Do you ever look at irregular spaces and think man it would be nice to have a home here? That’s the basis of this question!
In: Engineering
We “could” build houses in all of these places. They would just be incredibly expensive, require tons of unique engineering, be somewhat dangerous, and would not have the same amenities most people are use to having.
It just isn’t worth the effort.
First, especially for the underwater thing, air pressure is an issue. With high water pressure, the habitat must withstand that pressure, and not expose humans to excessive pressures. Thick air can become toxic even if the pressure doesn’t crush you. Living at the top of Mount Everest has the reverse issue in that air is dangerously thin and most people need supplemental oxygen at those high altitudes.
Second… there’s not much in terms of energy, water, and food in these locations. Deep underwater means oceans which means salt water, which needs purifying to be safe to drink. You’ll need supplies delivered regularly, or some means to produce your own.
Possible in our lifetimes? Maybe. Viable? I’m gonna say no. Mount everest is a tourist attraction today, and maybe underwater/deep in the earth could become that as well some day, but that only works because tourists pay to visit. To live there permanently without said tourist dollars or something… no.
TLDR: Cost
Making mountain complexes is possible now, the Cheyenne mountain complex for example is perfectly livable underground.
Underwater facilities is more complicated due to the pressures but it has been done.
Digging through mountains, or building large underwater complexes though is prohibitively expensive.
Land in cities is at a premium, but there is tons of unused land all over the world that can easily be settled compared to making underwater or underground facilities.
Because nobody wants to live in any of those places. I mean, it’s interesting to think about it, but in reality nobody wants to have to deal with the hassles and risks of living in such environments. It’s not worth the payoff of uniqueness.
Money.
The cost of building places to live in a location like that will be a lot higher than in a more hospitable location and we have not run out of those.
Tunnes in mountains are very expensive to make compare to buildings on the surface. It is done for mines and military bunkers, so it it not impossible just prohibitively expensive.
The pressure in water increases with depth and we need to keep it out. Building large structures that can handle that will cost a lot of money, and so would maintaining them.
Deep down in earth will be impossible depending of what you mean by deep. The solid crust of earth is on average 15 to 20km thick. It will be 5 km under oceans and about 50km in continents. Below that you have the very hot mantle. You can compare it to lava to realize the problem of living there. Living in an active volcano would be easier because the pressure is lower.
The temperature in general increases with depth and soo you reach areas where is to hot for humans to survive a long time without a cooline system that would dup the heat on the surface.
Digging down costs more than just tunneling into a mountains.
If you want more living space build skyscrapers that cost a lot less the underground or underwater habitation.,
Mostly the cost. Even near the surface many people forego basements due to cost. Also some people don’t like the idea of being so vulnerable to flooding, or of being so reliant on equipment to provide breathable air.
Deepest mine is ~4km, and people have converted abandoned missile silos into homes.
NORAD is built inside a mountain.
Nuclear submarines can spend months underwater.
Highly impractical or downright dangerous. Pressure, temperature, ventilation and bad accessibility make such concepts very risky. They’re not impossible but they’re largely unnecessary. They’re cool in fiction but in practice they wouldn’t really be that cool. That being said bunkers and military bases have been dug inside mountains. Going deep underground is not wise for many reasons, as is deep underwater.
building in those spots is kinda tricky man. like you got pressure and stability issues. but who knows technology could surprise us one day. i mean wouldn’t it be lit to live underwater or in the mountains?
In terms of engineering it could be done, albeit at massive cost.
The thing that really stops it is that humans aren’t able, physically but more important psychologicaly, to live in such an environment (deep underground and never seeing daylight) over a prolonged period. Some could handle it but many more would go crazy.
building in those places is tough. gotta deal with pressure climate and really crazy logistics. but who knows maybe one day we’ll chill in a mountain home
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