21st-century ghost town

There’s a new town being built in New Mexico –– but no one will live there, according to MSN Real Estate. It’s purposely being constructed as a modern-day ghost town.

The town (currently called the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) will have all the amenities that a real city would have, including houses, businesses and even a mall. Everything would be fully functional with utilities.

Pegasus Global Holdings will use the town to test energy-efficient and green home innovations, using computers to mimic human behaviors like turning thermostats up and down, switching lights off and on or flushing toilets, all under the scientists’ control. A research team will run multiple long-term scenarios, changing the imaginary residents’ behavior to see how energy use changes under different circumstances.

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