Steve answers “Why don't the Silos have elevators? It...”

A Goodreads user asked this question about Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1):

Why don't the Silos have elevators? It seems rather inconvenient navigating a 100+ floor city without elevators. I did a search on the Kindle edition of this book, and the word "elevator" doesn't appear. Is there something I missed?

Steve Because the author got too far in over his head and didn't have a clear picture of the world he was creating at the get go. Or at least by book 2.
Wh…moreBecause the author got too far in over his head and didn't have a clear picture of the world he was creating at the get go. Or at least by book 2.
Which is why much of this comes across as forced and for the sake of driving the story versus being part of a world in which the story takes place.
Why are there no mentions of plastics? The silo's on top of an oil reserve. Petrochemicals => plastic. You could have an infinite supply of reusable plastic sheets to be used as paper. Humans are gregarious communicators, why are there no underground newspapers or magazines or a strong oral news network if we're going to stick with the author's conceit? Where's the infinite supply of water come from for the farms (which require huge amounts of water) and the steam generator? Where exactly are the cracking towers to turn crude into useable oil? Where are the old people who can't climb stairs anymore or the middle aged or younger with arthritic knees? This bedevils professional basketball players on a hard level surface and would be a HUGE public health issue. And why stairs instead of a spiral concrete ramp where you could wheel things up and down like a mining cart or rollercoaster car? And wouldn't you have a whole set of separate stairs for the large amount of goods and food traffic versus people transport like the elevator banks in our buildings today?
Ignoring all of the above how could you even build this without a series of ramps or elevators to get construction workers and materials down and excavated materials out?
There's a difference between a slow reveal of a place/universe and making it up as you go and this totally reeks of the latter. First books is good but otherwise this world and how characters behave in it doesn't add up.(less)

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