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.

Table of Contents 1 Past mega-projects 2 Current mega-projects 3 Possible future mega-projects 4 Promising technologies 5 Mega non-projects 6 Links

[edit] Past mega-projects

• 2,000 B.C. Egyptian pyramids.
• 200 B.C. 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.
• 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)

[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. :)

1. Nanotechnology
2. Artificial Intelligence - [1]
3. Renewable Energy
4. Genetic engineering
5. handheld water purification
6. The Thousand Dollar Genome
7. $100 laptop
8. 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.

• Megascales