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[entremet]

The Pyramids of Giza, The Great Wall of China, Mayan Ruins, etc. Given how much of new construction seems to favor glass and steel and also the elephant in the room is that most of these monuments were probably built by slave labor and most likely under terrible conditions, are there gonna be any great 20th/21th century monuments that are left over 500 years from now?

 

[- J - D -]

I dunno man, modern mega-skyscrapers are pretty impressive.

 

[EatChildren]

Too busy making amazing small shit.

And robots.

 

[Air]

Probably. I can see things like huge colonies, or underwater civilizations getting popular with advancing tech.

 

[Haly]

China's new building, once it tips over, will be a sight to behold.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Too busy making amazing small shit.

And robots.

To combine that thought, Detroit is working on that Robocop statue, and I'd put that up with any of your fancy pyramids.

 

[abusori]

I dunno man, modern mega-skyscrapers are pretty impressive.

Yeah, I think this counts:

Edit: Oh god not the fonts again

 

[Diprosalic]

in real.

 

[Funky Papa]

I'm going to be blasted for this, but the renovated Ryugyong Hotel looks incredibly badass.

 

[Slo]

Hoover dam?

 

[Air]

I'm going to be blasted for this, but the renovated Ryugyong Hotel looks incredibly badass.

This looks like a mock-up. Is that how it currently looks now? Last I remember it being decrepit.

 

[CreativeWriter]

The Martian rovers? They'll be eroding for centuries (unless we go recover them and stick them in a Martian museum).

How long could the International Space Station remain in orbit before degrading and crashing to earth?

The Viking explorers should head out into the cosmos for... ever?

These may not be "monuments" in the traditional sense, but they're testaments to our civilization's power/might/ambition.

Maybe Mt. Rushmore will be around? Hmm...

 

[Toppot]

To build something like you mentioned, these big stone structures, would cost a lot and be spent money really, you would be unlikely to have much functional use for it outside of a tourist attraction and the revenue it brought in.

No one person, company or country is going to spend that much on a monument, bar maybe China when its economy dominates the world and some leader gets the idea in his head.

I'd think that maybe the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower will stand unless some war or terrorist attack takes it down to destroy morale. (Both constructed late 19th Century)

EDIT: Mt. Rushmore, as said above, will probably be around.

 

[Izick]

China's about to build the world's tallest building, and it will only take three months. The cool thing is that these are actually functional buildings, not just pretty things to look at.

 

[wenis]

Sure.

Firs though they'll have to

Submit all of their work for inspection
Get committee approval
Hire contractors
Get zoning and city permission
Publicly release their design proposition
Survive public/internet scrutiny
Re-submit ideas when it doesn't match public approval
Re-hire new contractors after the original ones bailed from the 5 year wait
If they manage to get approval and backing actually build the damn thing
Actually build the damn thing
Oh wait, they're encroaching on some animals homes, possibly have to find new location
New location isn't as good as the last location
Public interest waning
Public asks "Where is all of our tax money going?"
Project possibly shut down to keep whatever they haven't lost during this 10 year wait

or I dunno...

maybe.

 

[MrGame&Watch]

I remember seeing some documentary on history channel about what survives after we leave/die off. If I remember correctly nothing lasts more then a few 1000 years without some sort of preservation.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Eiffel Tower
Statue of Liberty

Hoover dam
aren't that old.

 

[KarmaCow]

Maybe future civilizations will find parts of the ISS in the ocean I guess.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Lets not forget the heaviest things we build... dams.

 

[Chichikov]

The Pyramids of Giza, The Great Wall of China, Mayan Ruins,

I sure hope we're not going back to building monuments to dead monarchs or giant human sacrificial temples.

As for the great wall of china - giant military projects of little use are still going strong!

 

[Kinyou]

Well if the nazis had won...

or the soviet union not failed...

Seems that those monuments are mostly built by military regimes and dictators anyway.

The Pyramids of Giza, The Great Wall of China, Mayan Ruins, etc. Given how much of new construction seems to favor glass and steel and also the elephant in the room is that most of these monuments were probably built by slave labor and most likely under terrible conditions, are there gonna be any great 20th/21th century monuments that are left over 500 years from now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-KUbflnMEs

 

[Funky Papa]

This looks like a mock-up. Is that how it currently looks now? Last I remember it being decrepit.

It's been completely covered and partly restored. The top also hosts some communications antennas installed by some Egyptian contractor.

 

[pargonta]

very interesting question!

There are landmarks around the world... but not on the scale or importance of those that you mention.

something like this though... with the passing of time, may come to be held in such a high regard for religions.

and as stated above government can be represented by the stone columns or ornate structures in the capitals in the countries around the world.

 

[Dr.Acula]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial

Check out this Crazy Horse statue that's currently being built.

 

[tirant]

And not finished yet...

 

[Ecotic]

Wat Rong Khun in Thailand is newly constructed and pretty awesome. It's not a gigantic structure like Angkor Wat, but the level of OCD attention to detail is staggering.

It's also got cool statues of Predators, and Terminators, and paintings of Superman, Neo, and Batman and other stuff inside.

 

[davepoobond]

I sure hope we're not going back to building monuments to dead monarchs or giant human sacrificial temples.

As for the great wall of china - giant military projects of little use are still going strong!

my thoughts exactly

 

[dinazimmerman]

disney world

 

[entremet]

I sure hope we're not going back to building monuments to dead monarchs or giant human sacrificial temples.

As for the great wall of china - giant military projects of little use are still going strong!

I'm talking about form not function.

 

[davepoobond]

I'm talking about form not function.

they are one and the same. there is no form without function, and there is no function without form.

 

[spiderman123]

 

[Loofy]

Wat Rong Khun in Thailand is newly constructed and pretty awesome. It's not a gigantic structure like Angkor Wat, but the level of OCD attention to detail is staggering.

Yeah. Also the Sanctuary of Truth is under construction.

 

[xbhaskarx]

And not finished yet...

This.

 

[el retorno]

They're still building crazy giant things it just takes a long time to get the 2,000+ years of mystique of the things your talking about.
The reason you think those things are so amazing is their users are long dead and they're just pretty things to look at. If people were still guarding the great wall or worshiping in the temples they'd just be viewed like most people view churches or military bases today.

 

[ComputerMKII]

That looks ridiculous.

 

[SmackDaddy]

they are one and the same. there is no form without function, and there is no function without form.

I just built a wooden replica of my eyeball.

It doesn't do shit.

 

[Forkball]

That looks like the final boss tower in a Final Fantasy game.

Anyways, I always thought Taipei 101 was impressive. Not only does it have a modern look, but it also mixes in many traditional elements that prevent it from looking like a generic sci-fi building.

 

[Ether_Snake]

I'm going to be blasted for this, but the renovated Ryugyong Hotel looks incredibly badass.

An awesome, window-less hotel.

 

[Ecotic]

The Taipei 101 is so badass, I love how it's built to resemble bamboo.

 

[Loofy]

An awesome, window-less hotel.

I thought it was all windows. Anyone got pics of the inside?

 

[Chichikov]

I'm talking about form not function.

Oh, so the answer is yes.

 

[Kabouter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Works
Perhaps not as visually impressive as some of those (though most of the Great Wall isn't as amazing looking as the sections people actually think of are), it's an awesome engineering achievement, and something that should last quite a long time. (Though with improvements/additions along the way)

 

[noah111]

Think, thousands of years from now when man kind begins to

Spoiler

re

grasp technical and scientific understanding, they will look back at their ancestors (us) and think we and the egyptian civilizations were one in the same. That's what we'll get for not leaving behind something to remember us by and how far we had come, when the inevitable doomsday hits us.

There should be a kickstarter project to build those giant prometheus human stone heads all around the globe, with all our accumulated knowledge in each.

 

[nateeasy]

Not in America. Obama's budget allotted all the monument money to photo ops.

 

[davepoobond]

I just built a wooden replica of my eyeball.

It doesn't do shit.

obviously talking about buildings!

and the replica of your eyeball doesnt do shit just like the real eyeball since it doesnt understand anything in context. so there's your form = function for that.

 

[ManDudeChild]

Not in America. Obama's budget allotted all the monument money to photo ops.

2/10

 

[Trent Strong]

Once unemployment in America is over 50 percent because of technology making most jobs obsolete, the government might have to start giving people jobs making useless monuments.

 

[el retorno]

Think, thousands of years from now when man kind begins to

Spoiler

re

grasp technical and scientific understanding, they will look back at their ancestors (us) and think we and the egyptian civilizations were one in the same. That's what we'll get for not leaving behind something to remember us by and how far we had come, when the inevitable doomsday hits us.

There should be a kickstarter project to build those giant prometheus human stone heads all around the globe, with all our accumulated knowledge in each.

The internet

 

[ReBurn]

No, people get too offended over everything to build a monument to anything. It's easier to not do anything than include everyone.

 

[teruterubozu]

We should stop, they're all hideous.