Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - What TLs you need to have and sustain a ecumenopolis

Anaraxes · 05-04-2015, 11:36 AM

Urban densities are generally given as population inside some political boundary. For purposes of this discussion, you really need to include the support systems for the city, which is a lot harder to look up. Farms, water supply, waste disposal, and so on, are often outside the city boundaries, but ought to be figured in. An entire planet covered in the density of Montreal wouldn't be like today's Montreal.

A planet-wide city doesn't preclude farms; you just put the farms on the roof. Still, about 40% of Earth's land area is currently devoted to agriculture. So you could get ten times the production without improving the density of agriculture at all. Trantor's 45 billion could be fed without any sort of internal / underground hydroponics setup or fleets of ships from granary planets.

You will need something else to get to 1 trillion -- and you'll also need an energy source, as covering the entire planet's surface with solar-absorbing plants isn't enough food. Luckily, plants are only around 3% efficient, so you could better that with your food production tech, perhaps even solar powered, or just something else like fusion.

05-04-2015, 11:36 AM	#20
Anaraxes Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: What TLs you need to have and sustain a ecumenopolis Urban densities are generally given as population inside some political boundary. For purposes of this discussion, you really need to include the support systems for the city, which is a lot harder to look up. Farms, water supply, waste disposal, and so on, are often outside the city boundaries, but ought to be figured in. An entire planet covered in the density of Montreal wouldn't be like today's Montreal. A planet-wide city doesn't preclude farms; you just put the farms on the roof. Still, about 40% of Earth's land area is currently devoted to agriculture. So you could get ten times the production without improving the density of agriculture at all. Trantor's 45 billion could be fed without any sort of internal / underground hydroponics setup or fleets of ships from granary planets. You will need something else to get to 1 trillion -- and you'll also need an energy source, as covering the entire planet's surface with solar-absorbing plants isn't enough food. Luckily, plants are only around 3% efficient, so you could better that with your food production tech, perhaps even solar powered, or just something else like fusion.