Froth
Rim City breaks across the entire coastal plain like the froth atop gods own oil slick. Stretching 800 miles it is 200 miles wide, reaching over a mile high in places its foundations burrow down toward the earths deeps. The biggest mistake ever made by a man or mankind. an eternal visible monument, writ large in gleaming nanotube black.
It seemed the perfect solution, a blackened radioactive power vacuum, millions displaced and a risky barely tested experiment. We’re lucky that it went as well as it did.
Space created for the millions to live in, vertical farms and food-fab areas created to feed them. All inside a seemingly endless warren with a layout designed by suspect programming informed by utopian architectural theories and the distribution of trace elements in the soil.
I must admit, of course, that there was really no other choice given the scale of the devastation. However, there are some … limitations to the structure which have only become apparent after the fact.
Primarily, there is the issue of lifespan. Eventually each build runs low on key resources to maintain its fabric. Of course this is not an issue if you can diagnose and replace said resource. However if you belong to one of the teeming masses who cannot, then you must be prepared to relocate your entire household. Frequently.
Secondarily, there is the issue of the environment. The, at times, decidedly odd layouts, the lighting – either too bright or too dim yet always oddly flat – and the omnipresent sense of observation. These all provide for an ambience that is we are only slowly beginning to adjust to and which provides for a high level of neurosis amongst a large proportion of the inhabitants.
Thirdly, there is the maddening uncertainty about the, let us call them motivations, of the architectural modules. The core code is strongly encrypted and constantly evolving so we must attempt to identify motivations by analysing actions.
Like hurricanes, it appears the buildings are predictable on aggregate but not individually. This leads us to situations such as the lone Starscraper on Dragons Head peak at a higher elevation than any other build and disconnected from the rest of the city. At the other extreme we have the city of Halsey, Oregon, which is surrounded completely by Froth and yet has never been overrun. These defy explanation without an understanding of the criteria used.
Unfortunately, no one has yet been able to identify the initial criteria, the algorithm by which they evolve or the exact method of encryption. Once the limitations became glaringly apparent Dr Chiang, the designer, driven to despair committed suicide. In my opinion, his undeniable highly strung genius does not go any way to excuse his rank cowardice. We need him here working with us to correct his mistakes not swinging from a rafter in some glorious melodramatic gesture.
- Artifex Housmann
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I’m trying to get my head around what the Froth is. Is it tiny black nanotubes that can rearrange matter into buildings? Is it all pervasive in that the streets, the buildings and basically any structure is made from it? If it does form *everything*, does that involve rearranging existing matter?
Just a few questions to help me understand. Cheers
The froth is another name for the city. The city was created by nanotech based modules which grow into buildings stacked on top of each other like a coral reef. I figure that the buildings are going to be mostly carbon nanotubes in epoxy and a stone based cement since carbon and rock are fairly easy to acquire. And yes, it does involve re-arranging existing matter. As the city grows it absorbs the needed raw materials from around itself, and since it’s faulty it eats “normal” buildings.
Hopefully that answers some of your questions, at least….
It does, I’m just curious about what happens to the original material. Is there anyway that you could recognize the original material that had been manipulated by the nanotech?
The original materials would be broken down and reformed. So the old stone would be rebuilt as stone powder in an epoxy matrix to form new walls. The metal would form new beams, the carbon would be spun into nanotubes etc. The original material is still there it would just be in a new form and configuration. You probably wouldn’t be able to say “Ah yes, this wall was once part of the old coffee factory”.
Although I might now have old building parts incorporated wholesale. That could be a pretty cool touch….hmmmm. Thanks Flossy, that idea might well get used
I’m picturing a man, all on his own in an empty part of Rim City. He’s focussed like a laser. He’s been toiling day in day out for week after week. He’s laid down explosives everywhere. Daubed walls with chemicals. Trickled lines of powder across streets and through lobbys. Here and there, at key junctions in his vast vaguely occult pattern, an animal sacrifice has been prepared. Maybe even human sacrifices, if that’s what it takes.
Now as he stands over his makeshift demolitions panel, he pulls out a battered book and mutters some holy words: “Ah love! could you and I with Him conspire To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, Would not we shatter it to bits – and then Re-mold it nearer to the heart’s desire!”
Just a thought.
Is he mad? Or maybe, just maybe, is he right? Love it!