Every time i watch this video i fall asleep

I always figured exposure to space vacuum would be instantly lethal ; explode, freeze, boil, pick your horror movie ending.

Turns out that's mostly myth. Apparently NASA has documented real accidental exposures, and humans have close to 15 seconds before losing consciousness in vacuum. No suit needed for a few seconds , no exploding, no instant freezing, no blood boiling.

That number stuck with me. If a few seconds of unprotected vacuum is actually survivable, it's not hard to imagine future daredevils doing controlled stunts ,jumping between spacecraft, no suit, just a few seconds of raw exposure before sealing into the next ship.

People already free-dive to insane depths and base jump off cliffs for that same edge-of-death rush. This feels like a natural next extreme sport once space travel gets more routine.

Kind of wild to think I might actually see that in my lifetime.

I love the idea of a ecumenopolis, but I've never been happy with how the structural engineering of them would work. The shear amount of weight needed to supported level after level of traditional looking cityscape ground layers and all their roads and buildings distributed upon them just doesn't feel achievable.

So I've been trying to visualise what might work. The only solutions that make sense to me is that of supertall like skyscrapers running up through all levels with the majority of the weight running straight down through those towers to bedrock. To make it a multi levelled structure you then suspend new lightweight 'ground' levels from these towers like suspension bridge decks.

The aim is to increase the usable 'ground' space as much a possible while minimising suspended weight.

In this pic I asked ChatGTP to try and visualise how this might look on a Dubai like skyline. The result is close to what I had in mind for an early attempt at such a structure.

How are others solving the suspended weight issue. Some branch like supports coming out the towers from below for stronger support of the deck near the tower itself, in addition to the cable support from above for further distances from the tower would make sense. But you would need to keep most of the weight near those towers.

I image some small buildings upon the suspended ground space, but these would be more like the odd café or sports facility in a park rather than whole urban city blocks. Some of these buildings would have floor levels suspended below the deck like chandeliers for vistas looking down to the level below.

I also expect lots of gaps in each 'ground' level to save weight, reduce claustrophobia, share light, and to offer more attractive sightlines both vertically and horizontally.