linear cities don't work saudi arabia, here's why.

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If stupidity was a project it would be this one…
Link to script:
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[@Will-xf3qe]

When i think of good tourist locations i always think of the most authoritarian theocratic dictatorships in the world

[@brownerjerry174]

You will be surprised at how authoritarian many major tourist destination are, Dubai, Thailand and Singapore comes to mind. Obviously not as restrictive as Saudis but still very restrictive indeed.

[@asande7126]

@@brownerjerry174you forgot new york and los angeles and toronto

[@JonathanAlmgren]

@@brownerjerry174 Saudi Arabia has become much much less restrictive for tourists atleast, they will certainly be forced to keep easing off because the oil is running out and many countries are doing everything to lessen the amount of oil they use with many countries already having a year planned to stop allowing the sale of gas vehicles, Norway for instance will no longer sell gas vehicles by 2025, India and Germany in 2030 and several US states have decided to ban sale of gasoline vehicles by 2025 more US states and countries will certainly follow. With just vehicle sales being banned in a few years time that will have a dramatic decline of oil usage plus more and more countries constantly adding to their renewable energy the decline of oil is starting and in 20 years time they will not be able to rely on oil for their power, once oil is done the USA will not back them any more, Jordan and Iraq lost territory to Saudi Arabia so you can bet without USA backing they will implode, they will have to make major changes to be able to retain the USA as an ally or Saudi Arabia will cease to exist

[@Prash1c]

The irony is, too many people on Instagram and social media think otherwise. For them if rich people are doing it, they want a piece of it.

[@overlordbrandon]

Turkmenistan and North Korea:

This will either be the most cyberpunk dystopian disaster in the future, or just an abandoned pit in the desert that destroys migration patterns and irrigation

[@me0101001000]

My bet is on the latter.

[@starmaker75]

Mostly likely the latter

[@skandinaviskman]

My bet is both

[@j.obrien4990]

The Saudi's have still an unfinished a major tower sitting in the middle the desert. Funny side note: the Burj Khalifa in Dubai isn't connected to a wastewater collection system. (at least as of Jan 2022) They haul it out in pumper trucks.

[@me0101001000]

@@j.obrien4990 have you seen the videos on Dubai by Adam Something? Shit is hilarious (pun intended)

[@Memethief621]

Imagine the amount of dusts that would accumulate on the glass and the amount of maintenance they would have to do

[@PetarChakarov]

Probably will use some renewable liquid to clean it. Something wet, you know, to clean the glass. Needs to be easy to transport, maybe through a pipe. Now where can one find such a thing in the desert?

[@spexiar]

imagine youre a bird flying pass it and get cooked instantly by the reflecting light

[@billybones6463]

I imagine they will coat it with some anti-stick compound, or make small robots to continuously be cleaning the surfaces

[@davidhastings7714]

there are plenty of slave in the middle east

[@richardwebb9532]

Yeah, as if sandstorms won't sandblast that glass to non transparency in a few months.....

[@alanbrown4446]

Tourists flock to Thailand because of it's natural beauty, moderate climate, loads of bars and restaurants selling wine and beer & great food, all at moderate and affordable prices, laid back attitude and friendly and lovely people. How much of that applies to Saudi?

[@balajib1406]

Bingo and prostitutes!!😮

[@Puleczech]

------------- of it applies to Saudi Arabia.

[@azamarabear]

Bruh You forgot the lady boys😮

[@bustarock666]

Also you cannot overstate how inefficient the line structure is. You can literally reduce the maximum distance between two locations inside the line in half just by making the structure circular.

[@draculakickyourass]

Are you talking about logic and laws of physics with people who have plenty of space,yet they choose to raise half kilometer buildings,just to spend huge amounts of energy just to lift themselves up ,along with water,goods and services? I wonder if this time they will consider to build sewage installations. Because is optional.

[@kx7500]

The only way to make it worse would be to make it vertical

[@tosu157]

They can call it, The Circle!

[@mehulbasu6057]

But then the only way you can scale a circular structure is vertically. If it's a line you can build infinite repeating blocks as you need

[@kx7500]

@@mehulbasu6057 build a second circle. It doesn’t have to be one uniform structure

[@jcs3142]

"One of the best universities in the Gulf region": In case you don't know, a scandal broke a few months ago because it turned out their university system pays great minds abroad to say they work there while they don't so they can artificially boost their score in international lists.

[@sahilx4954]

They never had any good education system. They just have money to build huge universities, but the quality of education is not even close to the quality of infrastructure .

[@mr.y981]

Not really, KFUPM has been the best university in the Middle East for some time, their acceptance rate is around 5%, pretty hard to get in

[@screayx]

@@mr.y981 What? He never even doubted that, he simply said that it isnt all great either

[@BBSr-q2w]

Vely interesting 🤔

[@mr.y981]

@@screayx your response is contradictory

[@ahmadialifyandra585]

bro dissed a whole country’s english proficiency for a language app ad

[@ilanamillion8942]

I agree that it wasn't right to do that even if their english proficiency is low.

[@abhayprabhu8951]

He’s out of line, but he’s right 🤣

[@Mienboi821510]

Saudi Arabia has so many mega projects that are unfinished and abandoned. These guys have so much money to spend on nothing.

[@Blake-Urizen]

Fortunately, this longitudinal-prison "line" of impractical, attention-seeking insanity will almost certainly never be built.

[@recoil53]

No, but some of the money will go missing.

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@recoil53 You can bet on it.

[@uromvictor]

Its been built

[@recoil53]

@@uromvictor "built" as in completed and functional.

[@Dogsnark]

It’ll be interesting to see at what point this loony project will be abandoned. And it will definitely be abandoned.

[@hydronpowers9014]

That one engineer: Hey guys, what if we make a normal city with efficient public transit, better health care centers, educational centers, walkable districts, modern infrastructure, extensive sewage networks, and pro environment stance on architecture M: Haha, NO

[@TimEssDub]

Those aren't as sexy as this project.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

sir, you need to get your priorities straigth, how can we win the dlckmeasuring contest, horizontal skyphalus it is

[@StefanoZora]

That engineer seems to have won the argument for the creation of Nusantara

[@CUBETechie]

I would understand if it was a transportation Route like the belt and road Initiative

[@Tr33ba1t]

I think that most of those things go out the window the moment you decide to build a giant city in the desert

[@zanizone3617]

I think that, one day, historians will look at Saudi Arabian history, and label the past 70 years, plus whatever time is left for oil exploitation, as this weird period, where the country went from goat herding back to goat herding, passing through a phase of unfathomable riches, that led to zero permanent improvement. It's a remarkable feat in itself, if you think about it.

[@ladydamemarvelous-micynyc7265]

And don’t forget - “they still believe in receiving virgins after death.”

[@munnashah1195]

Well with all that infrastructure, they cannot be on goats. Don't b cilly.

[@zanizone3617]

@@munnashah1195 idk, the thing with infrastructure is that it needs maintenance. Extremely expensive too in their case. Perhaps they will not go back to goats, but close enough, considering how dependant they are on foreigners to run everything. No more money, no more laborers, technicians etc. There are no native Saudi plumbers and electricians...

[@-Jakob-]

So mote it be.

[@munnashah1195]

@@zanizone3617 Rather than wishing other people misery, focus on your own sorry life.

[@RandallChase1]

I feel like once you are in “the line” you are never free to go. And could EASILY be tracked with ZERO freedom.

[@InfiniteRespawn2023]

That is what it is all about

[@johnnyonthespot4375]

Hang on .... They failed miserably at building the Worlds tallest structure and now we are supposed to believe they will succeed at building the longest ?!!? Do they understand that we can still SEE that failed tall thing ?

[@Punishthefalse]

They didn't fail at the tallest structure, but they fail at everything surrounding that structure, from the lack or absence of a sewage system to total car dependence. It is fancy but deep down it is utter rubbish.

[@deonlepharaoh]

So according to you, if you fail at one thing, never try anything else ever again? I doubt you live by that logic.

[@Punishthefalse]

@@deonlepharaoh You wouldn't repeat a failure that costs enough money to keep several third world countries solvent. This is not some school project where your failure is your own to bear. This is a failure that impacts a veritable army of labourers, an entire company and the citizens who could have used the budget.

[@DiegoBillies]

The tallest structure is actually making them a lot of money

[@alexking9150]

😊

[@nuhuman88]

Natural stupidity always beats artificial intelligence.

[@harekrishna7837]

👍😁

[@jirislavicek9954]

👍👍👍

[@AaronTheGreat________]

This means nothing😂

[@Automedon2]

Can you imagine the heat and humidity in that greenhouse? Sandstorms will turn those mirrors dull.

[@kaisersozay99]

Extra judicial police killings, with no repercussions for the cops? Never heard of such things in the USA.

[@Bb13190]

You didn't even mention the ski ressort in the dessert with artificial snow from an artificial lake filled with desalinated water. Which is supposed to host the Asian winter game in a few year. The project is just a little bit less crazy than the line (which is just behind logic) but its cancellation would be an international humiliation for the kingdom.

[@blwxq]

your forgeting the artifcial snow is fine, since the bejing winter cup was also 100% artifical snow.

[@t.i.3416]

@@blwxq Beijing is cold, making artificial snow melt slower. Saudi Arabia is very hot.

[@francogiobbimontesanti3826]

@@t.i.3416they are building it up in the mountains, it is cold there it just doesn’t snow because you know, it’s a desert.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

yep, desalination is not a bad idea to be honest, but the wise thing to do is either immediate distribution and storage underground as drinking water or if they really need to flex they could use underground drainagepipes (usually now a plastic pipe with holes in it and surounded with absorbent materials such as cocosfiber) and gradually use these to expand a green zone deeper and deeper into the desert. preventing millions of liters of direct evaporation and hell they could even use regular pipes to transport the water over vast distances and use such a system in specific area's, for instance to create a green belt in and around Riadh significantly improving the climate in that city in a far more sustainable way, they might even cultivate some favour with their subjects that way nope better build a skiresort

[@ileanaacacostaacosta1813]

Saudi Arabia has not a climate cold enough to produce natural snow for that project their country is mostly desert and too hot if you ask me

[@Snagprophet]

Shouldn't they try to make a 1km long city that looks exactly as the concept does and then expand whenever?

[@SiKe_sxt]

that doesn't sound fancy enough

[@Victor-rx4fv]

I think it kinda is their plan. I've seen somewhere that "The Line" will be made of blocks that repeat every 1km or so. They say that each block should have all the infrastructure and services required for a city to live. Needless to say, they seem commited to start building their weird dystopian city but it will never be as big as they announce.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

@@Victor-rx4fv it will probably never even be that, it will certainly not be finished and nobody will want to live there, but that is what happens with states like this, the one at the top bites into a clearly bad idea and nobody around is willing to contest it in fear of their position if not their lives and I thought ciaucescu was a moron when it came to megaprojects,

[@KingAlphaOmega]

Let them built it .... and see how it goes

[@NothingIsKnown00]

But what if they build only 1km and then the project stalls? Then it won’t be as big and fancy as they want. Better throw all of the money on the project in one go.

[@andyb1653]

They know that oil money isn't going to last much longer, so they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping something will stick.

[@fahadxxdbl]

little fix: 7:55 Sultan Qaboos Port in Oman was not abandoned, it just switched from commercial to touristic port, Oman generally don't follow the usual Golf countries style of megaprojects

[@sickomode6440]

The fact that they need to be able to adapt to tourism to keep their hegemony in the world says a lot where they're gonna be a couple of decades later.

[@RobespierreThePoof]

Saudi hegemony ... That's an odd term. They really only have anything resemling hegemony in their local region : Arabia. I wouldn't even say it extends westward past Egypt within the Arab world, much less beyond the c Arab cultural sphere.

[@sickomode6440]

@@RobespierreThePoofYes. They don't dominate I may have exaggerated a little bit but even so in the north African, east Asian region they are very powerful and even have leverage against European and US with their oil supplies they are forced to buy since they are reducing gas consumption from Russia since mid 2022.

[@recoil53]

@@sickomode6440 They have leverage on the world economy. The US is a net exporter of oil and has enough natural gas too. Saudi Arabia will always have some tourism because of Mecca. However, the Saudis don't even run their own oil business, what makes them think they can adopt to anything?

[@ronald3836]

@@recoil53 trying to adapt is the only chance they have, but they are not likely to succeed. A doomed country.

[@billybones6463]

They're coping the Dubai model which has been wildly successful. It makes sense but might be a bit too adventurous and optimistic

[@kingofrivia1248]

They could do SO MUCH with all that money. They could build a solar array that could desalinate enough water to become one of the cleanest and biggest food producers in the world. But hey straight line-.

[@Houthiandtheblowfish]

green energy lol soy boy lgbt brain washed liberals you think that is going to save europe energy dependency wait for it even though saudi project will fail is likely but europe green project to fail is 100 percent bound to fail lol

[@Omar_almatrafi]

Look it’s up, Saudi National water company holds a world record for water desalination efficiency. Despite of the efficiency it still much more expensive then natural water resources so to answer your poor judgment we can not afford food production in economical sense.

[@poetryflynn3712]

​@@Omar_almatrafiThat's on top of soil being a requirement for farming

[@kingofrivia1248]

@@Omar_almatrafi Look it up you still produce the electricity with oil. So yeah thats the exact opposit of efficient or usefull. And i know its not economically viable but 1 trillion dollars should help with that.

[@altrshakib9449]

@@kingofrivia1248 We produce more Oil in a day than most countries do in 10 years. Come on man. I live in Riyadh, here Oil is LITERALLY a few cents cheaper than the same amount of water. Not only that, Our economy is depended on Oil, so we legit cannot stop producing oil any time soon, So if we gonna produce 20 mil barrels of oil for export, why not use 2 mil of that for ourselves? Also Solar is way WAY more expensive here because of frequent Sand storms

[@eliinthewolverinestate6729]

What a transportation and logistics nightmare.

[@PunishedKrab]

The Saudi’s really watched that one Rtgame video when he played Cities: Skylines and thought that was such a fantastic idea to actually replicate it in reality

[@jtjr26]

The thing is, it's probably a good idea to build some new cities on their coastal territory to develop more ports to facilitate trade. The problem is they are not getting the investment in infrastructure needed to diversify their economy in a significant way. The line is just another Middle East vanity project. A gigantic one but a vanity project nonetheless.

[@jamesjonnes]

Since they don't have natural resources other than petrol, they should be investing in tech. With the money they're spending on the Line, they could become the next Taiwan and produce GPUs and AI development. But it's actually a good thing that SA fails as a country.

[@simgenx5167]

@@jamesjonnes they should be turning the dessert into a fertile land. It is within their ability. But that isn't financially logical, so they rather screw their own future.

[@ronald3836]

They should start with a smaller and more realistic project, e.g. an O'Neill cylinder in earth orbit.

[@boptillyouflop]

@@jamesjonnes You can't produce GPUs and AI if you don't have a culture of hard work and honesty. They want to tell themselves they will be producing GPUs and AI soon, but they're not putting in the leg work.

[@jamesjonnes]

@@boptillyouflop It's even harder if they don't put any money on it. Foxconn is actually about to build a factory in Saudi Arabia, but it doesn't seem like it's the country's priority.

[@chrisaguilera1564]

Now just to be fair, this makes perfect sence if you are a Narcissit with all the money in the world to build your vanity project that originated out of a cocktail napkin.

[@Ghosted37]

So we should just stop building wonders like everyone in the past did for as long as humans exist?

[@chrisaguilera1564]

@@Ghosted37 The wonders back then for all intents and purposes were created by materials of the time. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution we have been pushing bigger to a scale that becomes completely unsustainable both from a practical and environment cost.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

hey don't slight cocktail napkins or pizzaboxes they have given us great things in the past, but yeah when you can't criticise or ridicule terrible ideas shit hits the fan

[@infinitelink]

​@@chrisaguilera1564Pyramids...

[@ahmedneworld1938]

MBS

[@halflifeking156]

So... the biggest problem I see is how the hell are they going to give it enough clean water?

[@flyer116]

That was the smoothest transition to an ad I've ever seen, well done lol

[@TheMotlias]

Saudi arabias biggest "tourism" pull at the moment is Mecca with about 3 million people per year going to it for their pilgrimage, that's considered the biggest gathering in the world... they want numbers 33 times larger than that each year

[@WWZenaDo]

Yeah, no, that isn't going to happen.

[@harekrishna7837]

No,,the largest gathering is Kumbh Mela in India

[@sirahmad]

there is gathering in kaaba 24 hours while kumbh mela only held one day where people drink ganges water to get disease while in hajj people drink crystal clear water of abezam zam you are comparing what kid@@harekrishna7837

[@sirahmad]

and most intersting part is in kumbh mela 99% only indians gather meanwhile in hajj people from all over the world come in well deciplined way and manner meanwhile we all knows how nude yogi babas drink ugly water of ganges and you are comparing here hajj with kumbh mela weird @@harekrishna7837

[@user-tn7nq9vk8p]

@@harekrishna7837 الهند دوما يحشر نفسة ويكون غبي

[@gregzambo6693]

It could be useful for space travel if they made it an accelerator for spaceships with a skijump at the end. 170 Km accelerating would save a lot of rocket fuel.

[@istoppedcaring6209]

there is a lot more to it than that, and asside from likely being in a bad location (they need to set of from specific places at specific times) that location is also covered in sand, sand that has tiny grains that periodically sweeps across the peninsula and get's into anything and everything it can, for example any of the hightech extremely sensitive pieces of equipment to facilitate and perform spacetravel in truth the country is probably doomed, the house of saud holds onto power purely trough gifts and militairy power paid for by their oil wealth, they tried to make people pay a slightly higher price for water and a revolt would have broken out, had they not backtracked immediatly, truth is that saudi arabia is only superficially modern, the culture remains rooted in tribalism, the tribe of saud and wahab being alligned with the house of wahab forming the religious elite, and that alliance has been under pressure due to the saudis having to juggle between keeping the US as protector, keeping the religious minorities from rebelling,modernising without being blamed for westernising, actually westernising to attract investors without again angering the ultra religious elite and their followers, .... they are not in a great position, and to add to that it is estimated that they may well run out of oil during the early 30s but even if they don't, and even though electric cars will never fully or even mostly remove the role for oil those electric cars , nuclear and renewable energy generation methods ,... only have to bite a decent enough chunk out of the oil demand , the US now uses allmost all it's oil domestically it being one of the countries where electric cars will be most prominent in the coming years they will eventually end up exporting most of their oil, new oil reserves have been discovered in south america as well and this time in a country that is investmentfriendly, so tthese will be exploited efficiently ,... yeah they are pretty much f'd

[@Raptorman0909]

A 170km acceleration ramp would do what exactly -- get them to orbital velocity thus reduce or eliminate the propellant needed normally? At the end of the 170km acceleration they would then need to turn the ramp upwards and the acceleration on the human body as the spacecraft turns skyward would be un-survivable. Low Earth orbital velocity is about 7800 m/s and the equation for turning acceleration is a = (v^2)/r so if v = 7800 m/s and r = 1000m, the acceleration would be 60,840 m/s^2 or about 6200 times Earths gravity -- the average value of lethal acceleration is about 50 g's with some race car drivers surviving about 170 g's with all the safety gear they have. 6200 g's is not survivable -- and that's with a ramp that projects into the sky the better part of 1000 m or 3280 feet. Sorry to break it to ya but that isn't going to work. It is possible to build a track into a mountain that might possibly get the spacecraft to about 500 m/s and if the track were straight eliminating the turning acceleration the g-force could be limited to about 4 g's but at the end of the ramp your still only going about 500 m/s when you need to go 7800 m/s for low Earth orbit.

[@silvervixen007]

Don't give them ideas

[@benoithyperlord]

You would need an extremely straight rail to go 500m/s on it 😂

[@Raptorman0909]

@@benoithyperlord Indeed! But that is done at places like White Sands -- record at 2885 m/s. The challenge to do that (500 m/s) with a rocket with significant payload on a sled of some kind is that the acceleration, near 4 g's, is pretty significant and you still only reach 500 m/s -- well short of the 7800 m/s needed for orbit. You'd also want to do that at high altitude like the Andes in South America so that you aren't asking for too much aerodynamic drag and heating as you would at sea level.

[@WelfareChrist]

I remember watching a video Adam Something made on this a while back and the top comment was "NEOM is the sound a toy plane makes." This project is really good at doing one thing: illustrating how out of touch with reality the Billionaire class is.

[@creaturesaroundme]

what if it's built and people who said that end up looking like fools, as usual with any ambitious project

[@WelfareChrist]

@@creaturesaroundme you mean like the titanic?

[@Whit1213]

@@creaturesaroundmewell I doubt that it’s gonna be built because they’ve already abandoned at least 7 other projects like this.

[@hieunguyenrileygekko]

i swear this is the kind of thing only a cartoon villian would come up with

[@banto1]

Any sane architect building in the hot, cloudless middle east tries to limit any south facing windows, as these radiate heat to the interior like crazy. The line is essentially an east-west structure, leaving an entire glass, south-facing wall for the cooling systems to deal with. Will be interesting to see how half of this structure is left vacant, unless you are running a pizza business and can use the intense heat from these windows for baking.

[@WWZenaDo]

Agreed. This is a significant oversight in the planning of this project, among other issues.

[@dobbsmill3676]

Yeah Arabs don't now how to live in deserts.

[@christopherfleming7505]

That's not a problem at all. You will have 6000 pizza restaurants along the south facing wall, all using free solar energy to heat their ovens. Genius move!

[@banto1]

@@christopherfleming7505 Add another 6000 shwarma shops and this thing could actually be viable...😰

[@Ahmed-pf3lg]

The Middle East is hot, but also very cold. Ever studied geography? Desert climate? Cold in winters, hot in summer.

[@MysticPredator]

There is nothing they could ever build that would get me to go to Saudi Arabia....

[@captainalex157]

the special yearly decapitation festival maybe? lovely country! xD

[@topiasr628]

Nope... Not until they've decided to not be one of the most backward countries on Earth

[@cupacoopa1790]

still one of the safest country in the world tho

[@ccdsds3221]

@@cupacoopa1790keep believing that

[@captainalex157]

@@cupacoopa1790 unless you are a journalist, or gay, or like to hold hands in public or are a woman,... yeah what a paradise!

[@N0ENEMIES]

I just imagine a serious fire starting in the middle of the city. The outer walls acting like a giant chimney, sucking the air toward the fire from both sides. If the fire gets out of the control, the city would become a wind tunnel. Then emergency crews would have to travel from one side or both sides against the flow fleeing people. The whole idea just sounds like a mass casualty disaster waiting to happen. If war ever broke out and civilians were targeted, the city would be destroyed in hours or minutes.

[@krux02]

It's probably be as popular as the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea.

[@patrickbarrett5650]

You make a very powerful point when you mention the attitude of the Saudi population. A closed society, top heavy with the privileged will not adapt easily to a massive influx of foreigners who expect THEIR ways to be respected if they are to live and invest there. This could become a massive closed society unable to expand its ideas.

[@snakex555]

Did you try living there?

[@ronald3836]

@@snakex555 too hot, no beer.

[@alisalman5917]

I honestly have to agree with you. Although Saudi Arabians in general are truly changing for the better after being exposed to different people from the globe, projects like these will only make them go back to square one :/

[@mohammedalmohsen712]

We already host 14M immigrants and the expats in the kingdom which makes the third in the whole world after USA and Germany, u act like we’re in the 1980s when we were only 5 million but In actuality we’re 36 million at the moment ,Moreover. 42% of the entire population are non Saudis. -Regards from Jeddah city KSA..

[@Snowfox23]

It worked for Dubai and it will work for Saudi Arabia

[@jeffcziranka6349]

For a fraction of the cost they could permaculture all the valleys and wadis on the east coast of the Red Sea creating a livable habitat for man and nature. Alas, that would not be flashy enough for their ego project.

[@deltacx1059]

0:42 let's put that tech aside for a moment, if the sides are mirrored/reflective anything like they are in that render the sides of that place are going to be nearly unapproachable I'm many times a day, it's hot enough there already but another problem is just keeping any surface maintained, that thing is going to get a sandblasted surface finish pretty quickly. Also the gun covered elephant in the room; everyone around them wants each other dead and a giant reflective line is easy to spot and really easy to hit.

[@ronniechowdhury3082]

Well I teach Saudi students in London, UK for university and at 18 they have the highest average TOEFL score compared to the other nationalities we have (china, Nigeria, Mongolia etc)

[@InXLsisDeo]

Do they pay well to get these scores ? Saudi students are known to buy their diplomas. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough bimut I don't know of a single Saudi that has made some enduring positive impact in the world.

[@mohammedalmohsen712]

@@InXLsisDeou just can’t a accept the fact that we’re knowledgeable and improving in every sector hence show an envious attitude against us

[@hithummah]

any saudi will be proud of your testimony...until the part where you compare them to china nigeria and mongolia.

[@InXLsisDeo]

@@mohammedalmohsen712 I hope you are and I admit my previous comment is biased, but the fact is this "line" project is complete nonsense and a huge waste.

[@mohammedalmohsen712]

@@InXLsisDeo yes i agree

[@hilestoby2628]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Middle East coutries relies mostly on the oil business and manufacturing associated with it to do exports and revenues. The majority or plurality its money is a easy cash cow which makes it invest more on the petroleum and natural gas industry compared to other sectors of the economy. The reasoning behind this is that it is cheaper to pay for imports then it is to develop it inside to country itself. Another thing to realize is that the oil industry in the Gulf countries is done by international workers with questionable safety. With work done by expats, the populations have public sector jobs that are powered by the oil economy. Many of these jobs are unproductive and have too many employees in some cases. Develping native talent for these countries will be harder because of the need to gear the populations to private sector jobs and education reform where they used to easy money.

[@LevanEvan]

You could say the future of their country is... on the line. I'll see myself out.

[@deshmwape9894]

You joker 😂😂😂😂😂

[@Ealsante]

I mean, it's not as bad a joke as the city itself, so good on you!

[@truemerpoirot5136]

you might wanna make a visit to the saudi embassy in Istanbul.

[@HittokiriBattousai17]

You could make an amazing, super-well designed small city with top notch technology and superior infraestructure for way less than half of that.

[@tyler-fw9ph]

They just started clearing a road for it. The negativity put towards it is remarkable.

[@john_doe_not_found]

If Saudi took all their oil wealth and invested it prudently, they would own large swaths of the international landscape. The profits generated could pay each Saudi citizen a living wage indefinitely. Instead, the government seems to want to directly burn the money. Good luck.

[@InXLsisDeo]

Norway is doing that. Using their oil money wisely. They enjoy the best life in the world (except for the weather). The Saudis waste their money to show off. They just look like uneducated, backward morons. 12:13

[@thedespoiler]

when i want to visit a country i love sighning a paper that says my goverment wont help me in the event of imprisonment, getting murdered, getting abducted or just dissapiaring. best tourist destination ever.

[@NeonChaabi]

If it works it would be great, a lot of great minds and big international engineers are taking the challenge, i think also they are aware of all the problematics, never underestimate the human mind

[@franjopego1]

It's literally the Fyre Festival of engineering megaprojects

[@m.ch4rmaland3r10]

Imagine an earthquake or a big sandstorm.

[@aiightbet4582]

Imagine thinking someone spending trillions aren’t considering that

[@KamikazeChinaman]

@@aiightbet4582 You're so naive.

[@me0101001000]

Literally everyone I've seen talk about this does nothing but clown on it. And rightfully so.

[@LaVitaNouva]

Yup, so far nobody gives any positive respond as far as i see

[@highfive7689]

It's another name for an archology. How wide is the Line ? I saw what looked like 200 m. another 500 m. in height. There are luxury yachts that are 200 m length. You're going to feel cramped with lots of holes to view the sky above in parts. Also, whenever there's strong winds, it will channel throw at a high velocity, Like flash flood in a box canyon.

[@lluhu]

It would make more sense to build a ring: transportation, potential city growth with further rings, the interior of the ring could be used as a public space…

[@Drejco515]

Wait, they're actually building this? I thought it was just something to grab some headlines, so they could better get investors for other projects. This will make Dubai's problematic artificial islands look like not terrible investments.

[@banto1]

Very tall, smooth walls enclosing the city is a good defense against zombies.

[@WWZenaDo]

But not against heat.

[@samuela-aegisdottir]

It would also prevet the inhabitants to leave the city.

[@jirislavicek9954]

​@@samuela-aegisdottiryes it's a massive prison

[@sciencespacethefinalfronti8361]

Fascinating. Can't wait to see the technology involved to overcome the present limitations associated with linear cities.

[@nikolaybelorusov5522]

Great video man, very structured and you approached the topic from multiple sides. Please make more content!

[@DavidAllanCoderre]

Maybe I read too much sci-fi but I see this as the test for a space ship to see the lay it out

[@herbbert82]

Since mankind, all cities are round, and now those newrich on cocaine build the biggest line ever.

[@just_fares6230]

Simce mankind. People travels on foot or using animals, people fought using rocks and spears and fists, people used to communicate through sending pigeons with messages or physically walking to teansport the message.

[@notribadsvault]

I would love to explore the abandoned husk of this place once it gets half built and inevitably cancel or scaled down.

[@DavidByrden1]

They have already murdered a few people who stood in the way of this. They have already forced locals off their land and into confinement. What they have not done, is build (or plan) a demonstration segment of "line" or a testbed.

[@foxooo]

Why don’t they just build along the coastline and turn it into a Miami Dubai vibe lol

[@prateekmahapatra1789]

would get too hot on those beaches by those bouncing sunlight of those shiny glasses given that hey really want to accomodate those 100 m people somewhere 😁

[@foxooo]

@@prateekmahapatra1789 so make all the buildings white like in greece. Along the coast the temperature isn't bad year round.

[@KemetEG]

Close to the line on the other side there's sharm el sheikh city in Egypt it's famous city full of resorts on the coastline attract many European tourists

[@Micah-6.8]

They don’t allow people to wear shorts, much less bathing suits in public there so beach tourism is out of the question.

[@mohammedalmohsen712]

@@Micah-6.8 it’s allowed in Jeddah in Duran al aross resorts and I mean full bikinis and shorts unfortunately

[@michaelrobinson166]

One thing which I never hear is how bad transport would be. If I were to imagine perfect efficiency with public transport and not cars, you still would have a situation where a city with a bunch of radial lines have severely overcrowded trains and yet this 2 dimensional map would be reduced to just one dimension. Any travel within the city would be horrendous.

[@-AirKat-]

And imagine the scenario where you _do_ need cars to get around, that’d be a nightmare to drive on

[@WickedWillow333]

everything would be within 400 meters of where you live. no cars

[@protorhinocerator142]

@@WickedWillow333 The best way for this is a cube. It's a super efficient shape. Failing that, a stubby rectangular box. They have plenty of unused land, so it doesn't make sense to go up. Go out instead. You could make the thing 10 stories high instead of 100 and that solves a long list of engineering challenges. Transportation could be done in layers, with the upper layers using walkways. Also if the elevators break down, 10 stories would be a pain but it won't kill you.

[@kurtwicklund8901]

Not to mention a breakdown in one section would cut off miles of residents from things like you know, food and water. It'd be a death trap.

[@Whit1213]

@@protorhinocerator142Wouldn’t the best shape be a circle so that there’s more options and routes for travel

[@flippensweet3]

Plot twist: It was never going to be a city, but a huge run-way for aliens to land.

[@alimzazaz]

Their desert are probably the best location for solar farm. If they push towards that they can be the biggest energy producer in the world and drive electrification faster.

[@donzapatero4808]

I feel like that glass is going to get really hot really fast

[@PunishedKrab]

Imagine cooking a steak on that glass

[@donzapatero4808]

@@PunishedKrab it probably only take 3 minutes on each side to get a medium rare

[@inserthere3903]

Depends on the glass and how it's treated, should not be an issue at all considering their budget.

[@Micah-6.8]

Wouldn’t the mirrors reflect the sunlight away from the structure?

[@donzapatero4808]

@@Micah-6.8 your right we can use the mirrors in that case

[@DaBoyee]

These videos wont ever get boring because they are so satisfying to watch

[@xFaisal993]

Because they are full of shit, and Anti-arab fantasies

[@adolka]

That transition to speakly sponsor was NICE😂

[@ThomasWelsh-bk8cc]

I understand the standard practice and the lessons learned which have lead to them. However, there are places where there is nowhere to build but “the strand.” As a child I recall Ocean City Maryland. This place had an unusual purpose and a restricted geography that made it straight and narrow. And to it’s purpose that line was a repeating group of necessities over and over. I also recall the trench cities in (if I remember correctly) Oman.

[@Peter2k84]

I particularly find it funny they gave the project to chinese companies. They're reasoning? They have experience building mega prohects. My thoughts: chinese have an abundance of building small, medium to mega projects that all fall under tofu dreg, i.e. fall apart under 5 years. Hell even the 3 gorges damn is slowly failing.

[@pyropulseIXXI]

Chinese buildings literally just peel apart; their roads just collapse when you walk on them; their apartment buildings flood themselves, and stairwells somehow collapse in them. The 'real' China is a paper tiger with a made up economy; they literally have tons of cities that are just entirely empty; they just built them out and no one even lives in them. GHOST CITIES, to boost their GDP and artificially increase their standing in the world

[@prplt]

their reasoning not they're (=they are)

[@harekrishna7837]

If this is true,,then I'm looking forward to see it becomes reality and I would go rush to make a lot of popcorn for the following years🤣🤣

[@cplcabs]

My understanding is that the US has quite a number of bridges, buildings and dams that collapse with some regularity. So, they wouldn't be a great option either.

[@rebellion6331]

imagine trusting china they will infect it with covid XD

[@Dayvit78]

Has anyone ever considered the reason that they are building these projects is simply because they have TMDM (too much d... money)

[@Albanian_History]

They tryna do more projects to build more money cause the oil money is on a time limit

[@recoil53]

Well yes, that's one side of it. But they also want to make sure they are rich in the future when the oil money runs out. They just have no idea how to usefully connect the money to money generating projects, not on that scale. And megaprojects always appeal to autocrats for some reason. Conceptually many would think that managing one big project is easier than managing a lot of little projects. So they better get use to the idea of being goat herders, with some of the elite living well (because they have bought useful things overseas).

[@samuela-aegisdottir]

it is also TMDE (too much d... ego)

[@intergalactic10]

​@@recoil53exited to see your visit to the line when it's completed ( if you can afford it)

[@mariomovillon1613]

Cities naturally grow and evolve from small communities, then into towns and cities, and then into mega cities. NEOM Project defies all the logic and common sense. And when builders defy those time-tested considerations, then they will soon find themselves in the quagmire of their foolish ambitions. As evidenced by the innumerable mammoth projects that were initiated and started, but never ever get to the finish line.

[@jcd-k2s]

I'm actually very surprised only 42%of the gdp relies on oil. I guess the rest comes mostly from pilgrims coming to the mecka.

[@skybluskyblueify]

The area is expected to be unliveable in parts of the year so if the power goes out thousands or more may die. Who is advising these people? Reminds me of Oceangate and the founder's arrogance leading to deaths. Reminds me of North Korea in some respects. They have modest megastructures that are not used in any significant way while people suffer.

[@just_fares6230]

Why would the power go out? Might as well just say that if there was a nuclear war and an atomic bomb was thrown at the line city they will die and that is why the line is a bad idea

[@Sul227]

Incredible how these people try to be progressive technologically, but absolutely regressive ideologically. The reason why nobody wants to visit Saudi Arabia is not the lack of flashy buildings.

[@vlad-igor]

I don't understand why people ask why build a city in the desert??? They didn't want to build a city in the desert, they were born in a desert so they made a city. It's like how those westernss people say why SEA make houses in the forest, we live and born in one, so we build a shelter, you thought we somehow could've build something on air???

[@rikadomez8201]

On the English proficiency point, in case you haven't realize Saudi Arabia can simply bring in thousands or millions of Filipino to fill that language gap. In fact, they've been doing this all these while.

[@intergalactic10]

Or they can just learn English?

[@rikadomez8201]

@@intergalactic10 thank you captain obvious

[@intergalactic10]

@@rikadomez8201 so why complicate it when it's obvious? Millions of Saudis already speak English

[@rikadomez8201]

@@intergalactic10 yes. Tell this to the OP

[@georgecaplin9075]

It’s really annoying that they’re planning nearly a dozen similar structures when the first is so impractically long. Why not have six, (or eight), shorter “spokes” leading to and from a hub, under which could be all the infrastructure centres, with a fast tram, ( _not_ a high speed train), going from the hub to the end and back, with each spoke having its “front” on the shaded side, so solar panels could go on the “back”, (whichever side is oriented to the daytime sun), to power the train.

[@adkads27]

It’s easier to control the people inside the city if it’s linear. You can easily block off exit points between different sections of the city. It’s a security issue.

[@franksullivan1873]

Makes an easy bombing run though.

[@adkads27]

@@franksullivan1873 yes that is definitely true

[@adambrande]

​@@franksullivan1873yeah nukes are a thing so line or not, doesn't matter

[@cyruslupercal9493]

You assume it's designed for control. The real reason is stupidity.

[@karenrussell8704]

And a fire risk.

[@user-zl1eu3zy5r]

The thing about NEOM, is not just whether it could be achieved at all--although the half a trillion price tag seems highly unrealistic, but whether anybody in their right mind would want to be sequestrated there for any length of time, let alone permanently living there! Imagine being stuck in the middle of this thing at the upper level and having an urge to get away from the crowd and the artificiality and breath some fresh air? You would have to make it to the nearest elevator, wait for it to get to the ground floor, then get on one of these trains for a 50+ mille-long ride and finally make it out into the desert. But there's nothing in the desert, except excruciating eat--or cold at night, snakes and scorpions. So, you'd have to get into a bus or taxi to the nearest city and since the entire journey would already have taken you half a day, you'd want to stay overnight in whatever hotel you could find and prepare to go through the same ordeal to return home the next day! Talk about quality of life!

[@dksharron]

I lived there for nine years. THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

[@allo-other]

I MET a traveller from an antique land Who said: One vast and unpopulated fantasy of hype Stands in the desert. Near it, on the sand, Half sunk, a crumbling crane lies, whose cables, And crumpled spars, and smears of oily motors, Tell that its designer ill those tourists read Who never gazed upon these pretentious things, The mouth that lauded them and the greed that paid: And on the brochures these words appear: "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. (with apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley)

[@WWZenaDo]

Beautiful, and SO fitting!

[@porothashawarma2339]

Ozymandias

[@allo-other]

@@porothashawarma2339 Yup.

[@milesshelley1464]

When I lived in Jordan in the mid 2010s, I met a LOT of Arabs from neighboring countries who would love to see Saudi Arabia collapse. A lot of Syrians hated Saudis because of rich Saudi tourists causing trouble. Egyptians blame Saudis for turning their migrant workers into extremists who brought that back to Egypt and warped it. Not sure how they feel nowadays.

[@rap3208]

So in short, they hate the Saudis because of envy? That's not really the Saudis' problem, it's more on theother neighboring countries. They should work more on bettering themselves rather than waste energy hating the Saudis.

[@craigime]

@@rap3208 how do the Egyptians envy the Saudis again? or the Syrians for that matter?

[@just_fares6230]

@@craigimesyria is so poor and destroyed that they can't live there anymore and egypt is one its way to become syria and saudi is the richest arab country

[@detroitredwings7130]

In October 2022, Shadli, Ibrahim, and Ataullah al-Huwaiti, of the Howeitat tribe, were sentenced to death when they refused to vacate their village as part of the NEOM megaproject. Shadli al-Huwaiti was the brother of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti, who was shot dead by security forces in April 2020 in his home in Al-Khariba, in the part of Tabuk province earmarked for NEOM, after he posted videos on social media opposing the displacement of local residents to make way for the project.

[@L.C.Sweeney]

The area is so morally depraved that whenever I meet anyone who holidays there I instantly dislike them. Literally funding slavery.

[@idcwhatyouthinkaboutme]

Yeah that explains why they have on of the best hospitalities for tourists in the world.

[@Jmpd1117]

How long will it take to go from point A to point Z? What happens if their is a catastrophe at point M? Will the line be cut in 2? This idea is one long linear problem.

[@tay-lore]

I can't believe they're actually trying to do this. I guess it will be interesting to see what they actually end up constructing before the project dries up

[@gossigoss]

It might be bad, but at least it is differently bad to all cities with highways through them or the huge suburban sprawls that we keep building even though we know they are not good.

[@yoshyoka]

12:08 that scene gives a glimpse of how detached these renderings are from actual reality

[@therealoldnosey8689]

How are those plants gonna stay alive if they only getting like 30 minutes of sunlight a day

[@evolancer211]

Water is the first thing that pops into my mind

[@Omar_almatrafi]

Look it’s up, Saudi National water company holds a world record for water desalination efficiency.

[@evolancer211]

@@Omar_almatrafi i didn't know that thanks for the info, but still my initial thought remains. How does one salination plant cover the whole Neom project + the 8ish other cities across the nation?

[@Omar_almatrafi]

@@evolancer211 we are already pumping distal water from Jeddah ( sea level) to Taif city ( 1,879 m above sea level). We are advanced people more than western people think.

[@evolancer211]

@@Omar_almatrafi I'm not saying Saudi isn't advanced. I'm just pointing out water across long distances, to multiple sites. That's gonna be a problem to solve

[@Omar_almatrafi]

@@evolancer211 as I said we are already doing that to all cities and villages. This is not unique in the world ex Los Angeles gets its water from California But the scale of water infrastructure here is magnificent.

[@user-ij6db3ro1q]

Considering the harsh sandstorms, that glass might not stay transparent for long. Nature has its way of reclaiming its space. Once oil money run dry as more people are moving toward EV.... They might find it hard maintaining this thing.

[@HurricaneZ]

the saudi government when a youtuber tells them that their city isnt gonna work: 😰😨😖😱

[@sungodnika3545]

nah, they dont care. they have money, not like youtubers. 😂

[@HurricaneZ]

yea bro i know its sarcasm 😆@@sungodnika3545

[@heartlandauthor]

Once oil becomes less and less relevant as an energy source, the whole Saudi economic regime will invariably collapse like a deck of cards, and they won't have the money to keep these megaprojects running. Of course, these megaprojects might collapse under the sheer weight of their ridiculousness before then.

[@abdulazizalghamdi8464]

Get a gym membership then you can give opinions

[@frasqai23]

Oh fuck they're actually building this thing?

[@prateekmahapatra1789]

my young bro is confused how adults came up with such shit

[@majedalmansoori3959]

Keep in mind thats if the line become successful then it'll cost that much! they are not going to create the whole thing at once, the more the people get attracted to it the longer the line! so in other words its a contineus project if it fails then they'll stop making it longer! and i think thats really smart

[@ttytty6940]

It’s like they watched snowpiercer & got excited 😂😂😂

[@Supertobias7]

What software do you use for making maps?

[@moumous87]

The sponsor transition was smooth 👍

[@magnuszerum9177]

Cities are organic things that grow up around economic opportunities. You can build cities from scratch like this, but you need industry to make it work. You need some economically viable advantage that existing places that are cheaper don't have.

[@attilamolnar26]

The reason why most European cities, towns are villages are so nice is that their drivers of development were mostly organic and diverse. Megalomanic planning seems logical and sci-fiish, but it will carried out by megalomaniacs.