Sort of like China who also has cities without people, but for a different reason.
New Mexico, home to several of the nation’s premier scientific, nuclear and military institutions, is planning to take part in an unprecedented science project — a 20-square-mile model of a small U.S. city.
A Washington, D.C.-based technology company announced plans Tuesday to build the state’s newest ghost town to test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems.
Although no one will live there, the replica city will be modeled after a typical American town of 35,000 people, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new.
Pegasus Global Holdings CEO Bob Brumley says the $200 million project, known as The Center, will be a first of its kind in the U.S., creating a place for scientists at the state’s universities, federal labs and military installations to test their innovations for upgrading cities to 21st century green technology and infrastructure in a real world setting.
Oops, damn typos. Meant 10K 4x4s and 10K SUVs simulataneously.
#20 – it would be cool if we started above ground nuke testing again. As far as supercomputers go, cities are a hell of a lot simpler than the climate. If they’re realy saying they can’t model cities…
#20 Glenn E. said
“With all the spending cuts Congress is supposed to be thinking about making. Why isn’t this idea scraped?”
Because Congress isn’t paying for it. The company says they will raise the money themselves to finance the project. See the link in post #8 to read their press release.
It sounds like the Obama administration. One stated the obvious problem.
Um, it’s a big lab. $200 million is actually chump change for major research. Nothing wrong with that if there is a good cost-benefit analysis and they provide good access to researchers, not just their friends.
How can they say it’ll be the first of its kind in the ‘States?
As a “for reals” example there was Alamogordo New Mexico which blossomed with the development of the nuclear bomb.
As a facetious example there’s the fictional town of “Eureka”.
#23 doewll
Careful. Someone might think you were equating the Obama administration with Capitalism. What with a private, high-tech company risking their own money on a project.
Talking about a Boondoggle and complete waste of money.
Who is going to believe any testing, experiment or trial that isn’t reflective of a real-world environment, i.e; with crowds of bleary eyed rush-hour people trying to get to work, talking on their cell phone, putting on their make-up….
Any work, setup or test is by definition inconclusive and just a waste of more tax-payer money.
#2 will this will create jobs.. someone’s gotta build that. Most likely illegal mexicans.
Excellent idea and investment.
This compares much better than the Republican pork spent by the defense department to hurl a volkswagen at the speed of sound – which failed.
#27 noname said
“Who is going to believe any testing, experiment or trial that isn’t reflective of a real-world environment”
I thought that was the reason that the company was proposing the test city. To closely mimic real world conditions while still retaining the ability to repeat tests: i.e. without the constant change of people.
Suppose you want to test something in the electrical grid at a specific time of the day, say at 8 AM. A Real World test allows you to do it once a day at best. A test city allows you to repeat the test all day and to test Best Case and Worst Case and everywhere in-between.
It does not eliminate Real World testing, but to my mind it would allow much more focused testing.
Maybe someone needs to tell them that we are in 2011
What do they possibly need to test that couldn’t be done with computers?
I am pretty sure that a $20 million datacenter would have been more than enough for all their testing needs, and they could test for all sorts of things line earthquakes, bombs etc without destroying anything.
Oh wait….
#12 malicious duzy – I know it’s hard for you to look past information simple enough to satisfy the average Kool Aid Party study group [that's tomorrow night isn't it?] – but here’s a list of a hundred or so clients of PGH that aren’t the DOD:
http://tinyurl.com/3d3g7dk
“if space aliens decide to invade Earth”
if it was gonna happen they would have done it by now, or maybe they waiting for the price of gold to go up even more, i hear they like eating monoatomic gold in order to maintain their health, but by this logic they should have invaded years ago at a lower price, maybe they will wait until we have extracted all the gold on the planet and they can heist it in one hit from from the nwo.
then again, these ghost cities look like possible escapes when some ‘natural disaster hits’
Questions: is this city high above sea level, away from quake zones and can they grow their own weed? do they have access to underground caverns, are the locals armed, is there strategic defenses by design?
all very important questions.
Once the cylon’s drop in and nuke the place, your jibber jabber won’t mean shit
Obviously it is a playground for DARPA.
Couldn’t they just use one of France’s 70 no go areas where noone should travel, including cops? OK, there are still Muslims in those places.
Ya sure. With the out of control spending our government is into these days, I suppose this non-populated city project was expected to go under the press’s radar – and so far it seems to still be there too.
Quite frankly, this sounds to me like a disguise to build one of the first modern U.S. concentration camps. Need more proof? Just look at who the neighbors are to the south! (OK, I’ll take my tin foil hat off now.)
That’s a lot of money that could rebuild some of our disintegrating infrastructure. That’s a shame.
In a time of rampant unemployment and foreclosures and national indebtedness, this is a COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. And I’m sure, 200 million is only the start.
Why do I always hear of programs like Social Security under attack? Why aren’t we stopping these wars, cutting back on the Pentagon and its contractors and on these foolish “research” projects. If I would President, I would work actively to eliminate most Federal agencies, including those conducting “research”. It’s only a scam to steal massive amounts of money from the taxpayers and funnel it to private corporate industry.
I’m really pissed at this. How DARE they build a fake city when so many of our real towns and cities are dying?????? Where are those damn torches and pitchforks?????
@dusanmal
“@#8 Cap’nKangaroo … Yeah,… Than you study financial background of the Pegasus and find that it is paid by DOD… It is money-washing scheme. DOD pays Pegasus, Pegasus “invests private money” to build this abomination. DOD does studies on it…
If spending GOVERNMENT money on this scale, why not build city for real people who need it and give it to them. Cut DOD budget for that amount.”
That’s EXACTLY how it works. It’s not PRIVATE money….it’s money they get from some part of government as a grantee or contractor, and then they use that. It’s STILL tax payer money, and it’s STILL a terrible, terrible, terrible idea. I’d like to start flogging these people with cat o’nine tails. I’ve had it!