[ExI] Atlantic article on human reengineering with very strong reactions

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] Atlantic article on human reengineering with very strong
reactions

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 5:32 AM, spike  wrote:
>> Ja, but the problem is that everyone will not.  Some will ride in 
> little slow half tons, some will just stay with the old tried and true
Detroit V8...
> We can do this, but the older bigger cars will pose a safety hazard to 
> the new small guys.  We will need to resurface half of the roads and 
> rethink maintenance.


>... Minicars are not the vehicle of choice for 1,000 mile cross-country
trips. ;)

Exactly.  We have a notion of each person having a car that can do
everything.  This sends us to vehicles that are heavy, expensive and
thirsty.  An alternative would be having a single seater, then you rent a V8
if you really need to drive cross country.  We could create rental agencies
that use current cars, which could last for decades if used that way.

>...Minicars are modern and have better designed accident protection than
any ten-year old vehicle... BillK

Granted, but what I really have in mind is not yet on the road.  All current
cars are big by the standards I have in mind, including the Cooper Mini and
the others.  The Cooper would be an example of a car still too heavy and
fast to be allowed on the divided roads I have in mind.  We currently have
the technology to build cars that get 100 miles per gallon (don't know what
that is in metric, 2 liters per 100 km?)  No new technology is needed.  We
just can't run those safely on current roads, for they are too light and too
slow.  If we can figure out a means of keeping them out of the way of V8
drivers, we can save buttloads of fuel.  They would be faster than bicycles,
and offer more weather protection.  They would be low cost and low risk of
theft, low environmental impact because they wouldn't require a lot of
steel.  They would require most roads to be repaved, with most surface
anomalies reworked.  The expense of that would be high, but the payback time
short.

spike