🚀 go-pugleaf

Douglas White wrote:
> 
> Here's why I'll never get elected to any high office...
> I'd rather see a WHOPPING tax on petroleum products (gas, diesel, etc.) -
> imagine $3/gal! Pressure auto makers into economy/alternate fuel, seriously
> beef up mass transit, etc. Put the initial income into infrastructure, then start
> subsidizing energy R&D.

One word: nanotechnology.

> 
> The US started down a path in the late 40's/50's when the war ended and the
> boomers started. The "call of the open road", suburbs, and the economy set us up
> for the transportation environment we have today. Not that I think it's bad across
> the board, but there certainly are some pockets of inefficiency/danger.
> 
> Someday it'll be in my novel... :-)


More elaborately, I must once again reiterate my call for a massive upgrading
of infrastructure. 

The need to not only rebuild our roads, but to rebuild them in a manner which
was neither petroleum-dependent _nor_ public-transit dependent, was the major
subtext of my last (still growing, sorta) novel - which starts in roughly
2020. I postulated some radical advance in superconductor technology, and
limited commercial fusion energy. Major arteries would be replaced with roads
built deep and firm, with an active layer including an embedded
superconducting coil system. Sure, it might be outrageously expensive but then
again, so is any major public-works project; that's why they're public-works
instead of private projects. In any case, we need to do something to create a
much more efficient public transportation network, and I personally believe
that it's quiet possible to increase efficiencies without packing everyone
onto busses. The proposed system allowed for vehicles capable of self-powered
travel being able to ramp onto or off of continent-spanning main trade
arteries, which could add the efficiencies of centrally-generated electrical
power and computer-controlled spacing/speed control to the personal space and
privacy of the individual car. (For that matter, a properly equipped
skateboard could also suck power from the roads, energize an onboard drive
coil and be moved by this linear induction motor.)

But fusion, superconductors, and hyperdurable surfaces? Sure, it's science
fiction. Then again, so is the International Space Station and so is a
globe-spanning public datacommunications network. 

I can't report any major advances in fusion, nor any _major_ advances in
superconductivity, but there are some advances to be reported in superdurable
footings for roadways. This made the news briefly some 18 months ago, but I
don't know if anyone's taking this into consideration. It seems that those
annoying clean-air requirements for factories have generated a huge amount of
fly-ash. Fly-ash is as bad a pollutant when gathered in scrubber traps as it
is flying around in the air; it's extremely durable and difficult to
dispose-of. One method for disposal was to mix it into concrete - and it turns
out that this radically increases the strength and durability of the concrete.
Roads which were built with reasonable expectations of material half-lives of
50 years may now be built with half-lives closer to 500 years.

I propose that whoever is talking about building roads really needs to take
into consideration not only the above-mentioned points of anticipating future
sprawl, or energy-costs in transportation, but also they must consider the
fact that whatever anticipatable future they're designing for, their designs
will probably see that future become dull history within 50 years. Yet due to
the durability (which of course will be exploited to keep down maintenance
costs) of the materials now available, most of the lifetime of the design will
be spent as a legacy or even a dinosaur.

We also may wish to begin to consider the impact, on transportation needs, of
molecular nanotechnology. The rate of advance in this and related sciences is
astounding. For instance, a Japanese firm has recently announced the
beginnings of a technology for the creation of standardized tubular
"buckminsterfullerines", or "nanotube". This is an astounding material, and
may well indeed prove to be the root of an affordable superconductor. At
present the initial application will be large highdensity video displays,
manufactured at costs much lower than possibly with present technology - with
practically-unbreakable screens. Also note that recent advances with other
"fullerines" such as "buckyballs" (a sixty-atom carbon molecule much stronger
than diamond and the most spherical and frictionless molecule possible in the
real world) radically promote the likelihood of development of the first
nanotech molecular assemblers within a decade. 

It has been noted that once the first programmable nanotech assemblers are
actualized, the nature of reality and society will themselves be amenable to
rapid restructuring. (I'll be sweet and not even mention "grey goo".)

Your gas tax might, in such a scenario, turn out to be unnecessary. If you
need a road, you can just grow one... and ungrow it once you're done with it.
If you need a car to drive on the road, you just grow that too. But why drive
anywhere? Unless you actually need to physically be somewhere to be with
someone, you don't have a lot of transportation needs, since probably anything
you might conceivably need, including telecom, datacomm, or even telepresence
equipment, can also probably be grown wherever they're needed.

And how would _that_ development alter the way we work, and live, and
aggregate? Your guess is as good as mine...

But if you're writing a novel of science fiction, or forward-looking
civic-improvement policies, you might want to take consideration of nano, or
concentrate your suggestions or solutions for the interim. Once nano arrives,
absolutely everything changes. Any time you want it to...

> 
> Frederick E. Jorden wrote:
> 
> > But the money comes from highway taxes! Use it to build highways or reduce the
> > tax!
> 
>  --
> 
>   Doug White - http://www.carr.org/~dwhite/contacts.htm
>             Disclaimer: Opinions are my own.

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