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

[Mike Lorrey]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> > 
> > Adrian, all you have said is true, and I agree, under current
> > conditions.  The radical downsizing and downspeeding I described
> > would happen only in a world in which we are operating mostly or
> > entirely on renewable fuels...
> > 
> > spike
> 
> I will take that one step further, Adrian.  You are a
> young enough man that you may not recall the transition
> from the gas guzzlers of the 1960s to the strangled,
> anemic econoboxes of the 1980s.  During the transition,
> when new smog control standards were being introduced
> seemingly on a yearly basis, I wondered if 60s era
> cars would become the ride of choice.  They have such
> wonderful power.  To some extent that happened, but 
> mostly only for those who actually drove guzzlers as teens.
> 
> If I go to the local high school today, I see so many shameful
> little civics and geos.  Some have loud pipes, but still lack
> the power to pull the skin offa day-old rice pudding.  The 
> proletariat accepted the transition from V8s to wimpy little 
> front wheel drive 4 bangers.  I conjecture that the proletariat 
> will likewise accept a future transition to liter-class
> twin cylinder buggies, then eventually half-liter class
> single cylinder single seaters.  It will not be manly, it
> will not be fun.  Children being born today will not 
> even realize how they suffer.  But they will marvel
> at how fast old cars can go.

I am reminded of a Larry Niven short story titled "A Veil of Anarchy",
in which future humans, living in a world of the ever present State,
with population controls, licensing of babies, and legally mandated
mood attenuating pharmocoepia, there are parks, built on the surfaces
of the old interstate highways, where anarchy reigns, though with
hovering nanny-robots to make sure nobody hurts anybody else.... until
someone figures out how to shut down the robots, all of them, and the
power for the park gates at the same time (accidentally).

In the anarchy park, there is still a segment of highway used to race
old cars. Powerful, dirty, smelly, gasoline burning noisy cars.

Anarchy in a park, what a concept.... kind of like putting liberty in a
museum.... safely away from persons who might be dangerous to the state
if they were free.

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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