me, and she was the
one squeezing my hand. I looked at her and she looked at me. My seat
was raising itself slowly. All of that was normal. What was abnormal
was the walls of the plane.
I
had not really paid attention to it before, but this plane had no
windows. Instead, the walls, ceiling and floor had turned completely
transparent. Or so it seemed. I reached down and touched the floor
and apparently it was some kind of screen. The entire interior of the
plane was covered with this screen material, and it was displaying a
view that made the plane appear transparent. Overhead there was a
brilliant blue sky with a few puffy clouds. Beside us in the distance
were other planes. Below was a remarkable city and we were flying
right over it.
The
scene was absolutely amazing. An entire section of the landscape was
covered with the structure of the city, but it was entirely different
from a U.S. city. In the U.S. there would be rows of buildings
intersected by a grid of roads jammed with cars. Here the structure
was designed with an entirely different intention. The amount of
glass was the most impressive part. You could see huge glass bubbles
with lakes and parks inside of them. Tall buildings that looked like
apartment towers with an amazing variety of shapes sprouted
everywhere through the glass.
Up
ahead I could see the airport. It was immense, with dozens of planes
parked next to terminal buildings. To the far right of it were
several immensely tall black structures. With the plane transparent
like it was, I could see how tall they were, and apparently they did
not have tops. I asked Linda, and I was not the only one pointing to
them.
"Those
are the space elevators," she said, "You can ride them if
you want. They are just starting to be fully operational. There's
even an orbiting hotel and you can stay there for several days if you
like. It's a very popular spot for couples, but lots of people go
simply for the novelty of it."
"How
can you have space elevators built and operational already? Last I
heard they were still 50 years off in the U.S." I asked.
"Things
have slowed down a good bit in the U.S. I'm afraid." She
replied. "The economy retracted quite a bit when so many people
ended up in Terrafoam. Then you have the combined problems of egos,
politics and lawyers in the U.S. There are immensely rich people in
the U.S., but they all seem to have large egos. They would rather
compete and bash each other than cooperate. They are constantly suing
one another. And none of them wants to have anything to do with
taxes. With all that happening, it is very hard to get people
together to work on big projects. It makes it much harder to innovate
in the U.S. You will find that things are streamlined here, and we
are innovating at an incredible pace. It's all part of getting better
and better."
As
if to illustrate her point, the plane was now landing vertically.
There was no runway, nor any need for one. We settled next to the
terminal building and the walls became opaque and normal once again.
I suppose the walls could display anything, but they had become
beige. The floor looked like polished marble.
We
stepped out of the plane through the wide doors into the concourse
with about a thousand other people from the flight, and walked a
short distance. Here we stood in one of about 100 short lines. 100
"cars" would pull up, their overhead doors would flip open
automatically, two or four people would get in, the doors would all
close automatically, and those 100 cars would depart. A new set of
100 cars would arrive and the cycle would repeat. We stood in line
for less than two minutes and we were on our way. Inside the car,
Linda and I faced Burt and Cynthia sitting across from each other in
very nice reclining seats not unlike those on the plane. The interior
was roomy and well-lit, but there were no windows.
"We
are only going 24.3 miles," Linda said, "So this will only
take 4.25 minutes."
Since
the car had no windows, it was
one squeezing my hand. I looked at her and she looked at me. My seat
was raising itself slowly. All of that was normal. What was abnormal
was the walls of the plane.
I
had not really paid attention to it before, but this plane had no
windows. Instead, the walls, ceiling and floor had turned completely
transparent. Or so it seemed. I reached down and touched the floor
and apparently it was some kind of screen. The entire interior of the
plane was covered with this screen material, and it was displaying a
view that made the plane appear transparent. Overhead there was a
brilliant blue sky with a few puffy clouds. Beside us in the distance
were other planes. Below was a remarkable city and we were flying
right over it.
The
scene was absolutely amazing. An entire section of the landscape was
covered with the structure of the city, but it was entirely different
from a U.S. city. In the U.S. there would be rows of buildings
intersected by a grid of roads jammed with cars. Here the structure
was designed with an entirely different intention. The amount of
glass was the most impressive part. You could see huge glass bubbles
with lakes and parks inside of them. Tall buildings that looked like
apartment towers with an amazing variety of shapes sprouted
everywhere through the glass.
Up
ahead I could see the airport. It was immense, with dozens of planes
parked next to terminal buildings. To the far right of it were
several immensely tall black structures. With the plane transparent
like it was, I could see how tall they were, and apparently they did
not have tops. I asked Linda, and I was not the only one pointing to
them.
"Those
are the space elevators," she said, "You can ride them if
you want. They are just starting to be fully operational. There's
even an orbiting hotel and you can stay there for several days if you
like. It's a very popular spot for couples, but lots of people go
simply for the novelty of it."
"How
can you have space elevators built and operational already? Last I
heard they were still 50 years off in the U.S." I asked.
"Things
have slowed down a good bit in the U.S. I'm afraid." She
replied. "The economy retracted quite a bit when so many people
ended up in Terrafoam. Then you have the combined problems of egos,
politics and lawyers in the U.S. There are immensely rich people in
the U.S., but they all seem to have large egos. They would rather
compete and bash each other than cooperate. They are constantly suing
one another. And none of them wants to have anything to do with
taxes. With all that happening, it is very hard to get people
together to work on big projects. It makes it much harder to innovate
in the U.S. You will find that things are streamlined here, and we
are innovating at an incredible pace. It's all part of getting better
and better."
As
if to illustrate her point, the plane was now landing vertically.
There was no runway, nor any need for one. We settled next to the
terminal building and the walls became opaque and normal once again.
I suppose the walls could display anything, but they had become
beige. The floor looked like polished marble.
We
stepped out of the plane through the wide doors into the concourse
with about a thousand other people from the flight, and walked a
short distance. Here we stood in one of about 100 short lines. 100
"cars" would pull up, their overhead doors would flip open
automatically, two or four people would get in, the doors would all
close automatically, and those 100 cars would depart. A new set of
100 cars would arrive and the cycle would repeat. We stood in line
for less than two minutes and we were on our way. Inside the car,
Linda and I faced Burt and Cynthia sitting across from each other in
very nice reclining seats not unlike those on the plane. The interior
was roomy and well-lit, but there were no windows.
"We
are only going 24.3 miles," Linda said, "So this will only
take 4.25 minutes."
Since
the car had no windows, it was
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