Tech Company To Build Science Ghost Town In New Mexico

Charliemopps sends this excerpt from an AP report: "New Mexico, home to several of the nation’s premier scientific, nuclear and military institutions, is planning to take part in an unprecedented science project — a 20-square-mile model of a small U.S. city. A Washington, D.C.-based technology company announced plans Tuesday to build the state’s newest ghost town to test everything from renewable energy innovations to intelligent traffic systems, next-generation wireless networks and smart-grid cyber security systems. Although no one will live there, the replica city will be modeled after a typical American town of 35,000 people, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings, old and new."

Comments

I see two things happening

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Lots of movies will be shot there.

2) Lots of squatters will move in and create a real life issue of the morality of building a vacant city that can house 35,000 people and not letting homeless people stay there.

~Kactus

Its about time

[arcite]

Those Crashtest dummies have been demanding a homeland for compensation for decades of abuse and maltreatment in the workplace.

Why build a brand new ghost town

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

They should just use Detroit: it's already built, it's realistic and it's a lot larger than a 35,000 inhabitant city.

Test value?

[argStyopa]

How will they actually test the viability of 'intelligent traffic systems' with no traffic?

In fact, most of those mentioned systems are about the interaction of that technology WITH PEOPLE in an urban environment. Just an empty urban environment doesn't get you much?