Oh, Hivemind? Are You There?

[kaasirpent]

Years ago, I read a novel by Robert Silverberg called The World Inside. The setting was a far future of Earth on which individual, sprawling cities had disappeared, replaced by what he called "urban monads," monstrous, completely self-contained, single structures housing hundreds of thousands of people each. His main character lived in the Chi-Pitt urban monad (or maybe it was a constellation of urban monads), located in a roughly oval-shaped space between where the old cities of Chicago and Pittsburgh once existed. People were born, lived their entire lives, and died without ever leaving their 'urbmon.'

They towered into the sky (and perhaps into the earth, as well) and were self-contained human Habitrails with everything a person would need to sustain them for their entire lives: farms, shopping, offices, homes, recreation...it was all there, inside the urbmons.

I have a story set in a similar (but ultimately darker) future, and I want to call these buildings something like 'urban monad' but I don't want to use the phrase 'urban monad.' I want something futuristic-sounding, but not clunky.

My character mentions that his allotted space of 2000 cubic feet (10'w x 10'd x 20'h) is called an Ikea, but the reasons why are lost in the murk of time. So I'm not averse to doing something along those lines if it'll draw a chuckle from the reader. But I don't want to use 'urban monad' because, although this story is in many ways an homage to Silverberg's novel, I don't want to just steal his terminology. Unfortunately, all I can think of is 'urban monad' and 'urbmon.'

To further the homage, my character lives in the Nashlantaham [constellation?] of [word I'm looking for]s, because it exists (roughly) within the triangular area formed if you connect the old cities of Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta with straight lines. That can change, of course, but I had to come up with a name. :)

Any ideas what to call these gigantic structures?

Comments

[territan.livejournal.com]

There's the word "arcology," which describes, and I quote the online dictionary here, "an ideal integrated city contained within a massive vertical structure, allowing maximum conservation of the surrounding environment." It was coined in 1969, as a combination of "architecture" and "ecology."

If you're looking for a more fanciful term, I just pared "vertical community" down to "verticomm."

[ex-prunesnp.livejournal.com]

Geo-dome? Eco-spherelet? Pare it all the way down to 'geo' and never explain unti the end that it was short for 'geocache', a rare form of entertainment in the 21st century? Steal from Lady Gaga and call it 'bubb' short for bubble?

Oooh. Bubba.

[kaasirpent]

Hehehe! "Bubba." It is the south, after all...

[kaasirpent]

Nice, Territan. Thanks.

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

Conurbation is a useful word. As is megalopolis, although Gibson's BAMA is going to outdo most others who try. Metroplex.

Yeah, I kinda like "Bubba", too.

[kaasirpent]

BAMA? I've not read Gibson. Do enlighten. :)

[kaasirpent]

I like 'conurbation' as well. Although it does bear a rather unfortunate resemblance to another, less all-audiences-friendly word. :)

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

First off, get thee to some Gibson. Neuromancer is a little dated as cyberpunk, but it's still an important work of speculative fiction.

In that book (and several others), BAMA is the Boston-Atlanta Metro Axis, more commonly referred to as the Sprawl. A couple clicks from there on Wikipedia, you can get to all kinds of interesting things.

The World Inside

[scifi-reader.livejournal.com]

This is my favorite scifi book of all time. I have also considered writing something along those lines, when I feel I'm capable. How about metrotower? The high-end housing could be located in the "exurbs" unless you plan to make everyone egalitarian. Will each family be alotted the same amount of space, or will there be economic divisions like there were in Silverman's novel?

Re: The World Inside

[kaasirpent]

I don't delve too much into it, but they get the same space and it's all egalitarian.

I've played with arcology, conurbation, and now I'll consider metrotower. On the first pass, I'm going with arcology. And constellations of arcologies would be called 'arcons.'

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Dunno, but Niven had something like that called Todos Santos. And a real life approach to it might be the Watergate apartments/shopping center whatever.

[kaasirpent]

Hmm. Do you recall which Niven book/story that's in? I must have missed one. :)

Near me in a suburb of Atlanta "they" have built a tiny version, where there are apartments above and shops and restaurants below, with the idea that those who live there have everything they need from groceries to a post office to barber shops and restaurants and never have to leave except for work. I wish I could say that's where I got the idea for the story, but it was Silverberg. :)