof of the city and looking out over the rooftop level, one would see something that looks like an interrupted natural landform. The interruptions are the streets, and there are numerous standardized bridges from rooftop to rooftop that creates a vast rooftop park, with some areas devoted to agriculture, but at the very least a walkway around every rooftop. Agricultural animals would also be part of the landscape at the rooftop level. I believe that knowing where your food comes from is important for anybody.
Heavy transport would be via trucks or canals at ground level and mass transit at subterranean level. Bicycle traffic would be possible both at ground level and on the rooftop level. Retail space would be at a particular floor uniformly throughout the city, with its own set of walkways.
Here is a link to a related Website
Then I would recruit about 1 million of the 60 million refugees on earth to build a country there. I visualize an economy based on halophyte agriculture (growing plants which can be irrigated with seawater), solar power, and wind power. Solar power towers could be part of the power system in dry, hot areas such as along the Atlantic coast of Namibia, resulting in freshwater night fog above and beyond the level of moisture generated by halophyte agriculture. No detailed plan can be presented prior to actually defining where this new country would be. There are of course numerous other places on earth besides Northern Africa where a new country or a new city could be placed. One of my favorite thoughts is to put it on a seamount somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
I would create a constitution prior to inviting anyone to live there, and you can only move there if you became a citizen, agreeing to honoring the Constitution above everything else, including religion. I would create an army as needed to protect this place. A highly efficient transport system would be planned from the very beginning. All housing created would be made of energy efficient materials that would last thousands of years. No temporary structures, other than construction trailers would be allowed.
All the infrastructure would be planned from the beginning, including mass transit, roads, canals, performance spaces, and anything else I haven't thought of.
All the labor to construct this city would be the new immigrants to the city. I am absolutely certain that among the 60 million refugees on the earth today there are plenty of structural engineers and all sorts of skilled people to plan and build the city. Insofar as it's possible, the city would be built out of materials which are locally available. Here are a few examples that might work: sandstone, glass foam, glass, syntactic foam. Clearly there is a need for additional inputs such as polymers and metals, but as nearly as possible the entire structure of the city would be built from local materials.
I envision a deal with new immigrants in which every single immigrant gets a home. Some could buy their way in, and these folks would finance the whole project. Others could work for 10 years at the end of which time they would own their home. By paying very close attention to the longevity of the homes that are built, this process would lead to a city that would not degrade significantly with aging over hundreds of years.
My friend from graduate school at Akron University (I am a polymer scientist) was named Monsour TafTaf. he lived in a 2200-year-old home back in Damascus with his family before coming to grad school. It always struck me how much the wealth of the world would be increased if every house ever built was still livable. Later I realized that the key thing about the long life of his house in Damascus is that is it is very dry weather there, which allows wooden beams to last thousands of years. But then I did a lot of thinking about what kinds of materials could last even under humid conditions? One example is the old Grange in Ireland, which is estimated to be 6000 years old. Another example are the cave homes throughout the world, including the south of France and Turkey and probably a lot of places I don't know about. Though I really love old-fashioned traditional materials, I am a material scientist and I think there are better options today. Some of those ideas are still patentable, so I am not going to discuss those here.
When I was an undergraduate student studying physics, I did some simple calculations about what a self-feeding city would look like. I based my calculations on the city's food being supplied 100% by rooftop agriculture. I allowed 200 ft² per person for living space (this is much less than the average in America, but much more than the average in most of the third world). I also planned for commercial and recreational space; this implies an average building height of five stories. Note though that because of the fluctuation in the height of the ground, there might well be quite tall buildings down in the valleys. I also used typical yields from hydroponic agriculture, though the yield from well-managed organic soil is not that different.
I imagine a city which is zoned vertically rather than horizontally. To be specific, I envision that the rooftop level is completely devoted to agriculture, parks, walking trails, etc. When on the roof of the city and looking out over the rooftop level, one would see something that looks like an interrupted natural landform. The interruptions are the streets, and there are numerous standardized bridges from rooftop to rooftop that creates a vast rooftop park, with some areas devoted to agriculture, but at the very least a walkway around every rooftop. Agricultural animals would also be part of the landscape at the rooftop level. I believe that knowing where your food comes from is important for anybody.
Heavy transport would be via trucks or canals at ground level and mass transit at subterranean level. Bicycle traffic would be possible both at ground level and on the rooftop level. Retail space would be at a particular floor uniformly throughout the city, with its own set of walkways.
Here is a link to a related Website
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