[FoRK] Air cars? Please?

[silky]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Stephen D. Williams <sdw at lig.net> wrote:
> We're actually ahead of a lot of his notions, especially on the
>  computing / cell phone / software side.
>
>  A lot of the rest is doable except for either monetization issues or
>  more commonly the likely disruption of current monetization. Those local
>  minima are tough to bust out of. House construction, for instance, could
>  be simplified and greatly reduced in price except that high end builders
>  already have high end margins and would risk cannibalizing their market
>  before they'd get ahead.
>
>  Domes aren't doable yet, but automated high speed traffic is totally
>  within reach, except for those pesky manual drivers everywhere and poor
>  (i.e. often difficult) roads taking up all of the public space. My car,
>  which can be had starting at $25K, can already comfortably do 150mph,
>  it's just not legal to go even half that anywhere in the US outside a
>  race track. This is true even though many Interstates have zones that
>  could handle at least 120mph without significant increase in accidents.

you've got to be kidding about the computer-driven traffic control
system? no way would i drive in a world where a internet-connected
computer system was controlling the scheduling.


>  I think there will be less and less need for innovations in travel and
>  commuting and more and more desire to be fuel and pollution efficient
>  which will mean that travel, beyond hyper-efficient transport of goods,
>  will be mainly for pleasure. In those cases, you don't really want to
>  completely remove the anachronistic status quo, at least not too much.
>  We're all going to be in HD virtual worlds soon where you'll see more
>  than you would if you were actually there, plus have all of your
>  resources available and be able to walk away to see loved ones in a few
>  minutes. Or I will anyway. ;-) Or I may mainly see the loved ones in
>  such a world. (Poor substitute, but better than not.)
>
>  sdw

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There's not a problem I can't fix, because I can do it in the mix.