The term “mega” is shown to have become an inadequate descriptor as technology enabled ever larger projects. Some have consequences so large and complex in space and time that their origin can only come from a fantasy world in which biology does not exist. This place is termed the “hubrisphere” and these projects “hubriprojects.”
Showers, 2011, Beyond Mega on a Mega Continent: Grand Inga on Central Africa’s Congo River, in: Engineering Earth
The science and innovation policy community ought to be paying attention to very large investments. With a few notable exceptions, my observation is they are not paying attention. This is about science and innovation policy as it is, rather than as it is theorized to be.
We need to bring together what we know about science and expertise in grands projets industriels, big science, and large infrastructure and production facilities.
These projects logically have their own literature that tends to operate separately. But I see no reason not to combine them together in search of insights, while also acknowledging political contexts are very different.
Most mega-projects tend to involve stupendously large machines such as dams but they can also mean intricate microscopic assemblages such as vaccines that, collectively, serve as testaments to (or follies of) human ingenuity.
Notes:
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Email: william@resorg.news
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