A discussion with
@YODL has reminded me of a reddit thread I once had, about why nobody lives in the sky.
In the past, there were some visionary engineers that tried to get funding to develop housing in the air. For example, there was an idea called "cloud nine" that, on paper, would just be giant spheres held aloft by being a tiny bit warmer than the surrounding air.
The structural properties of a sphere were supposed to make it feasible based on the strength to volume ratio that could be achieved, and the small temperature difference needed to hold a large enough volume afloat. Except, nobody could figure out how to make the structure lightweight enough.
On the other hand, we do have airships / blimps. Someone could have lived on one of those many years ago. Today, it would be even easier, with drone-based food deliveries and a powered glider or something for getting to and from the ground.
A really rich person could redesign the whole idea as a specialized engineering project. Maybe they would want a platform held aloft by multiple balloons so that it can be repaired more easily, or something.
If they wanted, they could have started with one crazy guy a simple blimp many years ago, and we could have a whole new category of sky mansions for the richest people by now.
But the problem isn't staying aloft forever. It's ground security.
Look at how rich people react to people reporting on the flight paths of their private jets - which are much faster than a balloon, and much harder for a party of drunks to shoot down.
Air Force One can be refueled in the sky, but has the President ever gone on a sky vacation, flying around for months without landing? No. The need to secure the would limit where he can go, and Air Force One's design prioritizes landing at the destination ASAP, not being a good sky mansion.
Not every rich person is at the same risk as the President, and yet this has never caught on for any echelon of society. There are no sky mansions. Elon Musk has never spent a while living in a blimp as a publicity stunt.
These people aren't too scared to use flying machines that land at the destination ASAP, but they are too scared to live in the sky.
They can't afford to actually do it. They can't afford the risk.
They're the only ones that can afford do it. On paper. In dollars. But not in real life.
We have the technology to build and maintain sky mansions. There are many, many people with the money to do it. It's been possible for a long time. But nobody could afford it when we were rich enough to send men to the moon, and nobody can afford it now. Not a single person so far, no matter how much more than enough money they have, because they'd get shot down.
It's that simple - they'd get shot down.
World is a heck.
