OK. Starting fresh, new thread, possibly serious discussion: 1. How big is a dome--would it be the equivalent of, e.g., a city block, The City of London, London, or England? I imagine it must be fairly small--in The Way Back, you can see the light bulb shining through the little bitty windows cut in the styrofoam, the way you can in a building as you walk past. 2. Which brings up the question of how many domes there are, and whether separate countries are still recognized-- i.e., I've made references to Englandome and Helveticadome but even if countries still exist there would probably be lots of domes per country. And the question of whether Blake is Welsh just because Gareth Thomas implies the continued existence of Wales. 3. How do people get around within a dome? I know that personal transportation has been banned, but I can't believe that domes are small enough to walk from one end to the other. I assume something like trams or commuter trains. 4. Are there subcategories in grades (Beta-2, Gamma-4)? That could be what Avon means by a "fifth-grade ignorant," but I assume he means that Vila dropped out of school or was expelled in the fifth grade... 5. Which brings up the question of whether the schools have "grades" or "forms," "high schools" or "comprehensives," "colleges" or "universities."
-(Y)
From: Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net
OK. Starting fresh, new thread, possibly serious discussion:
Ah, but for how long:)
- How big is a dome--would it be the
equivalent of, e.g., a city block, The City of London, London, or England? I imagine it must be fairly small--in The Way Back, you can see the light bulb shining through the little bitty windows cut in the styrofoam, the way you can in a building as you walk past.
Okay, you did say *possibly* serious...
Not all that large, I would imagine. If we posit an average population density of perhaps 1000 people per square kilometre (possibly a bit low, if anything, especially if you include the vertical dimension), and a dome radius of say 10 km, then we have a dome population of about 350,000. You can pack a lot of people into a small space. (I don't have any RL urban population densities to hand or I'd use them as a base figure.)
If we take the dome seen in TWB as a model, though, it was roughly hemispherical, so we'd be talking about a dome about 10km high - it would dwarf Everest! But if we reduce the height to a more reasonable 1 km, then the radius shrinks likewise and our population plummets to a mere 3,500. Barely a village!
I tend to think of the TWB dome as a peripheral bump on a much broader structure, with nodules branching out in all directions. A bit like a giant 3D Mandelbrot set.
- Which brings up the question of how
many domes there are, and whether separate countries are still recognized-- i.e., I've made references to Englandome and Helveticadome but even if countries still exist there would probably be lots of domes per country. And the question of whether Blake is Welsh just because Gareth Thomas implies the continued existence of Wales.
I was working on a PWB novel a few years ago, scuppered by plot complications, and I included several domes within the West Europ complex. There was one at Kiel, another nearby at Kobenaga, with West Europ administered from Alzass (ie; Alsace). SCCIC (Space Command Central Intelligence Control, of which Servalan was then Senior Secretary) was based in Minsk, part of the East Europ complex. There were also references to Kiro, Shikago and Moskovar. Other slices of the action took part outside the domes in Dania (Denmark), Mauricius (where the current President resided) and an unnamed region that was IRL Tunisia (West Europ's salt was mined from 'CJ', the Chott el Jerid The processing plant, through some tortuous reason or other that I never quite worked out, also housed Servalan's private army. Servalan's private residence was on the clifftops of Cabon, RL Cap Bon, which I've visited so there!). The GC (Garrison Command) contingent for Dania was based at Neurandersborg (current day Randers, which just goes to show I have an atlas), an Outsider settlement located well away from the domes. Other locations in Dania were GC stations Florence and Roamer, named simply after characters in the standard phonetic alphabet (Astra, Belter, Chime, Dancer etc). There was also a reference to the Jerusalem Crater, still too radioactive for resettlement.
Englandome? OUCH!
- How do people get around within a dome?
I know that personal transportation has been banned, but I can't believe that domes are small enough to walk from one end to the other. I assume something like trams or commuter trains.
I would expect a complex network of short and long haul public maglevs. Although personal transportation might be illegal, those who needed to travel to do their work might be allocated a personal vehicle for work use only. Goods would still need to be transported, so I have no problems envisaging a road infrastructure. The central character in the novel I just mentioned lived in an appartment in Guderianstrass, Kiel, which was wide enough to accomodate a road vehicle since she was picked by SCCIC agents from home - the car was right outside her door. The Douglas Bader Military Airbase was located near the roof of the Kiel dome. Earlier in the story she visited the Britannia subcomplex via the Lamansh Tunnel.
All completely non-canonical, of course. But none of it anti-canonical.
Neil
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Dana Shilling -
Neil Faulkner