Ecumenopolis
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Ecumenopolis (from Greek: οικουμένη, meaning world, and πόλις (polis) meaning city, thus a city made of the whole world) is a word invented in 1967 by the Greek city planner Constantinos Doxiadis to represent the idea that in the future urban areas and megalopolises would eventually fuse and there would be a single continuous worldwide city as a progression from the current urbanization and population growth trends. Before the word ecumenopolis had been coined, the American religious leader Thomas Lake Harris (1823-1906) mentioned city-planets in his verses, and science fiction author Isaac Asimov uses the city-planet Trantor as the setting of some of his books.
Doxiadis also created a scenario based on the traditions and trends of urban development of his time, predicting at first a European eperopolis ("continent city") which would be based on the area between London, Paris, and Amsterdam (or the Blue Banana).
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[edit] As a Realistic Futurist Set of Predictions
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While the idea of one continuous global city plays itself out in a number of works of science fiction, the book itself was a serious attempt to consider long run landscape changes resulting from large scale urban expansion.
It was never conceived that all land on Earth would be paved over; rather that urban development would extend in ribbons across land masses. A review of the current nighttime lights of the earth reveals that this type of pattern has emerged in some places. This land development is highly correlated with economic development.
The global urbanized area extends across world regions along recognized transportation trunklines. For example, the Ecumenopolis in North America runs along I-95 from Portland, Maine down to Miami. In Southeast Asia, continuous development runs from Hanoi to Bangkok then down via Phuket to Singapore, then over to Indonesia and the island of Java, ending at Bali.
The total global population was modeled ranging from 15-50 billion. Doxiadis recognized constraints on development, and concluded a 15 billion global population, mostly concentrated along linear strips of urbanized development, was the likely scenario. It should be recognized that in this future growth scenario (1) development would level off and be sustainable, (2) most of the global land area would remain open space.
A more environmentally friendly version can be conceived, with a global population of 8 billion, 80 percent of which would live in metropolitan areas that roughly map out a global ecumenopolis type of settlement pattern. In this case, primary resource production requirements are reduced and there is more open space amongst the development. Settlement patterns may range from exurban large lots in places to densely settled nodes like Hong Kong and Mexico City. Overall, average development densities might approximate the suburbs of England and Japan, with either row houses or townhouses with garden areas, or single family houses on very small lots.
Given a new wave of technology, perhaps starting sometime in the 22nd century, a new growth spurt could remake the global landscape, and increase population to 50-100 billion or more. This could over time produce a landscape more similar to the imaginations of science fiction writers thinking of a highly developed and populated capital planet of a set of federated planets. The science fiction scenarios were not, though, how the author of the book perceived future global development.
[edit] Fictional treatments
In modern science fiction, the ecumenopolis has become a frequent topic. Capitals of galactic empires are typically portrayed as ecumenopoleis. Famous examples are:
- A future or alternative Earth, e.g.:
- Earth in a timeline altered by the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact.
- In the PlayStation 2 video game Star Ocean: Till the End of Time.
- In David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series.
- In 200,000, seen briefly from the T.A.R.D.I.S. in the Doctor Who episode, "The Long Game" (2005)
- The Megastructure from Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! manga series.
- Holy Terra (Earth), from Warhammer 40,000 and some of the Hive Worlds of the same universe. Forge Worlds in the same game are a variation of the concept where, instead of a city, the entire planet is covered in a massive factory complex.
- On pg. 153 of the Tor hardcover edition of Robert Reed's novel "Sister Alice" the Earth is described as "There were no continents, and no visible seas. Every square kilometer was adorned with a towering city, graceful and oftentimes famous, and the crust beneath was a spongy volume of stone and diamond and exotic matter, lesser cities and pockets of ocean nestled against elaborate farms where enough food to feed a quarter of a trillion people were produced each day."
- Acmetropolis from Loonatics Unleashed
- Apokolips, from DC Comics Jack Kirby's Fourth World series
- Capitol from one of Orson Scott Card's very first books Capitol (collection)
- Core Prime from the game Total Annihilation.
- Coruscant, from the Star Wars galaxy. Also Denon, Nar Shaddaa, Metellos, Axxila, Mygeeto, Vorzyd V, Eriadu, and Taris (pre-bombardment) in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
- Cybertron from The Transformers, a machine world from core to surface. The concept is taken even further with 'The Hub' a vast physically connected network of Cybertron-type worlds that serves as the centre for power of the Cybertronian Empire.
- Draconis Prime from the RPG Dragonstar
- Helior from Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero.
- The Oikumene in Jack Vance's Far Future Societal Novels.
- The Pierson's Puppeteers' homeworld from Ringworld by Larry Niven.
- Ravnica in Magic: The Gathering
- Sunder, from the RPG Anachronox
- Tau Ceti Center and Renaissance Vector from Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos.
- Trantor, from The Foundation Series
- Planets Manhattan, New Berlin, New Tokyo and New London from the Freelancer computer game.
[edit] See also
- Amalgamation (politics)
- Arcology
- Conurbation
- Cosmopolis
- Ekistics
- Megacity
- Metropolis
- Metroplex
- Megastructure
- Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
[edit] External links
- Ecumenopolis: Tomorrow's City Constantinos Doxiadis, Britannica Book of the year, 1968.
