Talk:The World Inside

Plot Summary
The so-called "Plot Summary" does not actually summarize the plot at all. It just describes the background against which the story takes place. SisDivComp (talk) 12:54, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree, this section should be rewritten. Xin Jing (talk) 04:47, 30 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I third this idea. Ws04 (talk) 00:32, 27 December 2015 (UTC)
 * The book consists of several inter-twined stories within this background. Whether or not to fully describe these sub-plots depends on the length and detail expected of the article. Eldar (talk) 00:54, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Added Orb Books Publication
On May 2, 2010 I added the March 2, 2010 publication of this title by Orb Books. Xin Jing (talk) 19:27, 2 May 2010 (UTC)
 * On June 29, 2011, I added the page count of the May 2, 2010 Orb Books trade paperback printing. Xin Jing (talk) 04:43, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Space per person?
Any idea on how much floor space per person or the dimensions of the buildings? 1,000 stories with 800K people seems awfully roomy, even if 3/4 of the building is given over to hallways, elevators and services.

If the building has a base of .5 x .5 mile, the footprint covers 6,969,600 ft^2 Assuming the building goes straight up, multiply that by 1,000. 6,969,600,000 ft^2 Now divide by 800,000 That's 8,712 ft^2 of gross space per occupant. If 75% is not living space, that's 2,178 ft^2 of net living space per occupant. The mega-scrapers would have to be quite narrow and/or taper quite a bit as they go up to get a really high density.

Of course adjust area according to the book to come up with a figure, if there's any such data in it. Now I need to find a copy to read. ;) Bizzybody (talk) 04:09, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Well, if you base it on the suggested Sky City 100 mentioned, which has a floor area of 8 sq. km for 196 floors, then, with 1000 floors one would expect about 5x that or 40 sq. km. Divide that among the 800k people and you're looking at only 50 sq meters each -- since Sky City is only supposed to house 35k people it'll probably be larger in area. Don't forget you have shared living space to deal with. In addition to children's play areas, offices, schools, and communal dining facilities (I seem to recall that was a part of the story, possibly that one generally didn't "cook"), there are a lot of different social activities to enclose. One of the base ideas is that no one EVER goes "outside". Even the buildings don't have windows or balconies. You are literally living inside the building with no exposure to the outside whatsoever. If there is anything truly wrong with the idea, it's that it's a largely static culture, with attendant reduced flexibility to change. One asteroid strike and it's all over, and there's little sign that there is much "outward looking" among the people such that they would be preparing for such events.--OBloodyHell (talk) 06:13, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Categories
>>> Categories: 1971 novels | Dystopian novels | Overpopulation fiction | Novels by Robert Silverberg | American science fiction novels

Having read the book (granted, 35 years ago) I would say that the book was not particularly Dystopian, only mildly so. I would personally not like the place, but it wasn't describing a truly onerous or vile life, just one which was limited in freedom and which a modern person would consider somewhat dreary and limited. If that's all it takes to make a dystopia, then I'd say most historical fiction about life more than 200 years ago is "dystopian".

I would also say it's not really one involving "overpopulation", since its entire point is that the carrying capacity of the planet is far higher than the pundits of the time were claiming possible. I don't know for a fact that Silverberg actually calculated it out, but he tended then, at the least, to write moderately hard SF with strong social implications. He likely based his society on numbers he believed reasonable. So it's more a response to overpopulation myths of the time. --OBloodyHell (talk) 06:15, 2 September 2011 (UTC)