Embedded Files
Which eccentric billionaire's vision is the
one, true utopia?
Which eccentric billionaire's vision is the
one, true utopia?
If you're at all sane, you probably responded none of them. Nevertheless, billionaire culture seems to involve dreaming up ideal societies. Some are more grounded like Telosa or Belmont, while others are a real moon shot... make that Mars shot, in the case of Elon Musk. One floats on water. Another exists in an a virual dimension. They may not exist. They may never exist. But at least we can learn about them, chuckle, and dream.
🀰 Telosa
🀰 Telosa
Image: Telosa
Billionaire: Marc Lore (Jet.com, Walmart, Quidsi)
Looks like Dr. Evil?: Yes.
Location: Possibly Arizona
Area: 200,000 acres
Population: 5 million
Model: Equitism (invented for the city)
Attributes: Renewable energy, food residency, water reduction
Inspired by Henry George's Progress and Poverty (free online).
🀰 Belmont
🀰 Belmont
Billionaire: Bill Gates (Microsoft, BEN, Cascade Investment)
Looks like Dr. Evil?: No.
Location: Arizona
Area: 24,000 acres
Population: 80,000 residential units
Model: "Forward-thinking"
Attributes: High-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies
The city would effectively be a suburb of Phoenix, located 45 minutes from downtown.
Video: 12 News
🀰 Seastead
🀰 Seastead
Billionaire: Peter Thiel (PayPal, Planatir Technologies, Founders Fund)
Looks like Dr. Evil?: Would if he shaved his head.
Location: International waters
Area: 24,000 acres
Population: 200-person resort
Model: possibly libertarian
Attributes: Lawlessness, independent of any nation, allows citizen of existing governments to exit easily
Prototypes were proposed for San Francisco Bay and French Ploynesia.
🀰 Mars City
🀰 Mars City
Billionaire: Elon Musk (X, SpaceX, Tesla)
Looks like Dr. Evil?: Kinda.
Location: Mars
Area: unspecified
Population: several thousand
Model: self-sustaining
Attributes: Partially underground, serviced by SpaceX starships, formed around a propellant pant and solar array
Mars City would produce its own food, power, and fuel.
🀰 Orbital Colony
🀰 Orbital Colony
Image: Blue Origin
Billionaire: Jeff Bezos (Amazon, Blue Origin)
Looks like Dr. Evil?: Yes.
Location: Earth orbit
Area: unspecified
Population: 1 trillion
Model: O'Neill cylinder
Attributes: Centrifugal "gravity," Maui-like climate, plant growth
Based on a model developed by Gerard O'Neill at Princeton University in 1976.
🀰 The Metaverse
🀰 The Metaverse
Image: Meta
Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg (Meta)
Looks like Dr. Evil?: No, more like Data from Star Trek.
Location: Virtual reality
Area: infinite
Population: 600 million
Model: virtual
Attributes: Most users are presently younger than 13, Roblox is the most popular world, eventual value of $74.4 billion
Criticized by Keza MacDonald of The Guaradian as less a utopia than a "late-capitalist technocratic nightmare".
Honourable mention goes to YCombinator's New Cities with "optimized governance" including universal basic income, urban efficiency, and tech-first systems, and Kim Stanley's Green Archologies self-contained ecosystem with towers complete with agriculture, vertical forests, and carbon capture -- I'll even add Neom, a carless, streetless, zero-emission civilization with AI governance, flying Blade-Runner taxis and robot servants, a dream of MBS. Less-honourable mention goes to the idea of decentralized blockchain cities, the dream of multiple crypto billionaires, where decentralized autonomous organizations replace governments.
[ The flying car utopia moving image is AI generated. Impressive, no? ]
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse