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From BLDGBLOG:

Because “it takes too long to come down to ground level each day to make it worthwhile,” a crane operator on the Burj Dubai – the world’s tallest building – is rumored to have “been up there for over a year,” the Daily Telegraph reports. His name is Babu Sassi, and he is “a fearless young man from Kerala” who has become “the cult hero of Dubai’s army of construction workers.” He also lives several thousand feet above the ground.

In the theory of emergence it is understood that complexity has a limit. For example, when the population of an ant colony reaches a certain point, 80,000 or so, changes begin to happen. Army ants swarm another colony or lots of ants move out and wander or start a new colony. What is clear is one behavior ends and another one begins. The crane operator is something like this change in behavior. The skyscraper as an emergent event or property has in Dubai reached its limit and with this limit ends one kind of behavior or use and the emergence of new uses and behaviors.

Also, the crane operator’s situation recalls another situation in a play I recently watched and very much enjoyed, Scotto Moore’s interlace [falling star].

In this epic blend of science-fiction and fantasy, a mysterious amnesiac finds herself in the lobby of an infinitely tall building located in the center of the multiverse, the headquarters of the United Association of Interdimensionary Travelers. Her unexplained presence sets off a series of increasingly catastrophic events that not only compromise the security of the Association, but threaten to unravel the entire fabric of creation itself!

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...

17 replies on “Interlace in Dubai”

  3. Charles, you are on a roll. Great post.

    I like to think that the game changer is that skyscrapers are getting so tall that some humans will just never get down to ground level, and just live their whole lives at altitude.

    Which is nice from a carbon-footprint standpoint.

  4. Um, Sven, I think once they get the high-speed elevators running, people will come down. Building height has always been determined by elevator technology.

    But doesn’t this just look like Will in Seattle’s idea of paradise?

  6. Fnarf, you’re probably right. But at the point where the bar, gym, school, and work are all in the same building, there are some people who will just never leave. I mean, Forks is overrated, Yellowstone is crowded most of the time, and you could get killed climbing Mt. Rainier. Kind of Blade Runner meets Fifth Element, minus the aircars. But I could be wrong.

    But yes, this does look like Will’s spoogetacular wonderland.

  9. Given the way the leaders in Dubai treat their labor-force, particularly foreigners, it’s really not surprising this guy would prefer to remain in the elevated, isolated, uncrowded, and presumably far-less-than-squalid conditions his fellow construction workers have to face at the end of their work-shifts.

  13. Wait until they have space elevators. Along comes a big storm and rips loose the space station and the elevator cord comes flaming down to earth and whips across the face of the globe ripping these towers to shreds. Then we’ll learn. Or not.

  14. spacelevator chords are engineered to break free from a near-ground position, and “recoil” upwards. it is a common fear that falling spacelevator cables would cause widespread damage, when, in fact there are less deaths each year from such incidents than from automobile accidents.

  15. Charles, you should read Ted Chiang’s story ‘Tower of Babylon.’ If you dig sci-fi and ludicrous construction projects, that story’s for you. Actually, all of his stories are amazingly good.

  17. well, technically, i only represented that there are fewer deaths from spacelevator chord mishaps than from automobile accidents each year. whether there are actually fewer this year than years previous is difficult to say….

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