Are there any old sci-fi fans in the house? I'm not just talking about the Golden Age of SF or the old recordings of X Minus One, although those are not to be missed. I'm thinking of something more contemporary. Who remembers "Logan's Run?"
For those who have never seen the movie or may need a refresher, "Logan's Run" takes place in the 23rd century. Everyone lives in a domed city, where all needs and desires are fulfilled. It is a veritable utopia with just one catch: no one is allowed to live past the age of 30. Once one hits 30, one is expected to report to a place called Carousel, in order to "renew." Incidentally, "renewing" means getting vaporized.
This "City of Domes," as it was called in the TV adaptation, was what I envisioned when I first heard about "The Line." The Line, according to the website, will be the future of urban living, sort of like Disney's original EPCOT concept, only better.
It will tower over the Saudi Arabian desert. It will be “A cognitive city stretching across 170 kilometers, from the epic mountains of NEOM across inspirational desert valleys to the beautiful Red Sea. A mirrored architectural masterpiece towering 500 meters above sea level, but a land-saving 200 meters wide. THE LINE redefines the concept of urban development and what cities of the future will look like.”
It will house 9 million people but only have a footprint of 34 square kilometers. Powered by 100% renewable resources, residents will enjoy a perfect climate year-round, with everything within a five-minute walk or high-speed rail. If The Line turns out to be anything like the artist's renderings, it will be glorious.
What will life in The Line be like?
WORLD-CLASS QUALITY OF LIFE
Where the best and the brightest live. A place of unparalleled social and economic experimentation – without pollution and traffic – coupled with world-class preventative healthcare, so people will live longer.
"Where the best and the brightest live." Did you catch that? Utopia is not for everyone, and you are probably not who the designers were thinking of when they envisioned the future residents. Oh, don't complain; they probably wouldn't let me in, either, not that I could live in such a place without trying to gnaw my arm off to escape. You and I will have to be content in our pods, savoring the taste of crickets, although one might be able to get potato chips on the black market.
As the old saying goes, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and you can't have a utopia with undesirables in the way. The best and the brightest need room, you know. As history shows, pesky things like indigenous people have to be dealt with for the world to unfold as it should. In this case, we are talking about the Huwaitat tribe.
Fox News reports that a former Saudi intelligence officer, Colonel Rabih Alenezi, told the BBC that the government is killing people who refuse to vacate to make room for construction. Alenezi said that the use of lethal force has been approved:
Whoever continues to resist [eviction] should be killed, so it licensed the use of lethal force against whoever stayed in their home. [Neom] is the centerpiece of Mohamed Bin Salman's ideas. That's why he was so brutal in dealing with the Huwaitat.
Alenzi is referring to Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, who has the goal of modernizing the kingdom.
The Huwaitat people are the primary residents of the area. The report says that there have been multiple arrests, and villages have been torn down to prepare the way for the city of tomorrow. Fox News reached out to the Saudi Arabian embassy in D.C., which has yet to issue a statement. The Neom project and The Line are part of the nation's Vision 2030 Project.
It would appear that the future is bright — just not for the Huwaitat people and likely most of us.
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