The Captain cautions against placing too much faith in “grand engineering projects”:
Care for another engineering aphorism? Don’t start vast projects based on half-vast ideas.
I happen to think the “Freedom Ship” project is a scam, but such projects can be evaluated without reference to the motivation of those who propose them. It often doesn’t matter all that much whether they are crooks or deluded fools, or just unwise.
I can’t say I’ve heard of either the “Palm Project” or the “Hydropolis Project”, and I don’t really have the inclination to delve into them deeply. Based on a quick look at the home page, the Palm Project seems large and very ambitious but there’s nothing inherently silly or misguided about it. That kind of thing is not unprecedented, though. (Consider, for instance, the Kansai airport.)
The Hydropolis project is a lot more speculative, but I don’t see any fundamental problems with the concept. I’m not at all certain that it’s wise, however. Such an underwater hotel, open to the public, would be particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks. It would not take much initial damage caused by gunfire or small bombs to initiate a cascading failure which would destroy the entire place and kill everyone in it.
As to the idea of “great men”, a lot of things can be done if the backers are willing to lose vast amounts of money, or if they aren’t even thinking in terms of “making/losing money”.
I don’t write about “grand engineering projects in general” because they can’t be discussed in general. Some grand engineering projects are boondoggles which will never be finished; some are technically feasible but make no commercial sense. Some are completely reasonable commercially. Some could be reasonable but fail anyway because those in charge make stupid decisions.
Not to mention that some lose focus on their goals by the time they do get built, and end up as white elephants.