Glass floor

Esther Dyson snapped this vertiginous shot of a glass floor at the Digital Moscow event. I have a mild fear of heights, but this kind of thing goes straight into my spine and my digestive-tract's pucker-reflex without consulting my brain.

(via Super Punch)

stepping on the glass floor [secure.flickr.com]

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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http://www.facebook.com/BilliamJ Bill McClusky

I take it you haven’t tried this Cory? http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/
http://profiles.google.com/bentobjects Terry Border

I was at an event at a very posh gallery once where the stairs and the area around them were glass. Pretty cool, except for the women wearing skirts. They weren’t big fans of it.
http://profiles.google.com/bigfatpugsley Αντώνης Παππάς

I wouldn’t be able to move after I realized I was over this chasm. I’d probably hugged the floor with fear.
Marktech

Okay, it’s not quite the Grand Canyon but Cory’s a UKian now, and has no excuse for not trying this. It should be part of the citizenship exam.
- beemoh
  
  If that’s too much, he can always practice on the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.
  - http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
    
    Is that back to its original impact? I thought they’d wimped out on that and put tape or something on it, effectively de-funning it.
    
    One thing these constructs have is to make them into an effective barrier. Cats and babies just won’t cross these spaces. So if you’re ever being besieged by marauding babies …
    - beemoh
      
      I have absolutely no idea, sorry- it’s been four years since I’ve been anywhere near it.
phisrow

It’s a pity that those spiffy transparent OLED displays are still in the expensive tech demo stage.

IR touch sensors, to locate footfalls, plus programming to keep the display blank except on randomly chosen occasions, when a single person is in the elevator, and you display simulated stress fractures radiating out from their feet….
- http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
  
  display simulated stress fractures radiating out from their feet….
  Or Morlocks underfoot?
http://twitter.com/mgoldbar Margaret Goldbar

If this freaks you out, don’t ever go to the Tokyo Tower. They have a glass panel there like this, except it looks hundreds of feet down to the ground itself. Neat and scary at the same time.
digi_owl

kid jumping around on the CN Tower glass floor. Not what i initially went looking for but gets the job done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEQgjz1LkkQ
http://www.facebook.com/geekysteven Steven Olsen

…or is it a glass ceiling?
janusnode

I once had the great delight of going to the CN Tower and finding a bunch of saffron-robed monks sitting in meditation on the glass floor there.

BTW the Calgary Tower also has a glass floor.
dapascha

360cities.net has a few great vertigo shots, like this one: http://www.360cities.net/image/sears-tower-skydeck-window-chicago or this one: http://www.360cities.net/image/shanghai-oriental-pearl-tower-glass-skywalk-observation-deck
Daneel

I take it you don’t like the Calgary Tower much then?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15452162@N00/4452324632/in/set-72157623541629931
ironbear

Is it just me, or shouldn’t all office buildings have small nuclear reactors lurking at the bottom of elevator shafts?
- t3kna2007
  
  > shouldn’t all office buildings have small nuclear reactors lurking
  
  Yes, just so. Cherenkov blue is such a lovely hue.
http://twitter.com/MEDIANAVE John Klein

Sometimes … a felller’s gotta cow tie that pucker-reflex and step on out.
penguinchris

Cory’s from Toronto, so I think we can reasonably assume he’s been to the top of the CN tower! It’s a pretty neat place and it must strike at least some fear into pretty much everyone who ventures out onto the glass.
gus mueller

it’s offensive to women in dresses.
- CountZero
  
  I’m sure many women will be delighted with your making that assumption on their behalf. Obviously the little ladies are incapable of expressing their outrage themselves.
SomeGuyNamedMark

At least they got rid of the glass ceiling
http://www.eff.org/ deaduncledave

http://youtu.be/oKI-tD0L18A
ackpht

Or the observation deck at the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago. (Yes, its official name is now the “Willis Tower”, but call it that and the locals will laugh at you.)
Sara Kaplan

That would have made a great poster for Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”
felsby

Cory, you wouldn´t like the elevator at the Ars Technica show, where the lift floor consisted of a huge lcd screen. When you rode upwards, you would see the planet earth disappear below you!
Terry Frost

The Sky Tower in Auckland New Zealand also has a number of thick perspex floors that look down to the street below. They’re a great way of overcoming fear of heights.
kr_metal

CN tower is worse (taller)
Robert Cruickshank

Needs a mom and a pinwheel on the other side:
http://vimeo.com/77934
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

A couple of libraries in Jackson and Ann Arbor, Michigan have kind of opaque glass floors in their stacks. You can’t actually see through the floor, but some of the shelves have openings where you can see thru to the floors below. It looks like they built the stacks two or three or five stories high, then added walkways as an afterthought. What scares me is that they might not have been built to handle weights of average Americans from this century, especially judging by how low some of the ceilings and doorways are. I try to step with my feet on the lines between the big tiles so I’m not putting weight on the center. (Carnegie Library in downtown Jackson, Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library at the University of Michigan)