pnichols wrote:
I usually shake my head at this kind of articles/talk about "future technology" (... and I am a skeptical EE who spent a whole carrer in the high tech integrated circuit industry). I shake my head because I feel sorry for what it says about the future of humanity in general as it struggles to work it's way around and through what it thinks it's going to face.
Here's some thoughts and rantings that are mine alone ... Thank Heavens ;) :
1. The cellular system and Internet are fragile things that can get broken in the blink of an eye
2. How many of us are happy in our ignorance of how fragile the systems are that are used to shove Internet signals around above and below the Earth?
3. We would not need anywhere near so much "personal transportation" if certain big shots had not colluded in secret decades ago to destroy the emerging public transportation systems during their infancy.
4. Battery technology probably has a long way to go to match the energy storage per unit volume of natural gas, gasoline, diesel, ethanol, or methanol.
5. The ultimate portable source of energy for powering personnel-use transportation is probably small fusion reactors ... which most likely isn't going to happen except in Star Trek or Star Wars.
6. For some of us, personal transportation only has value if it's flexible enough to allow travel - without replenishing the onboard energy supply - for at least 400 miles when and if needed with windshield wipers on, the head lights on, and the heater running. The EV industry doesn't talk much about driving range with a whole bunch of stuff in the vehicle being used.
7. For some of us, running around doing local errands is too specialized a use to justify spending the $$$ on for personal transportation ... hence the value to both us and Mother Earth of using robust public transportation systems for local - and some long distance - running around.
8. How much damage is being done to Mother Earth and how Counter to Sustainability is the mining and turning-into-batteries of lithium based materials? How about when the "whole world" is (over) using personal transportation based on them?
9. I'll bet that most "high tech" stuff is not developed through an enduring need to benefit mankind. I'll bet most if it is based on some human being's or group of human beings' quest for the almighty dollar. Should we always jump on the bandwagon in support of this motive without really considering the long term negatives to all of us? Good old scratch-the-head wisdom before buying into some of this might save a lot of grief in the future for all of us and Mother Earth.
10. Now the Big Reason for even having to make provision for this kind of a future for mankind in the first place - the population engine driving all this. The world probably has had too many people in it for at least 75 years, if not longer. What if the total world's population was to never be above, say, 1 billion? At his maximum level I for one, without using a super-computer model to test it, think that a vibrant world community with a modern lifestyle could exist simultaneous with doing far less harm to everything in and on Mother Earth.
Interesting points of view...and some very valid ones. Thanks for taking the time to put them out there. This kind of thing needs to be discussed.
