Globus Cassus - Earth 2.0

Write the text of your article here!ecember 13th, 2007

 Edited by Marcus Trimble*Bennett and Trimble
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Tuesday, 25th September 2007
 

The Lifeboat Foundation has published a list of the Top Ten Transhuman Technologies. It is a most interesting list. It postulates that if humans are able to think of something then, it is a matter of time before the idea is realised. “Transhumanists tend to take a longer-than-average view of technological progress, looking not just five or ten years into the future but twenty years, thirty years, and beyond. We realize that the longer you look forward, the more uncertain the predictions get, but one thing is quite certain: if a technology is physically possible and obviously useful, human (or transhuman!) ingenuity will see to it that it gets built eventually. As we gain ever greater control over the atomic structure of matter, our technological goals become increasingly ambitious, and their payoffs more and more generous.” Making up the top ten are Cryonics, Gene Therapy, Self Replicating Machines, Molecular Manufacturing and so on. It is as you may imagine mostly interesting stuff, and at number three sits ‘Megascale Engineering’. YES. [Image Source]

A world of enormous planet dwarfing structures supplying infrastructure to the exponential growth of the human and transhuman peoples. Obviously, the construction of these behemoths would require more than man power however we are told that, with the help of some good ol’ self-replicating robots “the production of such large structures could be done largely by autonomous drones, with intelligent agents only managing the highest top-level functions and architecture. Considering that mankind’s long-term future is in space, and that space right now is pretty devoid of any structure useful or habitable to humans, we have a lot of work to do, and if you can make the projects megascale, why not?” Indeed, why not? Tow of the references mentioned in particular, caught our eye - Globus Cassus and the Dyson Spheres. Globus Cassus - literally Hollow Sphere - is a proposal by Christian Waldvogel and formed a part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 1994 Venice Biennale. 

It takes the form of a compressed icosahedron that surrounds the point where the earth once was. The inside of the sphere forms the habitation, with two large continents facing each other across the empty centre. [Image Source]

The structure is made by gradually excavating the earth’s crust, mantle and core, which are transported outwards via four symmetrically placed space elevators. The gradual excavation of the earth results in the melting of the ice caps, all water vapourises and condences on the inner surface of the sphere forming rivers and lakes (Don’t ask, okay. It just does.) leaving the inner surface of the sphere fit for human habitation. The process leaves earth as the second largest planet in the solar system. [Image Source]

The Dyson Sphere (although proposed 35 years earlier) steps it up a notch to propose a network of solar powered satellites surrounding a star, capturing its entire energy output.

<p style="font-size:1em;">While Dyson only ever speculated a ring or a swarm of such satellites, others have extended the idea, speculating that such a network would eventually become so dense that it became a solid shell completely encompassing the star. Celebrate the Great American Wiknic in 20+ cities around June 23. =Globus Cassus= From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia {| class="metadata plainlinks ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove" style="margin:0px88px;border-width:1px1px1px10px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(170,170,170)rgb(170,170,170)rgb(170,170,170)rgb(242,133,0);" <p style="line-height:1.5em;">Globus Cassus is an art project and book<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height:1em;">[1] by Swiss architect and artist Christian Waldvogel presenting a conceptual transformation of Planet Earthinto a much bigger, hollow, artificial world with an ecosphere on its inner surface. It was the Swiss contribution to the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height:1em;">[2] and was awarded the Gold Medal for the "best designed books from all over the World" at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2005.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1em;">[3] It consists of a meticulous description of the transformation process, a narrative of its construction, and suggestions on the organizational workings on Globus Cassus.
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<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:1.5em;">Waldvogel describes it as an "open source" art project and states that anyone can contribute designs and narratives to it on the project wiki.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;">[4] {| class="toc" id="toc" style="font-size:12px;border-color:rgb(170,170,170);"
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Contents
[hide] *1 Properties
 * 1.1 Geometric structure
 * 1.2 Building material
 * 1.3 Planetary scale
 * 2 Construction process
 * 2.1 Skeleton and shell
 * 2.2 The Great Rains
 * 2.3 Colonization
 * 2.4 Plant growth
 * 3 See also
 * 4 Literature
 * 5 References
 * 6 External links
 * }

[edit] Properties
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">The proposed megastructure would incorporate all of Earth's matter. Sunlight would enter through two large windows, and gravity would be simulated by the centrifugal effect. Humans would live on two vast regions that face each other and that are connected through the empty center. The hydrosphere and atmosphere would be retained on its inside. The ecospherewould be restricted to the equatorial zones, while at the low-gravity tropic zones a thin atmosphere would allow only for plantations. The polar regions would have neither gravity nor atmosphere and would therefore be used for storage of raw materials and microgravity production processes.

[edit] Geometric structure
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">Globus Cassus has the form of a compressed geodesic icosahedron with two diagonal openings. Along the edges of the icosahedron run the skeleton beams, the gaps between the beams contain a shell and, where there are windows, inward-curving domes.

[edit] Building material
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">Earth's crust, mantle and core are gradually excavated, transported outwards and then transformed to larger strength and reduced density. While the crust is mined from open pits in the continent's centers, magma and the liquid mantle are pumped across transfer hoses. The core is dismantled from the surface.

[edit] Planetary scale
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">Since the stationary cables would stay clear inside the moon's trajectory, the construction of Globus Cassus would not alter the Earth-Moon system. However, on a planetary scale the proportions would be altered, with Globus Cassus being only slightly smaller than Saturn, the Solar System's second-largest planet.

[edit] Construction process
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">Starting at four precisely defined points in the geostationary orbit, four space elevators are built. Eventually they become massive towers, each measuring several hundred kilometers in diameter and extending to a length of about 165,000 km. The towers contain elevators which are used to transport silicate building material to the construction sites at geostationary orbit.

[edit] Skeleton and shell
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">The building material is converted into vacuum-porous aggregate and used to form the skeleton. It is built retaining constant symmetry and balance at every moment and will ultimately span around all sides of the earth. Then magma is pumped towards the skeleton, where it is used to form thin shells in the skeletal openings. Eight of these openings are fitted with large, inward-curving window domes made out of silicon glass.

[edit] The Great Rains
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">Having been used up to a large degree, the Earth has shrunk, the polar ice caps have melted and the Earth's mass and therefore gravity has declined. This leads to the sudden loss of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, which wander outwards towards the new World. Globus Cassus' equator zones are equipped with a system of trenches and moulds that will become rivers, lakes and seas as soon as the water has settled. The transfer process of atmosphere and hydrosphere is called "The Great Rains".

[edit] Colonization
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">The moment the Great Rains start, the Earth becomes uninhabitable. Along with massive amounts of seed for all existing plants, the regions of high cultural value, that need to be conserved and reapplied on Globus Cassus have been stored in the skeleton nodes which touch the towers. Humans and animals rise in the towers to await the end of the rains and start settling on the two equator regions.

[edit] Plant growth
<p style="line-height:1.5em;">The remaining Earth core is dismantled to build the shells that lie in the pole regions. During this process, the massive heat radiation of the core accelerates plant growth and therefore aids the process of establishing a functioning biosphere.

[edit] See also

 * Bernal sphere
 * Dyson Sphere
 * Planetary engineering
 * Planetary habitability
 * Terraforming
 * Rendezvous with Rama

[edit] Literature
Book cover<p style="line-height:1.5em;">Globus Cassus, Lars Müller Publishers, with contributions by Boris Groys, Claude Lichtenstein, Michael Stauffer and Christian Waldvogel. Awarded the Gold Medal in international competition "Best designed books from all over the World 2004", (ISBN 3-03778-045-2)

[edit] References

 * 1) ^ Waldvogel, Christian; Boris Groys, Claude Lichtenstein, Michael Stauffer. Globus Cassus. Lars Müller Publishers. ISBN 3-03778-045-2.
 * 2) ^ "9th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy, 2004".
 * 3) ^ Globus Cassus Philosophy
 * 4) ^ Waldvogel, Christian. "International Globus Cassus Society". Globus Cassus website. Archived from the original on 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2008-04-06.

[edit] External links
View page ratingsRate this pageWhat's this? Trustworthy      Objective       Complete       Well-written        I am highly knowledgeable about this topic (optional) Submit ratings <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">There are interesting and wonderful possible applications for a Space Elevator and then there are ideas which just don’t seem to rise even to the level of fantasy.
 * Globus Cassus Open Source Website hosted by Christian Waldvogel
 * Globus Cassus addon for Celestia
 * 9th international architecture exhibition in venice, italy, 2004 / swiss pavilion: ‘larger earth’, by Christian Waldvogel
 * Damn Interesting review of Globus Cassus

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">From the article: “…a brave new world could be built from the remains of our current one. The circumference of this construction– dubbed Globus Cassus, or ‘hollow sphere’ in Latin– would be comparable to the giant planet Saturn. During the multi-million year assembly period, massive hoses would worm deep into the Earth’s fiery bowels and suck liquid metal and magma into orbit through four space elevators sited at equal distances around the equator. This material would be squirted out and transformed into a lattice framework to support the rest of the edifice. As the Earth gradually shrivels and shrinks under this onslaught, its gravity would weaken. Over generations, the skies would darken with the relentless encroachment of the enormous structure above.”

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">Even though the author (yes, you can buy a book about this) seems serious, I’d put this one down in the “you must be joking” category.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">The drawing is from the “Damn Interesting” website, the website where I found this article on (click on it for a slightly larger version). I highly recommend ”Damn Interesting”, it truly has some very interesting articles on all sorts of strange things… _______                       _,, Ad8888888888bba, _                    , Ad88888I888888888888888ba,                   , 88888888I88888888888888888888a,                 , D888888888I8888888888888888888888b,                d88888PP "" "" "" YY88888888888888888888b,              , D88 "'__,, ,,,,,. ZZZY8888888888888,             , 8IIl '";; l" ZZZIII8888888888,            , I88l, '; lZZZZZ888III8888888,          , II88Zl;. ; LlZZZZZ888888I888888,         , II888Zl;. .;;;;; LllZZZ888888I8888b        , II8888Z;; `;;;;;'' llZZ8888888I8888,        II88888Z, ',. LZZZ8888888I888b        II88888Z; _, aaa, aaaaa, __.l,. LlZZZ88888888I888        . II88888IZZZZZZZZZ, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ; llZZ88888888I888,        II88888IZZ <'(@ @> Z | | ZZZ <' (@ @> ZZZZ;; llZZ888888888I88I       , II88888; `" ""; | | ZZ; `" "";; llZ8888888888I888       II888888l `,,.; LlZZ8888888888I888,      , II888888Z;;;,.;; LlZZZ8888888888I888I      III888888Zl; .., `;;;; lllZZZ88888888888I888      II88888888Z;, ..., (__);;; llZZZZ88888888888I888,      II88888888Zl;;;;; '`-' Z,. .;;;; LlZZZZ88888888888I888b     ] I888888888Z;;;; '"; llllll; ..;;; lllZZZZ88888888888I8888,      II888888888Zl,.; "Y88bd888P";; ..; lllZZZZZ88888888888I8888I      II8888888888Zl,.; `" PPP ",,,, ..; lllZZZZZZZ88888888888I88888      II888888888888Zl;;. `,,, L;;;; lllZZZZZZZZW88888888888I88888      `II8888888888888Zl;. ;; LllZZZZZZZZWMZ88888888888I88888       II8888888888888888ZbaalllZZZZZZZZZWWMZZZ8888888888I888888,       `II88888888888888888b" WWZZZZZWWWMMZZZZZZI888888888I888888b        `II88888888888888888; ZZMMMMMMZZZZZZZZllI888888888I8888888         `` II8888888888888888; lZZZZZZZZZZZlllll888888888I8888888,          II8888888888888888, `; lllZZZZllllll;,. Y88888888I8888888b,       , II8888888888888888b,., Lllllll,,,.; .. 88888888I88888888b,        II888888888888888PZI;. . `;;,.;;; ..; ... 88888888I8888888888,        II888888888888PZ;; ';,. ;. .;. .;. .. Y8888888I88888888888b,      , II888888888PZ;, '`8888888I88888888888b,       , II888888888, 888888I88888888888888      , D88888888888 d888888I8888888888ZZZZ   , Ad888888888888I 8888888I8888ZZZZZZZZZZ , D888888888888888 '888888IZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, D8888888888P'8P 'Y888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZd888888888, "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888a, _, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888ba, _d 'ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888888888888888bbbaaa,,, ______, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888888MEDIA CRITICISM 8888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ888888888888888888888888888888{| border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Geneva;" <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:22px;padding:3px;position:relative;border-top-width:1px;border-top-style:solid;border-color:rgb(243,244,244);border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;font-size:0.9em;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">ecember 13th, 2007 <p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">There are interesting and wonderful possible applications for a Space Elevator and then there are ideas which just don’t seem to rise even to the level of fantasy.
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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">From the article: “…a brave new world could be built from the remains of our current one. The circumference of this construction– dubbed Globus Cassus, or ‘hollow sphere’ in Latin– would be comparable to the giant planet Saturn. During the multi-million year assembly period, massive hoses would worm deep into the Earth’s fiery bowels and suck liquid metal and magma into orbit through four space elevators sited at equal distances around the equator. This material would be squirted out and transformed into a lattice framework to support the rest of the edifice. As the Earth gradually shrivels and shrinks under this onslaught, its gravity would weaken. Over generations, the skies would darken with the relentless encroachment of the enormous structure above.”

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">Even though the author (yes, you can buy a book about this) seems serious, I’d put this one down in the “you must be joking” category.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:18px;color:rgb(65,65,65);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:left;">The drawing is from the “Damn Interesting” website, the website where I found this article on (click on it for a slightly larger version). I highly recommend ”Damn Interesting”, it truly has some very interesting articles on all sorts of strange things…
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