Many a new employee of construction related businesses, particularly those just left the swaddling confines of the classroom, have been dispatched to the nearest 'builders warehouse' to pick up a sky hook. While the youth stands at the counter stammering out his request, he is unaware he is about to begin an important induction into the job. Innocently the customer is asked if he would like a left hand sky hook, or a right hand model. The lad is not sure ... his neck takes on a rosy hue that moves with alacrity up to the forehead hair line. Should, he wondered, make a swift phone call to the boss, or should he show his abilities to problem solve, and make an uninformed decision.
As he stands, unsure, uncertain of exactly what a sky hook looks like, he becomes slowly aware, by the barely concealed grins and the gathering audience, that perhaps he is having his leg pulled. A lesson is learned ... and another day he will be part of that sniggering group relishing the embarrassment of a young employee slowly coming to the realisation that while he may be looking foolish, at least if he takes the opportunity to slightly turn the tables, he will have passed into manhood in the eyes of his fellow workers.
Recently I heard of an idea by a city entrepreneur to build several blocks of sky scrapers over the river, and adjacent highway, land being extreme expensive in the city centre. A councillor who wanted to know what would happen in time of flood scuppered this idea. There would be no place for the water to run to.
Like a flickering black and white movie a vision slipped into my mind. Just imagine if there were sky hooks! It would not matter if they were right handed or left handed, it would not matter if they had stick-on arms or whether they were attached by invisible cords [in the interests of aesthetics], or heavy iron chains ... as long as they held a building in place. No more would a building code need to incorporate earthquake proof construction methods as they would be held in place by sky hooks, not held to the earth's crust by deep footings. Instead of buildings hogging good farming land a city could be established in the sky ... leaving of course regular spacing for the sun to penetrate to ensure the carrots, the cabbages, and the animals and humans, received an adequate supply of sunshine. A whole new existence would alter the concept of modern day life on earth.
In the future of such an invention a lowly new employee would be sent to the hardware warehouse for a shovel or a trowel ... the obsolete tools of the past. No longer would a building be set in concrete, instead it would float, anchored by the wonderful sky hook, closer to the heavens. Of course there needs be some way for the human masses to reach these buildings of the future ... an escalator into the sky. The land would not be covered by inessential housing, by space taking shopping malls, or sprawling suburbs. That precious land could instead be covered by sporting fields, swimming pools, farms, gardens, forests, or parks where folks could escape to from their floating suspended elevation.
Just imagine! While some may laugh ... consider what scientists are working towards this day ... a new colony on some distant planet, where the lucky, or unlucky, few would need to wear special clothes and masks just to survive, where life as we knew it is not as we know it.
I rub my eyes ... I sit up and look around. Was I asleep? Did I dream? Or am I in a state of suspended animation?! A cartoon character walking on a stage on earth, or a puppet on a string?
As he stands, unsure, uncertain of exactly what a sky hook looks like, he becomes slowly aware, by the barely concealed grins and the gathering audience, that perhaps he is having his leg pulled. A lesson is learned ... and another day he will be part of that sniggering group relishing the embarrassment of a young employee slowly coming to the realisation that while he may be looking foolish, at least if he takes the opportunity to slightly turn the tables, he will have passed into manhood in the eyes of his fellow workers.
Recently I heard of an idea by a city entrepreneur to build several blocks of sky scrapers over the river, and adjacent highway, land being extreme expensive in the city centre. A councillor who wanted to know what would happen in time of flood scuppered this idea. There would be no place for the water to run to.
Like a flickering black and white movie a vision slipped into my mind. Just imagine if there were sky hooks! It would not matter if they were right handed or left handed, it would not matter if they had stick-on arms or whether they were attached by invisible cords [in the interests of aesthetics], or heavy iron chains ... as long as they held a building in place. No more would a building code need to incorporate earthquake proof construction methods as they would be held in place by sky hooks, not held to the earth's crust by deep footings. Instead of buildings hogging good farming land a city could be established in the sky ... leaving of course regular spacing for the sun to penetrate to ensure the carrots, the cabbages, and the animals and humans, received an adequate supply of sunshine. A whole new existence would alter the concept of modern day life on earth.
In the future of such an invention a lowly new employee would be sent to the hardware warehouse for a shovel or a trowel ... the obsolete tools of the past. No longer would a building be set in concrete, instead it would float, anchored by the wonderful sky hook, closer to the heavens. Of course there needs be some way for the human masses to reach these buildings of the future ... an escalator into the sky. The land would not be covered by inessential housing, by space taking shopping malls, or sprawling suburbs. That precious land could instead be covered by sporting fields, swimming pools, farms, gardens, forests, or parks where folks could escape to from their floating suspended elevation.
Just imagine! While some may laugh ... consider what scientists are working towards this day ... a new colony on some distant planet, where the lucky, or unlucky, few would need to wear special clothes and masks just to survive, where life as we knew it is not as we know it.
I rub my eyes ... I sit up and look around. Was I asleep? Did I dream? Or am I in a state of suspended animation?! A cartoon character walking on a stage on earth, or a puppet on a string?
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