Forget colonies in space, one construction company says in the future humans could live in huge underwater complexes that corkscrew deep into the ocean.
Five thousand people would live and work in a modern-day Atlantis, a sphere 500 meters in diameter housing hotels, residential spaces and commercial complexes, in the blueprint by Shimizu Inc.
The vast globe would float on the surface but could submerge in bad weather, moving down a gigantic spiral structure that reaches depths of up to 4,000 meters.
The project is the result of collaboration with researchers from institutions such as the University of Tokyo and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
The company’s visionaries say microorganisms called methanogens could be used to convert carbon dioxide from the air above into methane, and they envisage using the wide difference in water temperature between the surface and lower depths to generate power.
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