Poll: Capital City of Earth

[Nouw]

Make a city on the Ocean made up of all the Countries!

Failing that, some where the Currency and time isn't too fucked up.

 

[not_the_dm]

Berwick-upon-Tweed. A town that was at war with Imperial Russia for about a hundred years?

 

[emeraldrafael]

Build a new international city over the ruins of Babylon anyone? That way we get the Cradle of Civilization cred while still freaking out every extreme Christian who've read Revelations.

Do you really want to scare the Christians after seeing how they (we) launched four bloody Crusades for a stretch of land that was eventaully settled and split by four religions that hate each other to promote peace and unity of the world?

Actually, technically it was ten crusades haha, and yes, I'm all for making Babylon the center of world government in order to promote peace and unity in the world, exactly for the fact that it is in the area where several major religions were founded. It's the Cradle of Civilization, the founder of the majority of early West Asian, European, and African culture. An international city there would probably do well to help the idea of religious tolerance, rather then just cutting up the Middle East so that certain groups get certain places.

Yes, but geographically its still in the Middle East. And that... that wont fly well if its as unstable then as it is now.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Nope. We're gonna run into the same problems the founding fathers of America ran into when they tried to place the Capital in one state. That state/country will immediately become the most powerful state/country in the world, and will eventually overcome all the other countries. We have to set aside some common land so that the capital is an entire state on its own, like Vatican City.

 

[Blind Sight]

Build a new international city over the ruins of Babylon anyone? That way we get the Cradle of Civilization cred while still freaking out every extreme Christian who've read Revelations.

Do you really want to scare the Christians after seeing how they (we) launched four bloody Crusades for a stretch of land that was eventaully settled and split by four religions that hate each other to promote peace and unity of the world?

Actually, technically it was ten crusades haha, and yes, I'm all for making Babylon the center of world government in order to promote peace and unity in the world, exactly for the fact that it is in the area where several major religions were founded. It's the Cradle of Civilization, the founder of the majority of early West Asian, European, and African culture. An international city there would probably do well to help the idea of religious tolerance, rather then just cutting up the Middle East so that certain groups get certain places.

Yes, but geographically its still in the Middle East. And that... that wont fly well if its as unstable then as it is now.

All depends on how you go about it, if you present a forum that includes political Islamists (that is not militant Islam, mind you) the vast majority of the Middle East would actually see it as a benefit. I mean, Jordan and Kuwait would jump on that instantly, as would Egypt and possibly Syria.

 

[HonorableChairman]

Obviously it would be Brazzaville.

I can see no arguments that can work for other cities.

 

[06ict381]

I'm going to go patriotic and say London. Britain had the largest empire in the history of the world and and we have, for thousands of years, been at the forefront of technology, until the new millennium and the new-wave technology coming out of Japan. We were the nation that started the industrial revolution, etc. Just the best country all-round really.

However, if I'm being completely honest with myself, I can only see two possibilities;

1. By the time the world could be unified under 1 government it may well be possible to have a large space station orbiting the Earth where
the job could be done from. Sounds very sci-fi I know but it would be the perfect place to police the world from.

2. Failing that, if it must be somewhere on Earth, it would be Geneva, Switzerland. It has always remained neutral and much of the world's
wealth rests there. It is for this reason that, for many years now, no-one has been allowed to invade Switzerland as the rest of the world
would turn against them. Seems perfect to govern from... also it's fairly central on an atlas which looks neat.

 

[Srdjan]

Rome, was once, why not again.

 

[Vykrel]

somewhere nice and warm, and in europe.

 

[Therumancer]

A simple question - if all the nations of Earth united under one world government, which city would be the capital of the planet, and why?

I've outlined a few of the world's major cities in the poll already, but do feel free to choose "other" if you feel none of the options fit, and explain your choice.

Keep in mind that the city must be on Earth - we're assuming a united planet, but not that we've begun establishing colonies elsewhere in the solar system/galaxy.

By it's very nature a world unity would involve the dissolution of nations, including the ones that were fundemental in creating it through the spread of ideas and/or conquest.

I do not think there would be a single city chosen as a "world capital" especially with the way information technology works. If a central hub WAS determined to be needed, I expect the solution would be to create something akin to "The District Of Columbia".

If I was setting it up, it would probably be constructed on a man-made island so it could be representitive of the new world, and to avoid tensions around "who has the capitol" since even if people agree on a world unity it's going to take generations for the whole "world citizen" mentality to sink in because there are going to be so many people who remembered nations and were used to living in them.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Snip

Well... I meant more alone the lines of places like Britain, the US, Russia, China. you know, big global powers.

 

[Jerome9157]

According to the reapers, London is the capital.

 

[Kryzantine]

Dubai, of course.

This is a simple matter of location. It is the most central supercity and logically will be the main hub.

To paraphrase Matt Damon's character from Syriana: 100 years ago, Arabs were living in tents, hacking each others' heads off, and that's exactly where they will be 100 years from now.

The Arab world doesn't produce jack shit. All those skyscrapers in Dubai? Designed, engineered and built by non-Arabs. Once the oil dries up, Arabs will be about as significant on the global stage as Laotians or Costa Ricans.

Uhhh, ok? How does that affect it at all? I mean, did you stop and think, why the heck did a bunch of non-Arabs come in and build the city in the first place?

Who cares about the Arabs, or even the rest of the United Arab Emirates for that matter? The city is smack dab in the middle of Africa, Europe and Asia, with relatively the same flight time to Beijing, London and Johannesburg. That's the only reason Dubai was built in the first place, and that's the only reason it should be built. The oil is also irrelevant. It was, like 40 years ago, sure, but Dubai's top 3 revenue sources today are tourism, real estate (with artificial islands) and financial services. All 3 of those are renewable. And the local population is almost non-existent. You contend that it will not become the "capital city of Earth" because the Arabs did not build it? That's a great reason for it to become the central hub of the world. It means the city has already superseded the nation it's in and the dominant culture in the area.

 

[zehydra]

I'm surprised few people picked Beijing or Russia, cause if there's ever a united world government, it's going to be because it was conquered.

 

[T8B95]

waddya mean, the mayor of Torranna is a good ol' Canadian boy. Wad are ya? Some bike ridin' pinko commie??

(for everyone else: this is a Canadian inside joke)

Ah ha ha, Mr. Cherry. Very well played

 

[6037084]

The capital city of the winner of WW3 duuh

 

[06ict381]

If 1 country attempted to conquer the world it would never last even if they succeeded initially, for it to last the entire world must be ruled willingly so there is no revolution and for that to happen the government in charge cannot be of any 1 nation. Besides, China and Russia are 2 of the most ambitious and powerful nations in the world and they're right next to each other. Neither could defeat the other and remain in a position to take over the world. They could only succeed through an alliance and, as history shows us, this would never last. I point out the non-aggression pact between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia in WWII as an example. U.S.A. wouldn't stand a chance, their just far too unpopular worldwide and as yet lack the military tactical ability to pull it off. Apart from these, there are no serious contenders.

Little tip, anyone who's really curious about this topic, I recommend you read the Ender's Game series, specifically the Shadow series which follows on. It deals primarily with the idea of uniting the world under 1 government, excellent reads.