A 20-Square-Mile Model of a Small U.S. City Will be Built in New Mexico to Test New Technologies
September 7th, 2011Via: Salon:
New Mexico, home to several of the nation’s premier scientific, nuclear and military institutions, is planning to take part in an unprecedented science project — a 20-square-mile model of a small U.S. city.
A Washington, D.C.-based technology company announced plans Tuesday to build the state’s newest ghost town to test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems.
Although no one will live there, the replica city will be modeled after a typical American town of 35,000 people, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new.
Pegasus Global Holdings CEO Bob Brumley says the $200 million project, known as The Center, will be a first of its kind in the U.S., creating a place for scientists at the state’s universities, federal labs and military installations to test their innovations for upgrading cities to 21st century green technology and infrastructure in a real world setting.
It will also enable them to rub shoulders with investors, meaning it could ultimately draw enough new businesses to give the state a technology corridor like that in California’s Silicon Valley or Virginia’s Reston, Brumley said.
“The idea for The Center was born out of our own company’s challenges in trying to test new and emerging technologies beyond the confines of a sterile lab environment,” said Brumley. “The Center will allow private companies, not for profits, educational institutions and government agencies to test in a unique facility with real world infrastructure, allowing them to better understand the cost and potential limitations of new technologies prior to introduction.”
Research Credit: staticwave
I can’t exactly say why, but for me that’s one of the creepiest postings to Cryptogon in a long time. I guess it’s the obvious “social engineering” potential. Sounds so frigging “Stepfordy”.
How long before they get squatters and the homeless?
@scarletfire
People will definitely be hired as actors who will pretend to be living at that place for the experiments, heightening the bizzarro Twilight Zone WTF?! nature of this nonsense.