What If We Lived In Cities Under Water? - video Dailymotion

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11/10/2023

Why haven’t we built cities underwater yet?

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00:00 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water.

00:11 Why don't we make use of all that underwater real estate?

00:18 What would it be like to live at the bottom of the ocean?

00:21 Where would we get oxygen to breathe, and food to eat?

00:25 And what would we do in case of an emergency evacuation?

00:30 This is WHAT IF, and here's what would happen if we lived underwater.

00:36 There is one thing standing between us and underwater living.

00:40 Our bodies aren't adapted to it.

00:43 If you dove 150 meters underwater without proper training or equipment,

00:47 your lungs would shrivel to the size of a pop can,

00:51 and your veins would collapse.

00:53 Descending all the way to the bottom of the ocean

00:55 would feel as if you were being crushed under 14 full cement trucks.

01:01 But that doesn't mean our dreams of underwater living can never come true.

01:05 It just means we'd need to dream smaller.

01:08 Our underwater habitats would be rather small,

01:11 populated with a few thousand good swimmers at most.

01:15 We'd live in small modules made of steel, glass, and cement

01:19 designed for underwater use.

01:21 And instead of going too deep into the ocean,

01:24 we'd settle about 100 meters undersea.

01:27 We'd need to build life support systems that would maintain air composition,

01:31 temperature, and humidity.

01:33 Keeping a livable amount of oxygen in the air would be our major concern.

01:38 If we wanted to make our habitat self-sustaining,

01:41 we'd need to figure out how to grow plants that would produce their own oxygen.

01:46 How would we go about powering up our ocean-ville?

01:49 With land-based solar panels that would transmit energy to the habitat.

01:53 We could also use wave power,

01:55 the undersea equivalent of wind turbines.

01:59 Then there's food.

02:00 We'd rely heavily on dehydrated and canned supplies.

02:04 But don't forget about good old fishing.

02:07 With so many foods swimming in front of you,

02:09 why not take advantage of the fresh sea market?

02:13 Our drinking water would be supplied through distillation or condensation.

02:17 And all our waste would most likely be flushed out into the ocean.

02:22 Underwater living isn't without its dangers though.

02:25 Imagine a worst-case scenario.

02:27 Your bedroom window gets a massive crack,

02:30 and water rampages through your living space.

02:33 Or your life support system fails,

02:35 leaving you to suffocate undersea.

02:38 In order to stay safe, we'd need to perform regular evacuation drills,

02:42 and make sure our emergency alert systems were up and running at all times.

02:47 You'd be wise to keep an oxygen tank on hand,

02:50 and have a small submarine ready to shuttle you to safety.

02:54 The cool thing about all this is that we already have the technology to make it work.

02:59 Although so far the longest an individual has managed to live underwater is 31 days,

03:04 there are companies out there planning on building an underwater city like this.

03:08 Whether it's safe enough is another question.

03:11 Maybe building cities floating in the air would be a more feasible option.

03:15 But that's a story for another WHAT IF.

03:19 [MUSIC]

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