In 1603, a Jesuit monk invented a machine for lifting the entire planet with only ropes and gears. Some pesky details prevented him from achieving his aims. Yet mega engineering projects have captured the imagination of many a mathematician and engineer. Many feats which were thought impossible became reality and exist to this day. They reflect the power of imagination, the enginuity and dogged perseverance of those who undertook them. Gargantuan projects now in the pipeline are beyond belief leveraged by advances in AI, the IoT, material sciences, computing power and the mining and management of data. AN.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210113-the-megascale-structures-that-humans-could-one-day-build