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Comment by klondike_ | Hacker News Reader

I don't know if he's using this as a proof of concept or if he actually plans on making a functioning city. If it's the latter, I doubt it'll succeed.

Ideas for "utopian" planned cities have existed for centuries (Like Walt Disney's original vision for Epcot) but they almost never get built. If they do, they end up being not much more than a novelty before becoming abandoned.

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The other concern is that it turns into a dystopian nightmare, with all the "smart" technology being used for pervasive surveillance and in general maintaining tight control over its residents.

Disagree. Master planned communities are nothing new. This is the same thing, just with some "celebrity" behind it and 21st century features. I expect to see more and more of this.

Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, is a massive master planned city.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras%C3%ADlia

This isn’t a “master planned community” in a traditional sense. The intent matters. I worked for KBHome and Toll Brothers. The builder’s intent determines the outcome - Bill Gates didn’t buy that many acres to master-plan a community 45 miles from downtown Phoenix - not with 3500 acres of office space. No, this is something much more.

Perspective: CA is expensive. Seattle is expensive. Phx is not... this is a big deal. Perhaps more so than Google in Toronto.

Disney did build a planned neighborhood in Florida in 1996; hasn't been abandoned yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebration,_Florida

Not even close to the idea of what Epcot was suppose to be, though.

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