Re: Atlantis Project/Oceania

> > The Atlantis Project is a group in Las Vegas which is trying to build a
> > floating city in the Caribbean sea.  Their new city would be an
> ....
> Of course, the U.S. will immediately declare they a national threat and 
> bomb them back to the stone age.  :-)

Which is kind of a problem for a floating city, since stones don't
float very well, concrete canoes excepted :-)

I'm not sure their economics can float that well either - if it costs
$500M to build, and holds 1000 people, that means $500K/person....
Maybe they're looking at more people or less money.
Nice T-Shirts and promo material, though.

wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com
+1-510-484-6204) wrote:

> > Of course, the U.S. will immediately declare they a national threat
> > and bomb them back to the stone age.  :-)
> 
> Which is kind of a problem for a floating city, since stones don't
> float very well, concrete canoes excepted :-)

Actually, they plan to build it on 3-acre concrete hexagonal platforms
with hollow centers so that they float.

> I'm not sure their economics can float that well either - if it
> costs $500M to build, and holds 1000 people, that means
> $500K/person.... Maybe they're looking at more people or less
> money.  Nice T-Shirts and promo material, though.

I think their projections were a billion dollars to build it and a
population of 20,000 - 30,000...

I was just wondering what sort of business one might engage in in
Oceania?  Cryptographic software is a possibility, but I wonder how much
revenue that might bring in.  A electronic bank would probably be a more
profitable venture, but getting a high bandwidth net connection in the
middle of the ocean would increase startup costs.  Telecom, electricity,
and water supply would probably be good businesses...but they require a
local market that would be fairly small in the startup country.  There
is also international shipping and trade, but there you have large
startup costs and would need to do extensive work to get clients.  And
there is tourism...gambling, recreational drugs, etc....

writes Matthew J Ghio:
>
>profitable venture, but getting a high bandwidth net connection in the
>middle of the ocean would increase startup costs.  Telecom, electricity,

Well, a satellite dish can transfer around 100MB (megaBytes, not bits)
per second.  I'm not too sure how much this kind of link costs, but I
would also assume that the Oceania people aren't going to go without a 
network conection to start.

-nate

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nate Sammons <nate@VIS.ColoState.Edu> <nate@yuma.ANCS.ColoState.Edu>  |
|      Colorado State University Computer Visualization Laboratory      |
|    Data Visualization/Interrogation, Modeling, Animation, Rendering   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

>Well, a satellite dish can transfer around 100MB (megaBytes, not bits)
>per second.  I'm not too sure how much this kind of link costs, but I
>would also assume that the Oceania people aren't going to go without a 
>network conection to start.

Depends entirely on what it's pointing at. The actual throughput for
a single transponder on a conventional Ku-band DOMSAT is more like 45
megabits/sec.

Because of fiber, satellites are fast falling out of favor for high
capacity point-to-point links. They're now used mainly for "thin
route" traffic, especially to remote or mobile locations, and for
broadcasting.

Phil

On Mon, 7 Feb 1994, CVL staff member Nate Sammons wrote:

> writes Matthew J Ghio:
> >
> >profitable venture, but getting a high bandwidth net connection in the
> >middle of the ocean would increase startup costs.  Telecom, electricity,
> 
> Well, a satellite dish can transfer around 100MB (megaBytes, not bits)
> per second.  I'm not too sure how much this kind of link costs, but I
> would also assume that the Oceania people aren't going to go without a 
> network conection to start.

As soon as it's built, I would move in with a business offering just
this sort of connectivity. If I can swing the capital at the time
(probably not too hard) I'd also lay down swaths of fibre, set up
a packet radio network, and connect the island up...

> -nate

-Oliver

| Oliver Seiler          + Erisian Development Group +  Amiga Developer  +
| oseiler@unixg.ubc.ca   +-------------Reality by the Slice--------------+
| oseiler@nyx.cs.du.edu  | Phone: (604) 683-5364     Fax: (604) 683-6142 |
| ollie@BIX.com          | POB 3547, MPO, Vancouver, BC, CANADA  V6B 3Y6 |

CVL staff member Nate Sammons says:
> writes Matthew J Ghio:
> >
> >profitable venture, but getting a high bandwidth net connection in the
> >middle of the ocean would increase startup costs.  Telecom, electricity,
> 
> Well, a satellite dish can transfer around 100MB (megaBytes, not bits)
> per second.  I'm not too sure how much this kind of link costs, but I
> would also assume that the Oceania people aren't going to go without a 
> network conection to start.

Perhaps the appropriate time to worry about Oceania's network
connection would be when Oceania's builders have the $ 1 Billion they
need instead of begging for $20 or $30k for models. In any case, this
is NOT appropriate stuff for cypherpunks.

Perry

On Mon, 7 Feb 1994, Matthew J Ghio wrote:

> I was just wondering what sort of business one might engage in in
> Oceania?  Cryptographic software is a possibility, but I wonder how much
> revenue that might bring in.  A electronic bank would probably be a more
> profitable venture, but getting a high bandwidth net connection in the
> middle of the ocean would increase startup costs.  Telecom, electricity,
> and water supply would probably be good businesses...but they require a
> local market that would be fairly small in the startup country.  There
> is also international shipping and trade, but there you have large
> startup costs and would need to do extensive work to get clients.  And
> there is tourism...gambling, recreational drugs, etc....

Have you read "Oath of Fealty" by Larry Niven?  Check it out, it's a good 
sci-fi that outlines just this kind of project.  And please, read the 
tribute in the front...


-ck