Is it possible to survive off of completely subterranean generated nutrition? What about energys? Heat would not be a problem, once acclimated yoou would do just fine. Would it be possible though to have a self sufficient underground kindom? Or would reliance on open terrain based resource points be unnavoidable?
Well, first you have to solve the problem of what happens when you dig too deep...
Most of the other stuff can be solved by genetic engineering and the physical sciences.
Carter Peterson
*ahem*
Isaiah Walker
Whoa, how do they get air down there? How do they keep it from collapsing?
Ryder Nguyen
>Whoa, how do they get air down there?
See the vertical shafts? They're for ventilation.
You can put a fire under a vent to the surface and it will heat the air, pulling it up and out, and drawing fresh air down the shafts and through the complex.
> How do they keep it from collapsing?
They erected a lot of pillars for support.
William Perry
Just gotta start digging a hole, collecting salamanders to trade with fellow mole men, and make sure someone in your colony has a good understanding of tunnel structure and construction. Dying under several feet of collapsed tunnel does not seem like a good way to go.
As above, so below.
Blake Walker
>has a good understanding of tunnel structure and construction Where does one acquire such knowledge?
Ian Brooks
>See the vertical shafts? They're for ventilation. >You can put a fire under a vent to the surface and it will heat the air, pulling it up and out, and drawing fresh air down the shafts and through the complex. That is fucking genius.Things like that are what make me irritated when people assume the ancients were stupid. They lacked in materials, but what they did with the materials they had is quite impressive.
David Gutierrez
Can you use a balrog as an alternative energy source? Looks like it gives off a lot of heat.
Joshua Sanchez
ww2 (Japanese), mining, Vietnam manuals.
Samuel Bell
I mean, if you build a generator over it sure. Maybe in backpack form.
Kayden Russell
I was thinking to dig a really deep pit, get the balrog in the pit, and then reroute a river into it, and harness the steam with turbines.
Jeremiah Campbell
>nuclear generator but with a literal demon What could possibly go wrong?
Luis James
>cienciaviva.pt/img/upload/Introduction to mining.pdf Mining in its simplest form began with Paleolithic humans some 450,000 years ago,evidenced by the flint implements that have been found with the bones of early humans from the Old Stone Age (Lewis and Clark,1964). Our ancestors extracted pieces from loose masses of flint or from easily accessed outcrops and,using crude methods of chipping the flint,shaped them into tools and weapons. By the New Stone Age,humans had progressed to underground mining in systematic openings 2 to 3 ft (0.6 to 0.9 m) in height and more than 30 ft (9 m) in depth (Stoces,1954). However,the oldest known underground mine,a hematite mine at Bomvu Ridge,Swaziland (Gregory,1980),is from the Old Stone Age and believed to be about 40,000 years old. Early miners employed crude methods of ground control,ventilation,haulage,hoisting, lighting,and rock breakage. Nonetheless,mines attained depths of 800 ft (250 m) by early Egyptian times
Matthew Flores
It's nuclear energy with no hazardous waste, so those bleeding heart elf types won't have anything to complain about.
Joseph Hill
Underground Mining. Underground methods— unsupported,supported,and caving— are differentiated by the type of wall and roof supports used,the configuration and size of production openings,and the direction in which mining operations progress. The unsupported methods of mining are used to extract mineral deposits that are roughly tabular (plus flat or steeply dipping) and are generally associated with strong ore and surrounding rock. These methods are termed unsupported because they do not use any artificial pillars to assist in the support of the openings. However,generous amounts of roof bolting and localized support measures are often used. Room-and-pillar mining is the most common unsupported method,used primarily for flat-lying seams or bedded deposits like coal,trona,limestone,and salt. Support of the roof is provided by natural pillars of the mineral that are left standing in a systematic pattern. Stope-and-pillar mining (a stope is a production opening in a metal mine) is a similar method used in noncoal mines where thicker,more irregular ore bodies occur; the pillars are spaced randomly and located in low-grade ore so that the high-grade ore can be extracted. These two methods account for almost all of the underground mining in horizontal deposits in the United States and a very high proportion of the underground tonnage as well.
Henry Martin
Plus, pouring water on the balrog will probably make it even angrier and more flamey so the reactor will actually increase in output as it operates!
Jackson Ward
If the dwarfs have crops made of radiotrophic fungus and chemothermotrophic plants, they may as well be completely isolated from the surface.
Only the fungus exists, but the plants wouldn't need magic to be justified.
Grayson Edwards
I mean, you can find the info anywhere if you look hard enough. Internet, local library, local college with some sort of science focus. Research mines and tunnel construction, get the basics of what is done, and why its done. If you can understand most of what they do, and have good common sense, you could probably build a fairly sturdy tunnel system.
Somewhat serious, long term answer. I'd recommend understanding math first. Up to at least calculus probably, though you could probably make do with pre-calc and algebra if you have most of the formula provided. Then learn some physics. Physics makes the world go round, and explains why you can support hundreds of thousands of tons of earth with pillars in very specific locations. Then learn statics, which is like physics 101, but all about stuff that isn't moving (relative to an inertial reference frame). Eventually take some civil engineering courses or just attend their lectures, check some books about civil construction from the library or find pdfs on the internet. Mechanical engineering course or two wouldn't hurt either, since they are the 'all-rounder' of engineering.
In short, go to school and get a degree in physics/mechanical/civil/mining engineering. Contribute to our infrastructure and society at large, all the while planning the egress of the molemen.
Thomas Williams
Thanks for the decent advice user. The molemen nation shall descend!
Grayson Robinson
too bad that it looks cramped as fuck and probably smells shitty