City manager
Liaison between Judicial & Executive Branches
The City Manager's office answers directly to the Judicial branch and is responsible for coordinating with all of the departments in the Executive branch. The primary function of the department as a whole is coordination of the collective efforts of all other parts of the government; making all the different parts of the machines smoothly working together. A qualified candidate for City Manager must have significant leadership, communication, and creative problem-solving skills, and must be familiar with a wide range of subjects to be able to unite a diverse group of workers. The main directives of the City Manager's office is to ensure that the Executive branch departments are fulfilling the city-wide priority of health, as defined by the Judicial Heads (and to enforce their guidance), and to help the departments cooperate in any way necessary, mediating disputes, aiding communication, and assisting optimization to every extent possible. To this end, they should perform regular check-ins on the departments to assess needs.
While some officials of the city manager's office have day-to-day tasks, most upper-level officials intentionally maintain an open schedule. This is crucial to ensuring that they are ready and open to addressing surprises, crises, and emergencies wherever they arise. In an underwater city, capable people need to be ready and able to drop what they're doing at a moment's notice and address the unexpected.
Part of the City Manager’s responsibility is to maintain a connection of accessibility between Augury’s people and government departments. This includes hearing citizens’ concerns and addressing them, as well as keeping the people updated on what the various departments are working on or planning. Consider having the City Manager appear on a regular news segment to give a general update on government projects, filmed in a public place like a cafe where passersby are free to sit and watch. Transparency is important; the activities of Augury’s government should be common knowledge to the citizens it answers to, just as the government’s activities should be accountable to them.
Some of the most important functions of the City Manager’s office is general management and organization, including economics, tourism, and emergency response.
Income Streams
No society that involves people and limited resources is without an economy. Additionally, though Augury is designed to be self-sustaining, it will still benefit from participation in the international economy, exporting resources and services that are easier to procure from an underwater vantage point, and importing exotic resources that cannot be locally manufactured. Augury's economy must be carefully monitored and regulated to prevent significant financial inequality among its citizens. The systems and executive departments are designed to use technology and engineering to produce a surplus of critical resources. A significant financial surplus/windfall is also a must, to provide stability during times of crisis and to provide for those who can’t provide for themselves. Taking care of people is expensive—but not as expensive as letting them suffer.
Data Center
The digital real estate industry grows more and more every year, and one of the biggest costs of maintaining servers is cooling. Ocean water is very cold and able to absorb a lot of heat—and as Microsoft has already found, "underwater data centers are reliable, practical, and use energy sustainably." With direct access to undersea communications cables, near limitless energy, and an abundance of cold water, Augury gets most of its national income from renting server space in its underwater data centers, run by Apollo. It's a stable, scalable source of income that reliably grows as the online economy grows.
Tourism
Who wouldn't want to visit an underwater city? After crucial facilities for walls, power, air, and water are set up, the first facilities built in Augury should be a full-service hotel, and later be expanded into a convention center. In time Augury will become a destination venue for conventions, exhibitions, expositions, trade shows, weddings, festivals, retreats, and more, with attractions and features found nowhere else in the world. Augury will sit 30-40 meters underwater. Modern materials like transparent wood composites, synthetic sapphire, and even transparent aluminum oxynitride ceramic (ALON) can be made into windows strong enough to allow for spectacular, unimpeded views even on the ocean floor at a fraction of the thickness needed with acrylics or glass. Since coral grows freely on the exterior of the buildings and oxygen released by the mineral aggregation encourages ocean life, those views will be pretty spectacular. With convenient access to the ocean floor, Augury will offer perfect conditions for tank, helmet, and even free diving. Visitors could explore vibrant reefs, colorful fish, and an octopus' garden dozens of meters below the surface. If they want to see the ocean but don't want to be in it, they could take a submarine tour to see larger formations or visit nearby shipwrecks. And don’t forget the appeal of the ocean’s surface, on which tourists could enjoy various water sports or relaxing on boats and floating islands.
In between events and attractions, visitors will be able to enjoy stretching their legs for a walk or sitting down for a picnic in any of Augury's spacious atriums. They will be able to eat at local restaurants with food grown in the city, browse shops stocked with goods crafted by local artisans, and attend regular events hosted by a welcoming, easy-going community. Augury will be a perfect place to slow down and smell the flowers.
Some visitors will take interest in the opportunity to take a tour of the facilities or lessons with any of the Executive departments to see how Augury works, and meet the workers who make it happen. They will be able to visit Bia's nuclear-Stirling generators and learn about thorium salts, help Demeter harvest fruits and vegetables from aquaponic arrays, recycle plastic into usable products with Hephaestus, or watch a technician service the underwater data centers in Apollo–perfect for STEM enthusiasts.
Tourism volume, of course, must be regulated—Augury will always have a hard maximum capacity, and this quantity of inhabitants must be given a wide berth in case of emergencies. Furthermore, it’s important to ensure high tourism traffic is not detrimental to the exterior or interior ecosystem. With tourism comes litter.
Convention & Exhibition Center
Augury will be a hotspot of many industries: marine biology, sustainable technology, video game development—all of which organize events like conventions and exhibitions in which interested parties gather from all over the world. Imagine the possibilities of Augury as that venue. The unique location would keep it in high demand, and the tourism would keep a steady stream of traffic, bringing in significant income. Organizers would take care of organizing and planning the event; we would only need to provide the space. Augury’s convention center should include concert halls, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and conference rooms to accommodate events of all kinds. These facilities will also benefit citizens, by providing them with entertainment as well as a constant “revolving door” of new and interesting people, helping them to feel less isolated.
Retreat Center
Augury’s prime directive of the prioritization of health can be combined with a tourism industry in a retreat center of sorts. Distinct from a hotel, a retreat center offers dormitory-style overnight accommodations but also offer meals, activities, meeting rooms, and chapel space (for religious organizations) and can be rented by religious, business, or social groups as a place to step back from everyday life and take time to “renew, reflect, and recenter one's life.” Geographical isolation and the serenity of the ocean could make Augury an enviable location for visitors to refresh themselves and bond, away from their daily routine. Retreat programs of various kinds could be offered, for example: religious or spiritual recentering, health and wellness, and team building. This retreat center could also function as a uniquely scenic wedding venue.
Consider including a spa and/or bathhouse to the retreat center, which could service the whole population in addition to tourists. Spas have a natural connection to the ocean—salts, seaweed, and other marine materials are often used in health treatments. Proximity to the ocean gives us easy access and authenticity, alongside soothing views of the ocean floor.
Primary Induction Lighthouse
A surface lighthouse will be Augury’s permanent link to the surface—through an escalator in an angled bathyduct (to make the descent slower), visitors, tourists, citizens, air, and cargo will come and go, moderated by customs and security checkpoints inside the lighthouse. Visitors should be reminded by security staff of cultural expectations—for example, that Augury doesn't have the same approach to hospitality as some other countries—abuse of business or government workers will not be tolerated, and status as a customer or tourist does not absolve one of personal responsibility. Controlled substances like explosives, firearms, and internal combustion engines of any kind are strictly prohibited from entering the city, and weapons and produce should be controlled. Visitors suffering from a contagious illness should be asked to wait until they recover before entering the city unless they are in need of emergency medical attention.
For citizens of Augury, the lighthouse will be their link to the surface. They will be welcome to come and go as they please, of course, but would have to wait for the ferry to take them from the lighthouse to the nearest mainland, as Augury will be able to receive seaplanes but not have a typical airport. Augury will see more submarine traffic than most parts of the world, but unless someone privately owns one, they’re not likely to hitch an underwater ride anywhere—yet.
On the underwater end, the lighthouse will be attached to the Postal Office. If a citizen orders a package from anywhere other than the nearest mainland, it'll be first shipped to a mainland post office, then transported over on the ferry, after which it'll be waiting for them in the local post office, as soon as it clears customs in the lighthouse and is sent below.
As the lighthouse is the only part of Augury above water, it can be outfitted with some solar arrays. Consider using colored solar panels to make artful “stained glass” windows, which can function even without direct sunlight.
Potential Points of Interest
Though Augury’s location alone will make it a desirable tourism hotspot, the addition of specific points of interest will solidify the appeal even after the novelty of an underwater city has faded. The convention center will be a firm anchor for this, but I have included a few other additional attractions below:
Recreated Ancient Wonders
Consider attractions inspired by the seven ancient wonders of the world:
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Great Pyramid Observatory
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Inspired by the Great Pyramids of Giza, which have some significance associated with astronomy—as Augury will be out at sea, light pollution will be minimal so this facility could be dedicated as an observatory or planetarium.
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Hanging Gardens
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Inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were originally intended to resemble a lush biome. Consider a tall, terraced structure with complex fountains inside a larger atrium to support lush plants—just like the original, this version of the Hanging Gardens may provide a welcome refuge for citizens who miss the forest.
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Statue of Hephaestus
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Inspired by Statue of Zeus; Statue of Hephaestus at his forge outside the department facility. Though no material is completely immune to biofouling, 3D-printing with a copper alloy will be resistant and thematically appropriate.
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Hospital of Artemis
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Inspired by the Temple of Artemis—as Artemis is the ancient Greek goddess of nature, childbirth, and care of children, this facility could be dedicated as a world-class fertility and reproductive clinic.
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Mausoleum Reef
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Inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, a framework for an artificial memorial reef that will be built with the cremated remains of Augury citizens.
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Colossus of Gaia
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Inspired by the Colossus Rhodes and Lady Liberty; a large statue of the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, Gaia, situated outside the city. This statue could be constructed of stone designed to encourage coral and aquatic plant growth, and eventually be overgrown with life.
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Lighthouse and Library (themed after Alexandria)
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The primary induction lighthouse will be modeled after the Lighthouse of Alexandria, with a rectangular section under an octagonal section under a cylindrical section.
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Biorhythmic Plant Clock
Since all the plants in Augury are going to be wired into a monitoring system anyway, why not use them to create beautiful music? Using a psychogalvanometer (the same technology in a polygraph machine), the micro-fluctuations of plants’ biorhythms can be converted into musical tones. Consider using these tones as “church bells” which sound off on the hour throughout the city as an example of “local flavor.”
National Holidays
The people of Augury will certainly celebrate popular holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, New Year and Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, Diwali, and so on—but I believe Augury should also have holidays of its own. So, what should we celebrate? What do we celebrate? Here is what I propose: a holiday dedicated to each of the executive and judicial departments, in which everyone else except the members of that department perform that department’s duties. This will help the population to see the value of the work each other does, and see how important the foundational labor of our community truly is. Garbage collection as an example springs to mind—many people in American culture look down on garbage collectors, but if they had to do their job for just one day a year, they’d likely appreciate those workers a lot more.
Of course, important landmarks in the history of the city should be celebrated as well. We (hopefully) won’t have an independence day, but perhaps a “founder’s day” or something similar. Holidays should be a day of rest for anyone that chooses to observe them rather than showing preference to one religion. We don’t want to get carried away with days off from work, but if preindustrial medieval peasants enjoyed anywhere from eight weeks to an entire half year off, we can throw a few extra holidays in. We will also enjoy regular events and performances from conventions and tourism. All holidays, whether internationally recognized or unique to Augury, should be celebrated with enthusiasm and respect as a full spectacle. We can also benefit from local festivals dedicated to arts and artists; music and musicians.
Video Gaming & Creative Industries
With cheap electricity, fast internet and powerful computers (and limited outdoors to explore), Augury is a natural center for the global gaming industry (which is currently worth over $150 billion, even more than the music and movie industries combined). With dedicated facilities like arcades and arenas, Augury could be perfectly poised to host gamers, tournaments, developers, studios, venues for performances of various kinds, and conventions like Comic Con, all of which bring in sizable income with minimal overhead cost. Tourists could enjoy world-class virtual-reality facilities, esports arenas which host regular tournaments, IMAX gaming theaters, a specially curated arcade of both new and games, and conventions like no other. And—what goes better with arcades than a bowling alley, mini golf course, laser tag arena, pizzeria, and movie theater (all styled like a classic 1980s era American mall, of course)? Augury should be an epicenter for these creative entertainment industries, which—with proper facilitation—will likely become Augury’s economic backbone.
A government business liaison agency should seek out and encourage suitable businesses to establish operations in Augury. Suitable industries might include video game development, software development, entertainment (including film, music, writing, streaming, etc.), journalism, marine biology/technology, aeronautics engineering, and so on. Industries which will compete with executive departments should not be actively sought out; rather, qualified industry professionals should be recruited to improve those departments.
Videogames are also powerful tools for scientific research and simulation. This may lend itself to a unique research and development industry in Augury. We must never underestimate the power of play and fun in increasing our capacity to complete a task.
Entertainment Center
We acknowledge the importance of play for children (though sometimes we don’t realize how important it is), but do we realize that it is also important for adults? “Playing is just as important for adults as it is for children. Among its many benefits, adult play can boost your creativity, sharpen your sense of humor, and help you cope better with stress.” Sometimes, our need for play has an outlet in the form of sports or video games—though without children around, we often neglect this need. In Augury, we must facilitate play for all ages. In the 1980s, indoor technology-based entertainment reached a peak, before home devices sent us back to our homes to enjoy our entertainment in isolation. I believe that it was better before, when you would go out to a bowling alley or an arcade, where you might see your friends or meet some new ones. Augury should have an “entertainment center” facility, outfitted with attractions like a bowling alley, mini golf course, arcade, laser tag arena, go-kart track, pizzeria, prize counter, food court, fountains you can wade in, esports arena, and a movie theater. These facilities should house both vintage and modern technology, but I think using the interior design characteristic of classic 1980’s shopping malls, with neon and interesting shapes, would be thematically appropriate and visually appealing. People do love the “retro” aesthetic.
Pop Culture Preservation Project
Augury is partially intended to function as a sort of “apocalypse bunker” refuge for catastrophic circumstances (which is why it must always be equipped to accept refugees), which is described in Part 3: Emergency Response, Apocalyptic Scenarios. This protective capacity can also be extended to human heritage. Since our very beginning, storytelling has been a defining trait of the human race. What started out as tales around a campfire has become a rich, infinite multi-genre cultural multiverse of literature, comic, movie, serie, and video game canons. The rich human culture must be preserved, but also appreciated. Therefore I propose we maintain in Augury a massive, exhaustive collection of pop culture, in any and all formats, so that we and our posterity can enjoy our small acts of creation. This collection should be on display and accessible to all citizens and visitors, possibly as an addition to the library or interspersed throughout the city. Means to view this media, of course, must also be preserved—digitizing is excellent and very convenient, but we should also have VCRs and record players and whatever else we need to use the originals.
Marine Biology & Oceanography
By catering to organizations like the NOAA, Universities, and other marine research , Augury can rent the best facilities on earth for marine biology. Airlocks will allow researchers to walk out onto the ocean floor to study reefs or plan expeditions into the deep. Holding tanks of various sizes can facilitate close study of specific organisms and biological relationships. Sustainable proximity alone is significantly advantageous towards the study of submarine environments. The Augury convention/exhibition center could become the venue of choice for marine biology and oceanography conventions.
Consider also collaboration with aerospace organizations like NASA—astronauts frequently train underwater.
Mining & Salvage
Extensive, unregulated undersea mining would be environmentally detrimental, but responsible mining with consideration given to long-term consequences will still allow for the allocation of some minerals, such as manganese nodules, salvage, and ocean water mineral extraction. “The bottom of the world's ocean contains vast supplies of precious metals and other resources, including gold, diamonds, and cobalt.”
Economic System
There is a common sentiment circulating on the internet these days, centered around the tagline: “I do not dream of labor.” Bootstrap capitalism has tricked us into believing “what did you want to be when you grow up” was a sinister question, that we should not aspire to work because the only work we know is to build the wealth of megalomaniacs. But labor is just another word for work, and work is nothing more than “effort performed to achieve a purpose.” Labor is not good or evil; it is a tool which has been abused. We dream of a world where labor is not exploited at the expense of our survival. There is no reward in labor anymore, with the abuse from customers and bosses, long hours with insufficient compensation. When we and the people around us see the value of our labor, when we can enjoy its fruits, when it is for our good and the good of the people we care about rather than to inflate the wealth of another, labor is fulfilling and satisfying. Just look at what we did during quarantine
At the end of the day, labor is, inherently, necessary for us to survive—whether we live in a city or off the land in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Unless we are to live in isolation, we have to grow beyond the American “you don’t owe anybody anything” mentality. Living in a community is collaborative, and we owe to each other what we are able to give. If we are to take part in a community, we must contribute to it. If we expect our neighbors to contribute to our community, we must not exploit their contributions, and we must value the crucial labor and laborers that make a community work. But that does not mean we must earn the right to survive—there will always be members of society who suffer from disability or some form of weakness which reduces or prevents entirely their ability to work, and if we claim to be a community, we must care for those who cannot care for themselves without any expectation of compensation.
The average wage gap ratio in America in 2022 was 670:1 (according to a study conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies), meaning the very top executives in large companies were compensated on average $670 for every $1 an entry-level worker received. Historically, this type of wealth inequality (and corresponding social status inequality) leads to instability and collapse—so in Augury, wealth inequality must be regulated to encourage a cooperative rather than competitive economy.
The most radical of these policies which I propose is the "No Employees Rule," which prohibits any private businesses from having employees—in other words, all workers in cooperation with a business organization must be a partner (receive a percentage of profits rather than a fixed rate and have some power of influence; like a co-op) or a freelance/contract worker (greater degree of freedom; not subject to company policies). By these standards, all companies must either be some variation of a cooperative, employee-owned business or a sole proprietorship.
The local private economy is intended to be kept small, never large enough to exert influence over any part of the government or policy in Augury. Small businesses are prioritized over franchises, and corporate chains are not allowed. Businesses have a maximum size for number of partners calculated based on the yearly census, so that no single business ever composes too large of a percentage of Augury's population. The same principle applies to total net income, to prevent a business from using financial income to form a monopoly, oligopoly, corporate oligarchy, or corporatocracy. When a business grows too large and approaches income or size ceilings, it will be required to either downsize or split-up. In some cases, if the industry is deemed crucial to the people of Augury and should therefore remain growing, the business may be nationalized so business practices and policies can be held publicly accountable . The intent of these policies are to prevent businesses or industries from exerting undue influence on citizens, and to protect small businesses.
Other economic policies include (but are not limited to) minimum wage requirements calculated yearly based on minimum cost of living, financial data transparency laws for all government departments, and wages for government employees, which are calculated yearly based on the minimum wage. If government employees (including department heads) want a higher wage, they have to raise the minimum wage.
Nationalized Banking
Privatized banking has long been an industry based on greed and exploitation. Profits are reduced by fiscal responsibility, so it’s in the interests of banks to enact policies like overdraft fees, which banks collected $7.7 billion of in 2022. Instead, consider having banking run as a national service, like the postal or library service, where the motivation is the wellbeing of the individual rather than profit. Banking policies, offers, rates, and contracts can be publicly available and accountable, and changes be made by popular vote (moderated by economists to prevent economic crisis). The more transparent finances become, the less opportunity for exploitation. Integration of Minerva A.I. monitoring could also reduce theft, fraud, and laundering—with a court order, of course.
Augury's economy should use a centralized digital fiat currency called Aurichalcum (referred to as copper or coppers for short), the blockchain data for which will be stored on Apollo servers, but moderated and monitored by Minerva algorithms with as little human interaction as possible. Minerva systems will keep an overview of Aurichalcum units and their ownership and define whether new units can be created. If new units can be created, Minerva defines the circumstances of their origin and how to determine the ownership of these new units. If Minerva detects any issues, significant value fluctuations, or problematic trends, it will alert a human technician. Though Minerva tracks the movement of Aurichalcum movements, it is illegal for a human technician to track exchanges of currency between individuals without a Judicial warrant. Human economists should monitor this system to ensure economic health as a redundancy, especially for the first decade or so until Minerva algorithms demonstrate effectiveness.
Citizens should be issued an ID card with a secure RFID chip which can be used as identification, a debit/credit card, passkey for certain doors, and redemption for online purchases or tickets, and certain perks afforded to citizens (for example, consider certain passageways unlockable only to citizens so they can avoid large crowds and heavy traffic from tourism). Uses of this card can be tracked only with a court order to protect privacy. The same credentials could also pair with a QR code loaded on their phone from their online government account. Of course, a fraud agency in Minerva to address identity theft would be necessary.
Tax Policies
Taxes in almost any society are a necessary evil, but in Augury, they will be designed to be as simple and low-maintenance as possible. Taxes should be deducted primarily (almost exclusively) from income, at the lowest rate possible to subsidize whatever costs the nationalized income can't cover.
Each year, citizens should receive an itemized tax report from the government, with the opportunity to contest any charges. There should never be any need to hire an accountant or worry about accidentally committing fraud on this report—if the numbers look right, all a citizen would need to do is file the report away for their records.
Tax code falls under the purview of policy determined using the MDDS— so if anyone doesn't like their taxes, they and everyone else can take a look at the numbers and crunch them a different way, and put their alternative to a vote. There will need to be a few hard policies in place to prevent economic collapse or inequality, but beyond that, why shouldn’t we choose our own tax rate?
City Market
Imagine a large big-box supermarket like Walmart, Costo, or Sam’s Club. In one stop, you can get groceries, furniture, tools, and visit an optometrist, pharmacist, and hair stylist. The experience is extremely convenient for the consumer, but can decimate the opportunities for small businesses in the area. What if we modified this model in a way that benefits both the customer and the vendor?
At first, Augury will only be populated by critical personnel and their families to keep the city running—but in time, we could see a community of local artisans and small businesses, creating and selling their goods. To facilitate that, I envision a facility not unlike a farmers market, for a wide variety of goods and services from a variety of vendors. Augury will be unfriendly to big franchises, so small vendors can sell their goods without worrying about unfair competition, or the expense of their own brick and mortar store. A vendor could rent out a designated stall in a warehouse-like facility, next to other similar vendors (divided by category for the convenience of the customer). The vendor would take care of stocking and apply a special RFID barcode tag to their products, and would have the choice to stay with their shop or not. They can keep a shop open to customers, but spend their valuable time on something besides sitting in a stall all day. Market staff would take care of cleaning, checkout, and preventing shoplifting. Meanwhile, the customer has a one-stop-shop for all their needs. Hephaestus can maintain a section for locally manufactured goods; Demeter will stock the produce section. Any goods needed that can’t/aren’t produced locally can be imported and stocked on shelves, conveniently in the same facility.
To save citizens from inconveniently long walks, Augury should make extensive use of vending machines throughout the city. Modern vending machines are not just limited to candy, cheap snacks, and soda—there are machines which replace pharmacies, drugstores, and other small shops; some which will cook bread or a customized pizza in front of you, some which are refrigerated and hold fresh produce, cheeses, meats, dairy, eggs, or entire hot or cold meals, canned food—the possibilities are endless. Vending machines make simple shopping easier and more efficient, in terms of space, time, and resources. Additionally, they remove the need for a human clerk to run checkout lines in a store. A well-built machine, reinforced with thick glass and bolted to the floor, would also reduce losses from theft. These machines could even be programmed to unlock in case of emergency, to serve as a repository of supplies. Partnering with Aegle, some vending machines could even offer supplies for rudimentary first aid. Medical personnel could access these supplies without payment.
Emergency Response
On the bottom of the ocean, emergencies need to be handled quickly and effectively. Emergency response teams in Augury should maintain and regularly drill contingencies and response plans for a variety of emergency scenarios, including but not limited to those listed below. Emergency response stations should be regularly interspersed throughout the city as well, containing supplies like antihistamines, first aid kits, defibrillators, and miniature scuba tanks.
Breaches
Augury will sit just 30-40 meters or around 100-150 ft underwater. At this depth, the water pressure is between 4 and 5 atmospheres, which is 4 to 5 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level, or 59 to 73 pounds per square inch (which is around the same level of water pressure that should come out of a faucet). This is not enough pressure to cause catastrophic implosion. By maintaining a similar level of air pressure inside, Aether can reduce the danger of depressurization, but water will still get in if the interior pressure is at all lower and the exterior walls are breached. In this situation, the compartment would be evacuated, then sealed off at bulkheads. Next, the air pressure in the compartment will be increased above the ocean water pressure, so that air is pushing out rather than water pushing in. The breach can then be sealed with an industrial adhesive, and an electric current applied to the exterior wall to replace the mineralization. Once workers in Hestia are confident that the breach is adequately patched, the compartment can be drained, dried, and reopened.
Fire
Fire in an airtight, hyperbaric environment is catastrophic, so the Augury fire department must work quickly to extinguish any fire before it spreads. Certain areas like electrical substation rooms should be outfitted with self-deploying fire extinguisher bombs as a contingency. Some smaller fires can be addressed by extinguisher turrets mounted in major rooms, concourses, and atriums, which use Minerva algorithms to automatically spray any hot spot that exceeds a certain temperature. Larger fires must be addressed in person, so firefighters will use a combination of chemical fire extinguishers and water pumped in from the ocean. If a fire grows truly out of control, the compartment will need to be evacuated and sealed at bulkheads, then deoxygenated. Most flammable fuels should be illegal or highly regulated; only importable by government departments like Hephaestus or Hestia.
Police
Augury's police force will be a relatively small organization of civil servants responsible for maintaining public order and safety. They rarely use force, and only ever as a last resort. For most public disturbances, police officers work with the department of Mentality, ready to provide support if necessary to social workers and therapists. Their jobs mainly consist of providing help to citizens and visitors in need, connecting them with Executive and Judicial departments as needed. They will not carry a firearm, as firearms of any kind should be universally illegal in Augury. Instead, they should be trained in various forms of martial arts, and trained to de-escalate situations. If a situation demands it, they will use non lethal means to incapacitate aggressors—for example, as some Japanese police do, rolling them in large futons until they calm down.
Defense
Augury will not maintain a formal military and will not ever deploy a military presence on foreign soil. However, it should maintain remotely controlled defensive turrets mounted on exterior buildings in case of foreign attack, contingency plans in case of invasion, and a reserve National Guard trained to protect civilians and address emergency situations. These guard members would need dive training, to operate outside the city or if compartments of the city needed to be flooded for security purposes. Combat strategies should be a last resort.
Augury could also make use of remotely operated drones with powerful engines, designed to attach to an object and push it away from the city in case of collision course (whether from an antagonistic submarine, falling debris from above, etc.)
Apocalyptic Scenarios
The idea of an “apocalypse” of some kind may seem like a science fiction trope in popular media—in fact, the trope is so popular (and has been so popular since World War II and the Cold War) because we are so aware of the variety of threats to the continuation of the human race. Though most threats are unlikely to cause the extinction of human life, they are more than capable of greatly reducing our population or destroying vital infrastructure, reducing our access to vital resources. These natural and artificial “global catastrophic risks” include:
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Economic collapse
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Electrical grid failure
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World War
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Thermonuclear holocaust (this has almost happened accidentally around 20 times since the invention of nuclear bombs)
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Radioactive fallout
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Asteroid/comet impact event
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Supervolcanic eruption
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Natural pandemic
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Artificial pandemic (intentional or accidental; biological warfare/bioterrorism, which is becoming more accessible)
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Coronal mass ejections like the Carrington Event (electromagnetic/gamma solar emissions)
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Environmental change (rising global temperatures leading to famine, drought, wildfires, flooding, etc.)
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Flooding of coastal cities from rising sea levels
In addition to the hypothetical, we have record of countless “population crash” events in history which decimated the human population, including the following examples (with some of the highest death tolls):
From manmade conflict:
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World War II (70-118 million deaths, roughly 73% civilian)
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Reign of Mao Zedong (~66 million deaths, some purges, mostly famine)
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Genghis Khan’s conquests (~40 million deaths )
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British India (~27 million deaths, mostly famine due to European business policies)
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Atlantic Slave Trade (~16 million deaths)
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Mideast Arab Slave Trade (~18.5 million deaths)
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Conquest of Native Americans (~15 million deaths from disease, famine, and genocide)
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Fall of Rome (~7 million deaths)
From pandemics:
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Black Death (75-200 million deaths, 1346–1353)
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Spanish Flu (17-100 million deaths, 1918–1920)
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HIV/AIDS Crisis (40.1 million deaths, 1981–present)
From natural disasters:
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1931 China Floods (~4 million deaths, 1931)
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1887 Yellow River flood (~2 million deaths, 1887)
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1976 Tangshan earthquake (~655K deaths, 1976)
From famine:
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Great Chinese Famine (11-40 million deaths, 1959–1961)
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Chinese famine of 1906–1907 (25 million deaths)
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Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879 (9-13 million deaths)
These are just a few examples of potential threats to humanity’s existence, and enough to make many of us deeply paranoid of an impending disaster of some kind. The unfortunate truth is that an apocalypse of some kind is not only possible, but growing increasingly probable. The world is unpredictable, and disaster is a theme of history, not fiction—and exacerbated by available technology.
Fortunately, there is a bright side. Once fully constructed, Augury will be the perfect “doomsday shelter.” Underground doomsday shelters and bunkers have been a popular construction project for people who call themselves “preppers” around the world who anticipate that environmental changes or impending nuclear war will soon force them to live underground. The video game franchise “Fall-Out” centers around this concept. Naturally, these subterranean complexes are prohibitively expensive, and therefore are only accessible to the wealthy—they are typically rented by the larger supplier companies that build them. The founder of one such company, the Survival Condo Project, noted that “When the rhetoric was hot and heavy between Trump and Kim Jong-un in North Korea, there was a real big spike in phone calls." According to Business Insider, an effective shelter needs the following:
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Stockpiles of supplies like imperishable food and medical supplies
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Protection from flooding
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Distance from military targets
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Thick walls to keep out radiation, contaminated water and air, and protect from explosives
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Airtight walls or filtration systems to keep out radiation
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Security systems/measures
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Sustainable agricultural arrays
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Access to potable, uncontaminated water
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Localized electrical grid/power source
In short, an effective doomsday shelter needs to be a self-sufficient off-grid homestead completely sealed off from the rest of the world. Augury will fulfill all of these needs and more, and be far more comfortable than any subterranean bunker. As many works of fiction have explored, aquatic refuge is optimal for surviving global catastrophe. Survival shelters are built underground to protect them from heat, shockwaves, and radiation behind a thick layer of earth. Water is also an effective barrier against these threats. Water is a potent insulator to radiation and heat; the thermal inertia of the ocean keeps most of it much cooler than the surrounding atmosphere even in the event of a period of natural or artificial global warming. Though ocean water at 100-150 feet deep is not cold enough to make Augury unlivable, the aforementioned nuclear decay heat (or electrical heat) can be used to make Augury comfortable. Only 13.8 feet of water is needed to reduce gamma radiation intensity by a factor of a billion—at 100-150 feet, we will still be able to farm, fish, and dive near the ocean floor without risking exposure. Water is also very effective at suppressing the effects of explosive shockwaves. With the exception of a direct strike, Augury would be immune to nuclear holocaust. Water also allows for a shelter to be built deeper, farther from the surface—the ocean is cooler at depth, whereas the earth gets warmer, eventually requiring cooling systems. This will protect Augury from even extended exposure to nuclear or cosmic radiation.
Isolation is also easy to achieve within Augury—with geographic isolation and a single surface entry-point, the city can be sealed off from the surface simply. By design, Augury must be self-sustaining, so it will be able to function normally without air, water, food, medicine, or power from an outside source. Water and air will be internally purified and recycled, preventing the risk of contamination. Of course, these vital supplies should be stockpiled in case of equipment failure, unexpected system loads, or emergency. As previously mentioned, Augury should be built with extra capacity to accept refugees; further additional supplies will be necessary for this case. In the event of a global pandemic, quarantine can be easily enforced.
Many futurists such as Elon Musk have (urgently) suggested emergency extraterrestrial egress to the Moon and Mars, but an aquatic refuge would be far more sustainable and indescribably more economical. A colony like Augury could safely function for generations in near-total isolation while still using earth’s natural resources. Not to mention, the proximity would allow us to monitor as surface conditions improve.
There are several phenomena that consistently contribute to societal collapse that have caused empires to fall in the past which we must be sure to prevent and protect against to maintain Augury’s stability:
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War/foreign conquest
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Pandemic/Famine
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Discontent among citizens
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Political/ideological division
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Overextension/Decentralization of power/weak leadership
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Economic Collapse/Economic inequality
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Poor adaptability/slow reformation
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Cultural assimilation/overwhelming
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Class inequality/Government catering to upper class rather than all citizens
City Planning & Expansion
As Augury expands, it’s important to plan for long-term sustainability with longevity and future growth in mind. Good civil engineering and planning is paramount. Just as Joseph William Bazalgette insisted on doubling the proposed size of London’s sewers in the 1850s to accommodate the growth of the city, Augury should be built to handle a higher capacity than necessary. New facilities can follow the same protocol as outlined in Step 2, or whatever refined version is used. Structures should extend outwards along the paths of mass transit like spokes from a wheel, leaving room for ocean life and views in between. Facilities should never be constructed too densely; all living quarters should have a window into the ocean or into an atrium. Facilities of all kinds should be wrapped around central atriums. A section of Augury should always be empty (stop at around Step VIII) for storage and to accommodate emergency refugee camps. Not all new facilities need to be built as expansions on to the main structure; separate buildings will reduce the risk of cascading system failure and can be connected by “bathyducts” (like an underwater skyway). Some “suburban” communities in smaller compounds can be constructed in the outskirts of the city to have a more direct access to agricultural interests like kelp forests and seagrass fields; this may appeal more to some people who prefer a more small-town or village dynamic.
Augury’s community should not be allowed to grow too large; human beings have demonstrable limits of social capacity, and significant research points towards a concept similar to Dunbar’s number, which “is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships (around 150; anywhere from 100-200 depending on the person)—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.” The larger Augury or any given community grows, the less functional its social health will be.
If the population grows beyond 5,000 or so, a “sister city” of sorts should be established nearby—however, Augury’s population should always grow slowly, to ensure sustainability. Smaller communities are healthier, as anonymity is reduced and people can more easily form relationships with their neighbors. Additionally, smaller communities are friendlier to small businesses, less expensive, and have lower crime rates. Higher population density strains our capacity for empathy and our capacity to effectively and fairly govern.
If Augury’s systems are well-designed enough and produce a significant surplus of vital resources, they can be exported around the world as humanitarian aid. If the concept of Augury proves itself in time to be fully viable and fulfills my expectations, more underwater or floating colonies like it may be built. The ocean has far more livable space than the surface, and if enough of the human population eventually relocates to the ocean, the surface environment may be able to recover from overfarming, pollution, and deforestation to pre-industrialization conditions.