NEOM - Saudi Space Age City

 

Have you heard of NEOM, Saudi's  futuristic desert development on the Red Sea, featuring The Line, Oxagon and Trojena? You haven't? Well, take it from a humble mission priest in rural Texas that NEOM's a massively ambitious exercise in creating a super futuristic living and working space for the 21st century and beyond.

The Line, two parallel skyscrapers 200 meters apart and 170 km long across the desert. Clad in mirrored glass and with a footprint of just 34 square kilometers, the Line will supposedly house 9 million people with an end to end transit of 20 minutes, thanks to super hi speed rail. Residents will walk everywhere because everything they need will be, apparently, within 5 minutes of their housing pod. Far out. Imagine that silver beast cutting across the sand.

Oxagon is a, "Next-gen automated & integrated port & supply chain. A fostering ecosystem for research &​ innovation. Catalyst for advanced transformational industries. Global gateway for world trade," and it's, "Powered by 100% clean energy," with an,  "Unmatched regulatory business environment. Exceptional livability," and a, "State-of-the-art investor care center."

Huh, far out. But what about Trojena? It's a holiday spot for all the 9 million people who want to take a break from their work on The Line. In NEOM's own words:

TROJENA will be an iconic, world-class destination, blending natural and developed landscapes – and offering unique human-centric experiences for residents and visitors alike. The destination will house six distinctive development districts centered around tailored experiences that blend real with virtual architectural and engineering innovations. All to create a destination like no other on earth.

 

Readers, all seven of you, what do we make of this? Is the NEOM vision scyfy cool or scyfy dystopic? Would you want to live in the fast rail, mirrored, AI controlled desert fastness of The Line as you subcontract to the bizarrely green Oxagen port while holidaying on the waters and slopes of paradisal Trojena?

Perhaps I'm cynical, but just imagine your friendly AI cuts off your social credit on the cusp of your Trojena vacation, all because you said something wrong on the internet. Oops, now you're a non-person, like a Calgary trucker. Bang goes your 20 minute end-to-end hi speed transit.

Then again, maybe it's a good thing people are dreaming big and futuristic, flying cars all 'round. But think, this is planned for Saudi Arabia. Will women be allowed to drive them? Sorry! Stupid, we can't define "woman" so non-issue. As you were.

Your Buddy,

LSP