Ecumenopolis

Ecumenopolis (from Template:Lang-el, meaning world, and πόλις (polis) meaning city, thus a city made of the whole world; pl. ecumenopolises or ecumenopoleis) is a word invented in 1967 by the Greek city planner Constantinos Doxiadis to represent the idea that in the future urban areas and megalopolises would eventually fuse and there would be a single continuous worldwide city as a progression from the current urbanization and population growth trends. Before the word ecumenopolis had been coined, the American religious leader Thomas Lake Harris (1823–1906) mentioned city-planets in his verses, and science fiction author Isaac Asimov uses the city-planet Trantor as the setting of some of his novels.

Doxiadis also created a scenario based on the traditions and trends of urban development of his time, predicting at first a European eperopolis ("continent city") which would be based on the area between London, Paris, and Amsterdam (or the Blue Banana).

As a realistic futurist set of predictions

While the idea of one continuous global city plays itself out in a number of works of science fiction, the book itself was a serious attempt to consider long run landscape changes resulting from large scale urban expansion.

It was never conceived that all land on Earth would be paved over; rather that urban development would extend in ribbons across land masses. A review of the current nighttime lights of the Earth reveals that this type of pattern has emerged in some places. This land development is highly correlated with economic development.

The global urbanized area extends across world regions along recognized transportation trunklines. For example, the Ecumenopolis in North America runs along I-95 from Portland, Maine down to Miami (c.f. the fictional Boston- Atlanta Metropolitan Axis (BAMA) of William Gibson). Similarly, the Northeast megalopolis – Boston to Washington – makes up a large area with a population density 10 times the national average. In Southeast Asia, continuous development runs from Hanoi to Bangkok then down via Phuket to Singapore, then over to Indonesia and the island of Java, ending at Bali.

The total global population was modeled ranging from 15-50 billion. Doxiadis recognized constraints on development, and concluded a 15 billion global population, mostly concentrated along linear strips of urbanized development, was the likely scenario. It should be recognized that in this future growth scenario development would level off and be sustainable and that most of the global land area would remain open space.

Fictional treatments

In modern science fiction, the ecumenopolis has become a frequent topic. Capitals of galactic empires are typically portrayed as ecumenopoleis. Famous examples are:

• A future or alternative Earth, e.g.:
  • Earth in a timeline altered by the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact.
  • In 200,000, seen briefly from the TARDIS in the Doctor Who episode, "The Long Game" (2005)
  • The Megastructure from Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! manga series.
  • Holy Terra (Earth), from Warhammer 40,000 and some of the Hive Worlds of the same universe. Forge Worlds in the same game are a variation of the concept where, instead of a city, the entire planet is covered in a massive factory complex.
• Kerwan, from Insomniac Games' Ratchet and Clank series
• Apokolips, from DC Comics Jack Kirby's Fourth World series
• Capitol from one of Orson Scott Card's very first books Capitol (collection)
• Core Prime from the game Total Annihilation.
• Coruscant, and many others, from the Star Wars galaxy.
• Cybertron from the Transformers franchise, a machine world from core to surface. The concept is taken even further with 'The Hub' a vast physically connected network of Cybertron-type worlds that serves as the centre for power of the Cybertronian Empire.
• Draconis Prime from the RPG Dragonstar
• Helior from Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero.
• The Pierson's Puppeteers' homeworld from Ringworld by Larry Niven.
• Ravnica in Magic: The Gathering
• Sunder, from the RPG Anachronox
• The Upper Half of the World in Emma Clayton's book "The Roar".
• Tau Ceti Center and Renaissance Vector from Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, in which the participants of the decision-making body are collectively called the All-Thing.
• Trantor, from The Foundation Series
• Planets Manhattan, New Berlin, New Tokyo and New London from the Freelancer computer game.
• Several planets from the computer game series StarCraft.
• The planet Spaceball from the movie Spaceballs.
• Ravinia, from the 9th and 10th "Pendragon" books
• The continent-sized city of North Am in the comic book Magnus: Robot Fighter.

See also

• Merger (politics)
• Arcology
• Conurbation
• Cosmopolis
• Ekistics
• Megacity
• Metropolis
• Metroplex
• Megastructure
• Principles of Intelligent Urbanism

External links

• Ecumenopolis: Tomorrow's City Constantinos Doxiadis, Britannica Book of the year, 1968.