News
A billion dollar ghost town
It’s a ghost story with a twist. Officials in New Mexico announced plans for a $1 billion scientific town with Wi-Fi, robotic cars and commercial districts — everything but people, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The town will be developed in Lea County, near Hobbs in southeastern New Mexico. It will be a test city where researchers can try out all kinds of new gadgets and systems — toilets that flush themselves, cars that don’t need drivers, intelligent traffic lights and next-generation wireless networks.
The idea is to run the tests in a place where they won’t interfere with anything else. Hence, no people.
“The only thing we won’t be doing is destructive testing, blowing things up — I hope,” said Bob Brumley, senior managing director of Pegasus Holdings, which is developing the town through its New Mexico subsidiary, CITE Development.
The town will even have a geeky name: the Center for Innovation, Technology and Testing. It will be developed on about 15 square miles west of Hobbs.
The ghost town is modeled after a real city, Rock Hill, S.C. There will be all the usual town amenities, including highways, offices and fully equipped houses. The developer plans to break ground on the town by June 30.
New Mexico officials hailed the project as an economic boost for the area hard-hit after the oil bust of the 1980s. It is expected to create 350 permanent jobs and about 3,500 indirect jobs through design, development, construction and operation.
Is CITE Development paying $1
Is CITE Development paying $1 Billion for this, or is it a government funded experiment that is paying CITE Development?
According to the New Mexico
According to the New Mexico Business Weekly, (http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2012/05/08/pegasus-breaking-ground-in-june-on-1b.html) the developer, Pegasus Global Holdings LLC, will build the scientific test town with funds from private investors as well as expected revenue generated from the project once it begins operating.
I agree totally with firedog.
I agree totally with firedog. The article says nothing about who is paying for this. When will our elected officials start thinking about how we spend 40% more everyday than we have coming in? This may be nice for the people who live there that need jobs, but the rest of us get to pay interest on it for how many years to come? Has anyone done a benefit/cost ratio calculation?
And why, pray tell, does
And why, pray tell, does anyone think (or justify) that an experimental town/(City) without people will realistically account for “people generated” issues, incidents, accidents, and/or unintentional (or intentional) misuse or overuse of fully automated peope proof features?
We can hide out here during
We can hide out here during the zombie apocalypse. 😉
The people factor I would
The people factor I would think should be an important aspect of the research, but I suppose that can be factored out mathmatically. Perhaps even human randomness can be accounted for as well. What about the human tendency to screw things up no matter how “idiot-proof” it is made?
New Mexico officials hailed
New Mexico officials hailed the project as an economic boost for the area hard-hit after the oil bust of the 1980s. Now they have improved a lot and implemented latest technologies. I am always searching for informative information like this. Thanks for sharing with us.