[ExI] Trying for a minimum technical comment

[Mike Dougherty]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 9:28 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>>...I  have enginerring experience: i think of a lot of ideas that won't
> work...
>
> Me too Mike.  It seems like all of my ideas fall into one of two categories:
> old or wrong.  Actually I like what I think was your typo and suggest a
> definition.  Enginerr: (verb) design something that doesn't work.

It was a typo at first, but it made me laugh so I left it that way and
changed the sentence so the new word made sense.

>>...This made me consider geothermal energy.  Instead of sending water into
> deep holes in the ground and bringing warm water up to the surface, can we
> just put the people underground instead?
>
> It is done that way in some places, but it is a solution that will likely be
> attractive only where the climate is really harsh.  You have an air-handling
> problem, one that can be solved at a reasonable cost.

even with reasonable costs this idea must be unpalatable to the
average prole.  I wonder how much (or how little) marketing it would
take to get people to seriously consider this a good long-term
investment.

> I know of a US Navy facility near Washington DC Crystal City that is mostly
> underground, earthscrapers.  I don't know for sure how many levels it goes
> down, but I do recall getting into an elevator and going up to the ground
> level.  The motive for building that was not for insulation purposes but
> rather for surviving a nuclear attack.

I think I'd put "survives a nuclear attack" down a few notches on the
"pros" side of the bullet list (but it's on the list).  What a
sarcastic-funny skit it would be to be a realtor in the dystopian
world where 1st time home buyers are weighing their options between
the nuclear attack-resistant subterranean dwelling and the simpler
commute of the downtown apartment.  I imagine there are several levels
of nuclear attack resistance for those with means.

> Ja.  We use it now for some things, such as storage of nuclear waste.  If we
> look around, I can imagine some underground homes exist.  It doesn't really
> appeal to me, but it might to some market segment.  I can imagine building
> homes out of big Styrofoam blocks of some sort.

On one hand, they blow away in the first Nor'easter.  On the other,
renovations can be done with a serrated knife and a glue gun.