From: "Marian de Haan" <maya(a)multiweb.nl>
Subject: Re: [B7L] Domes
>
> Its possible that most of a dome is underground, and what we see above is
> just the airvent sticking out. In which case they could be quite large.
> And the domes could be connected by underground tunnels, so one could
travel
> from one to the next without the need to go "outside".
This fits in with my opinion of them.
'My' domes are on the scale of those in Isaac Asimov's book, The Caves of
Steel - their cities were totally enclosed (presumably in domes) and were at
the very least the size of our modern cities; some were stated as being much
larger.
In the books, citizens were not exactly prohibited from going Outside, but
had spent so long in their Cities that they suffered from agoraphobia; all
but a minute percentage of them would feel physically ill at even the
thought of venturing Outside.
Transport within the Cities (and between close-lying but discrete cities)
was by a sort of moving pavement affair, which operated at varying speeds
(up to around 70 miles per hour); one started with slow tracks and
progressed up the scale to the expressways. There was also a system of
tunnels for the exclusive use of emergency vehicles.
Transport between distant cities was also possible, by the use of
totally-enclosed aircraft - presumably operating under computer flight
co-ordination.
The cities were stated as being multi-level (encompassing hundreds of
levels); and being enclosed, one would have no way of knowing whether or not
one was above 'ground.'
The citizens lived under a hierarchical system; as one gained in grade
classification, one gained in privileges - private cooking, sanitation or
entertainment facilities, for example.
The descriptions of the cities, and their (IMO) similarity to the domes in
Blakes 7 was what made me interested in these books in the first place.
Wildean