Frequently asked questions
What is Augury and what is its purpose?
Augury is a concept for a mass-capacity, self-sustaining submarine habitat. The purpose of Augury is to facilitate a community that prioritizes the needs for the physical, mental, and spiritual health of its citizens so that they will pursue self-optimization and self-actualization.
Where will Augury be built?
Augury couldn't be built just anywhere. To function as intended, the Augury building site needs two basic things: resources and sovereignty. Access to resources is flexible, as more plentiful resources can sometimes compensate for scarcer resources. But things like clean water, an energy source, and the ability to grow food are crucial. If energy is plentiful enough, it can be used to power grow lights, so access to sunlight is not an absolute requirement. Resources that can be sold for profit would also be highly beneficial, but what's most important is that the space is not already claimed by another governing body, so that Augury can be self-governing, self-regulating, and free to pursue the goal of prioritizing health by any means deemed appropriate, without being subject to foreign governments or culture. This limits available space to "Terra nullius," meaning land on earth not currently claimed, of which most options are unclaimed because they are unlivable. Though this seems discouraging, there is one environment that fulfills and exceeds the requirements, in the most plentiful natural resource on the surface of the earth: the ocean. Augury will be situated off the eastern coast of America or near Bermuda, in waters shallow enough to support significant marine life, and where the ocean pressure, even on the floor, is not extreme. This location is in the middle of the Gulf Stream which is useful for power generation; it's close to transatlantic telecommunications cables; it's close to shipping lanes between America and Europe which can facilitate trade; proximity to Bermuda which facilitates significant tourism; the depth allows sunlight to reach down, the location in general allows for propagation of marine plants like kelp (which provide both edible and commercial resources); and the ocean offers several commercial resources like manganese nodules and salvage.
How will you build a city underwater?
There are two big obstacles to underwater construction which have so far prevented it from becoming popular: pressure and inaccessibility. Inaccessibility is obvious: traditional construction relies on infrastructure like roads and existing utilities. Underwater construction requires specialized equipment and workers. Barges must transport those workers and equipment as well as construction materials, which are exponentially more expensive when they are difficult to transport. Then add diving equipment, the cost of underwater welders, specialized cranes, and it's clear why underwater buildings aren't more popular. This is not even to mention that the water requires that buildings be constructed many times thicker and stronger to withstand the pressure, further compounding the cost. There is, however, an alternative in the form of technology. In 1976, an architect named Wolf Hilbertz discovered that by passing electric currents through saltwater, over time a thick layer of various minerals similar to limestone will accumulate on the cathode. He patented this process under the name "Biorock". This process of mineral aggregation can form walls of stone thick enough to withstand ocean pressure around a frame of any electrically conductive material like rebar, using nothing but an electric current, which can be generated by the motion of the ocean itself. In addition to being inexpensive, passive, and mechanically simple, Biorock also cleans ocean water from dissolved minerals, adds hydrogen and oxygen to the water which encourages marine life, repels sharks due to its electric field, and is self-healing as long as the electric current remains active. Furthermore, Biorock is currently used to restore coral reefs because the surface of the aggregated minerals is perfect for coral growth. The entire exterior surface of Augury would eventually grow into a coral reef, further encouraging the health of the surrounding ocean, preserving marine life by serving as an artificial marine nature preserve, facilitating tourism and marine biology.
How long will it take to build?
Biorock mineralization rate depends on the amount of electrical power supplied. More power means faster but weaker mineralization; less power makes a slower but stronger shell. Based on past applications of biorock, we estimate 3-5 years to grow the exterior structure.
Won't it run out of air?
The Aether department's most crucial function is to balance the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide by reoxygenating constantly to compensate for human respiration. Access to sufficient oxygen improves cleansing and tissue repair in the body, and helps them exchange gasses more easily. Insufficient oxygen supply can result in serious health problems, but too much oxygen can cause issues as well. Reoxygenation is primarily achieved by algae and phytoplankton tanks like the ones shown to the left, in which case Aether works closely with Demeter. Through its natural photosynthesis, marine algae can remove toxic gasses like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides, with a success rate of over 98%. The algae metabolize these gasses and infuse oxygen into the filtered air, even more effectively than trees. In case all these systems fail, air can also be pulled in from the Primary Induction Lighthouse.
How will the government work?
Augury's government is divided into the same three major branches as the American government: Judicial, Executive, and Legislative. The functions of these three branches, however, are significantly different. The Executive branch, comprised mainly of the ten vital utility departments, is responsible for doing the work necessary to keep the city running properly, anything from cleaning the air to expanding the city to parks and recreation. The Judicial branch, divided into the three departments of Spirituality, Mentality, and Physicality, functions as a sort of auditing system. Their responsibility is to inspect and analyze the Executive branch and the city at large to ensure that the city-wide directive of prioritizing health is optimized. They constantly search for flaws or opportunities to improve and propose solutions to keep Augury at its best. The Legislative branch, which comprises the entire population of Augury, is responsible for agreeing or disagreeing to any policy changes the Judicial branch proposes. Using the MDDS, Minerva may adjust the weight of an individual vote higher or lower to compensate for factors like expertise or conflict of interest.
How will Augury affect the natural environment?
Environmental preservation is extremely important to the spirit of Augury and the foundational principle of sustainability. To that end, the entire structure itself will greatly benefit the ocean around it. Biorock, the primary building component of Augury, cleans ocean water from dissolved minerals, adds hydrogen and oxygen to the water which encourages marine life, and repels sharks due to its electric field. Furthermore, Biorock is currently used to restore coral reefs because the surface of the aggregated minerals is perfect for coral growth. Therefore, the entire surface of Augury will eventually grow into a coral reef, further encouraging the health of the surrounding ocean, preserving marine life by serving as an artificial marine nature preserve, facilitating tourism, marine biology, and marine conservation awareness. In addition, the closed system of Augury will force citizens to be conscientious of pollution and environmental conditions, which will facilitate relevant research and development towards reducing, reusing, and recycling waste. Necessity breeds invention!
Wouldn't everyone get claustrophobic?
In 2021, Americans spent 90% of their time indoors, and around 85% lived in densely populated urban areas. Though the effect on mental health from this lifestyle is concerning, it's clear that at least most American people are well accustomed to life indoors. This being said, Augury will include several expansive atriums to combat claustrophobia and offer citizens a wide-open space to unwind and relax. Demeter will maintain a high density of plant life in open areas both for mental health and air quality.
How much will it cost to build Augury?
It's hard to accurately estimate the cost of a project so large when no other directly comparable project has ever been attempted. But taking into account the costs of off-shore drilling platforms and similarly-sized buildings on land, we estimate it cost around $150 million (USD) to build the prefatory structure—after initial funding, nationalized income like underwater data centers will pay for ongoing expansion of the city and other public expenditures.
Will guns be allowed?
Firearms or explosives of any kind will be universally prohibited in Augury. In a pressurized underwater container, a stray bullet could cause significant damage. While a bullet fired from a handgun wouldn't be powerful enough to penetrate an exterior wall, it could weaken a window, rupture a pipe, damage wiring or machinery, or might cause a deafening echo. Additionally, most interior walls will not need to be hard or thick enough to be bulletproof, so a stray bullet could travel much farther than intended.
Won't it be like Bioshock™?
The fictional underwater city of Rapture, which serves as the setting for the 2007 award-winning game series “Bioshock” developed by 2K and Irrational Games, collapsed into a localized apocalypse for many reasons—none of which depended on it being underwater. The first and most important factor was authoritarian fascism. Rapture’s government was overbearing and totalitarian, overregulating some freedoms and under-regulating others, allowing the most powerful members of society to prey on the weakest with little to no accountability–eventually resulting in a stark wealth disparity. The second was isolation—both physically, as Rapture was miles underwater, and politically, as citizens were not allowed to leave the city. Finally, Rapture was overrun by an addictive drug market. Rampant addiction will cripple any community—particularly if that addiction gives you uncontrollable aggression and superpowers through genetic mutation (and a consumer arms race to balance the playing field). Combine those main issues with a lack of cultural morality, demonizing empathy, propaganda-induced general cult mentality, and an unregulated, free-market, purely individualist capitalist economy, and you can see clearly that Rapture was doomed from the start. If you're interested in the whole story, I highly recommend the 2011 prequel novelization “Rapture,” written by John Shirley. Suffice to say, the similarities between Rapture and Augury are limited to being both underwater, and both taking inspiration for names from the Greek Pantheon. The story of Bioshock is a critique of Randian Objectivism; the city being underwater was merely facilitative to that point. Rand was right about identifying some of the big problems, however: “When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you— When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice— You may know that your society is doomed.” —Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Doesn't this plan seem a little overambitious?
Sure, it does. Augury is a big idea. If implemented according to this plan, it could change the course of history. It will absolutely not be easy to do. It’s an enormous construction project—but we undertake enormous construction projects around the world all the time. Consider the millions that go into building cruise ships, offshore oil platforms, and skyscrapers—of which there are more every year. The question isn’t really whether we’re capable of building something like this—we are. The big challenge will be convincing people it’s worth the effort. Human beings are afraid of and resistant to change and the unknown more than anything else. We have an overwhelming tendency to stick with familiar suffering rather than risk a potentially better alternative if it’s unfamiliar. I can write tens of thousands of words to convince people that Augury is the best cumulation of solutions to the big problems we face in the world, but the one thing I can’t convince anyone of is to care if they don’t. But the ocean is a frontier, and though we are characterized by our fear of change, we are characterized even more so by our curiosity. What is humanity if not a race of explorers? Eventually, some futurist company or entrepreneur is going to colonize the ocean. With modern technology it’s only a matter of time before someone decides there’s enough of a market for it and builds an ocean floor tourist trap. Should we wait for them to do it first and pay $499.99 to visit? Or should we do it ourselves and do it properly, and build the kind of community we’re all desperate for?
