[extropy-chat] Car of the (near) future

[Mike Lorrey]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> The biggest driver in this direction will not be reduced oil
> coming out of the ground, but rather greatly increasing demand
> for motor fuels from China and India.  Those two outfits alone 
> have over 2e9 right feet, eager for a gas pedal under them, eager
> for the freedom of mobility that we have enjoyed in the west.
> 

The idea of 2e9 right feet all making the morning commute does not lend
itself to the phrase "freedom of mobility".

> My notion is that driving will not change all that much in
> the next 10 to 20 years, but that eventually we will do some
> of that radical downsizing.  It will not happen to a great extent 
> until we burn up all the easy oil, all the stuff that can be pumped
> cheaply.  Until all of that is gone, government efforts to curb 
> our thirst for oil is a waste of time.

Geeze Spike, you are going over to the dark side. Silicon valley
brownouts notwithstanding, for other reasons, Peak Oil is a shibboleth.

> 
> The sitch is not desperate however.  I can imagine some plug-in
> hybrids on very small frames, so that our one-seaters will run 
> partly on corn-derived alcohol and partly on the coal that the 
> local power plant burns.  It won't be that bad, really.  A bit
> less comfortable, somewhat more dangerous and slower, but life
> as we have known it will go on.

Nah, I forsee pebble bed nuclear plants across the country being used
to recharge metal hydride fuel tanks for fuel cell power plants, right
before we figure out how to turn a metal hydride battery into a cold
fusion power plant.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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