Mega-project
From Future
Mega-projects are large scale national or international projects. They usually have a specific goal and often require developing new technologies or even fields of science. Mega-projects are similar to Wonders of the World as portrayed in Civilisation.
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[edit] Past mega-projects
- 2,500 BCE Egyptian pyramids.
- 2,200 BCE Sumerian ziggurats.
- 200 BCE Great Wall of China.
- Transatlantic telephone cable.
- 1825 The Erie Canal
- 1914 The Panama Canal - involved moving more mass of raw material than any other project ever built by humans.
- 1956-1992 Interstate Highways.
- 1969 Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
- 2003 Human Genome Project.
- The Internet
[edit] Current mega-projects
- Nasa Space program.
- International Space Station (ISS)
- International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
- RoboCup project (TBD 2050)
- [Hadron Collider]
[edit] Possible future mega-projects
- Human Cognome Project
- Proteome project
- Solar Space Colonization
- Reversing Global Warming.
- Space elevator
- Terraforming MarsLuna and/or Venus.
- Interstellar Space Colonization.
[edit] Promising technologies
These are similar to mega-projects in that they give high payoff and can be accelerated now by an appropriate R&D investment. They don't necessarily produce a large impressive "artefact", however. :)
- Nanotechnology
- Artificial Intelligence - [1]
- Renewable Energy
- Genetic engineering
- handheld water purification
- The Thousand Dollar Genome
- $100 laptop
- Fuel cells
http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=12
[edit] Mega non-projects
- Missile Defence (a program covering various US War in Space projects, the continuation of the "Star Wars" program) - "the largest industrial project in history" is actually not a project, since its primary goal is (luckily) enrichment of numerous defence contractors, not a particular achievement.
[edit] Links
- Enlarge Our Minds to an Idea that is Out of This World - an interesting comparision of a Erie Canal project with a Space Elevator project.
- Watch Bill Clinton talk in this video (about 30% in) about $3bn in civilian research to get nano.
- Лукьянец тоже пишет о мегапроектах (RUS): http://www.transhumanism-russia.ru/content/view/207/116/
- Megastructures are one type of mega-project.
