From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Fri Sep 24 1999 - 12:32:56 MDT
> Well, I suppose you could get an effect rather like a large
> shopping mall underground. But I wouldn't describe my
> experience of the cities I've enjoyed most as dark, dank, and
> oppressive. I really like being outdoors, in urban environments
> as well as rural ones, and if I'm lucky enough to be able to
> leave this planet, I'll probably have to give up most of that
> particular experience at that time, so I'm not eager to give it
> up any earlier.
The shopping mall in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas is totally
enclosed, with a trompe l'oeil ceiling that does a pretty fair
impression of a roman open-air market on a sunny day. And it's
done with mere plaster, paint, and electric lights. Imagine
what you could do with dynamic display surfaces. You could
probably do a very convincing impression of Eli's savanna, with
birds flying overhead and clouds drifting (without danger of
anything falling from either). A mall open 24hrs with bright
full-spectrum lighting (UV-free so shoppers won't worry about
sunburn) could probably even grow real grass and flowers and
trees inside. The ventilation system would filter out insects
and insert pleasant odors and adjust humidity. Sound system
could put back missing low-level noises like wind, birds,
crickets, water. Could be quite impressive, and should be
runnable on about the amount of energy striking the surface
above.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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