this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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This... seems... highly theoretical.
It's... It's well within limits. Sustaining sequence.
Oh. Oh dear.
Is that a resonance cascade? Don't see those every day.
I'd like to see a followup story published sometime other than the first of April.
Well you see. Mega projects in authoritarian countries rarely solve actual problem or serve a purpose. They‘re just there to make good headlines and be forgotten because the next mega project or innovation just made the news!
Are we saying things like the three gorges dam, china canals, and rail, are all just for show and don't serve a purpose?
Partially yes absolutely. Some regions with more and more dams have recently experienced devastating floods, suggesting they‘ve tempered with nature a little too much. And yes, some of those new highspeed rails are barely ever used and mainly serve a symbolic purpose, namely connecting outer regions to the central power in Beijing in some way or form. Nearly nobody uses those and the best case scenario for them would be a war so they can transport masses of troops quickly.
i had no opinion and minimal knowledge about high speed rail in China going into this comment section, but it looks like the outer cities experience real estate growth in the wake of being connected by high speed rail, and reportedly the rail lines are some of the safest in the world. i can't imagine criticizing a country for building too much high efficiency mass transit in advance
I mean the Nazis did that in preparation for their Blitzkrieg and the Holocaust so there are real examples why building seemingly overengineered and overly excessive infrastructure can be problematic. And besides a demonstration of power, I think some of those railways are exactly that. To transport troops or masses of prisoners quickly and efficiently. God knows they have enough of those.
It’s more accurate to say they might be, but not necessarily. China is very aware of the benefits of keeping ahead technologically.