Electric Future Vol.1 - Transportation
The Full Article
I have a small idea that would absolutely reduce pollution into the atmosphere permanently from cars, trains, buses, and power plants. My dream of a totally electric future powered by resources that are easily and cheaply available, a transition away from them once they begin to become scarce - and investing in the exact opposite technique - along with some windmills. I am speaking of the power in the Atom of course, the most frightful and devastating development of mankind that has been ignored since the nineteen seventies. Before I discuss that, I will first set about my proposal for this wonderful future of mine.
Imagine you get in your car, you turn the ignition, and the warm hum of the motor sparks to life - using a pure ethanol mixture that is less than a dollar a gallon. Then, you go to the freeway, and you take your hands off the wheel with a click. The vehicles non-Microsoft computer navigates you along the highway by using the highway's own computer systems. The only thing is - your vehicle is no longer a part of your direct control since it is now on tracks and linked into the highway's decentralized computer system - and is able to anticipate anything in advance because the highway can use predictive technologies currently available, and by far more advanced in the future. You are now riding on rails and approximately 200 miles an hour, your predestined course you plot out is being carried out perfectly, internet is carried over the rail system and you can if you wanted to - check your emails. Switches every three hundred yards make sure you are going where you need to while the computer adjusts speeds according to traffic and safety regulations - in congestion it will slow all vehicles down to let's say 60 miles an hour for safe passing and safe lane changes should it be that cluttered. However not everyone will be going slowly - for you see there will be an express lane or two at the far left lanes - allowing for amazing speeds to be accomplished and for people to cross country in less than a day.
How are these speeds possible? The tracks are electrified - that's how. Massive amounts of raw AC current using Tesla's almighty contribution to science in alternating currents and alternating motors glides you along at speeds never before imaginable on a highways system without a tragic car accident or a police beating every few days. In fact the traffic laws will be enforced by the computers, rendering high speed highway chases a ting of the past. Any car that the police wish to stop will stop regardless of the drivers input. You travel in what used to take 4 hours in under an hour. You can go across the desert from Texas to California on the expressways at over 350 miles per hour. Air travel is actually more expensive now - and cars are more dominant. How is all this energy affordable? Simple my dear Watson... Massive nuclear facilities brought online in a "safe zone" where only the government has access. Not ten, not fifty, over ten thousand nuclear reactors in a silo-like fashion going as deep as three hundred feet into the ground in a quarantined area. Nuclear waste goes to another facility built to handle over six hundred years worth, above the water table and in a way that will suppress any kind of leakages.
Impossible! How can that be afforded! Why - That would cost billions if not trillions! You're absolutely right, it would cost trillions. However - without there being a war constantly draining money (since I would be Dictator of Earth) the money that went to war would go to this excellent project and many others. The entire world's power grid would be overhauled, and so would the entire world's roadways. All the poor, the needy, the people seeking work would have a task that will take a billion humans to complete! Everyone will be employed and fed - and I will use my standing armies to force it. Bankruptcy isn't an option - I control the world's economy at this stage, and declare things as so. With constant expansion using recycled materials and raw materials business would boom, worldwide. Technology would provide the jobs and education everyone seeks.
As I have stated, power sourcing for this massive project, the Electric Future would have to come from somewhere. Obviously the trade off between coal, oil, and natural gas is a horrible idea - using resources that are easily depleted and expensive - and pollute more. You see if we switch to a pure electric highways system we will exchange the pollution made there for pollution from power plants being fed fossil fuel... This burning, creation of noxious gases and CO2 must end! It must no longer be the way we gain our power and it must no longer be the way we make our own environment; this is NOT the way of the future. As your world Dictator and Caretaker it will be my duty to bring you a solution that will let you breathe, and also breathe a sigh of relief. Now then, what is my system? Let's take a look at the technologies we have today.
Wind Power: Good, clean, mostly reliable, however the output is not sufficient for gigawatts and terawatts needed for the pure electric future. Do not rule these out entirely - they can supply additional power to non-highways and electric future projects.
Solar Power: Good, clean, reliable, however again there is not enough electricity produced at the cost of operation. No matter how many are built, eventually the marginal costs of building more outweighs the marginal benefits - huge expanses of land and environment destroyed for solar panels is counter productive.
Dams: Hydroelectric power is clean, reliable, constant, but harms many rivers from obstruction of the natural flow - along with the same problem when the dams use up more river space that is costly.
Oil: Just no.
Coal: Gah! No!
Natural Gas: Bah!
Wood: ...NO!
Fission Power: Clean, Efficient, Huge output. This is optimal since nuclear fission generates the heat needed for powering turbines, and furthermore, the heat that is wasted could be used again with Sterling Engine Technology, getting just a bit more bang for the buck. These can easily be built into the ground in one location, power a massive amount of generators, and more can be built than is needed before the marginal cost outweighs the benefits. Radioactive waste can be allocated to an even lower facility that is sealed - eventually it could be re-used.
Fusion Power: Fusion generates more energy that fission, and as such would be even more efficient. This is not yet available though - and is a future but attainable goal. Using previously fissioned material to power fusion would recycle nuclear waste.
Thermal Power: Use the earth's own internal heat to power things. Either steam from hot mantle layer heat, and even pre-mantle layer heat, or use heat differential power from sterling engines. Both are clean, efficient, and constant. This would produce enough power below ground - but it will use a massive amount of space. Because it would need to be so deep - it is feasible to create it without destroying any part of the environment. However because of the earth's tectonic activity it could be unfeasible unless an adjustment and control system is used. Greenland is a great example of how to do it, and if it were to be explored further the problems listed could be addressed.
The plan will be to build the nuclear reactors in an unpopulated area, and as that is completed the roadway construction will begin. It will not take the place of the old highways, those will be left for legacy vehicles - however a larger construction program than Eisenhower ever envisioned will be planned out, and built within 10 years of its beginning. This requires more manpower than has ever been used on a project before - and this WILL employ more people at one time than have ever been employed at one time before. Think of it - billions of men and women working on the same exact project from beginning to end. The poor and unemployed will no longer be unemployed - those in need of money and jobs will have them. Full employments of not just the United States, but of the entire world! Everyone will have work, everyone will have a job, and everyone will have something to do!
In addition to this the entire scientific community will be conscripted to develop the vehicles of this future system, and the programming. All sectors of society that were once dedicated to warfare will now be dedicated to this national goal. Entire junkyards will be raided and depleted of their trash, all materials that couldn't be recycled through ignorance or inability will be recycled. The worlds wasted resources for war materials will go to these projects, eventually the entire world will be running on these highways, made of materials that don't degrade over time and crumble, using metal wisely and conserving as much as possible, high strength alloys that are needed will spur the manufacturing departments of the world's economy into a super frenzy induced state!
There will be no slowing down of employment when this project is finished, I have many, many, more - but this article is dedicated to the powerhouses for the electric future! Over a thousand nuclear fission plants in one location on every continent in a secluded contained area. Each of these locations will provide the power of the future - and all will be self contained so that if one does have a problem it will not be another Chernobyl, rather it will be locked up and stop. More security and shutdown systems will be on these plans than ever before, and even if one does explode inwardly the disaster will be contained by the honeycomb structure of the facility. Each reactor will be in it's own cell, the hot water will be pumped out into a massive cooling area shared by all the plants while cool water is pumped in - this water is clean since it doesn't mix with the reactor's own water pool. Seawater could be used for this, and the hot water could be pumped to an above ground sterling power facility that uses heat differentials for mechanical motion - powering the generators of the Sterling's. This dissipates the heat without wasting it - and thus lets the used water go back into the ocean without warming it up. Colder Polar Regions are optimal for this setup.
Power will be the most important part of the future's ability to progress, and the use of Tesla's idea of mass transmission across the globe will be put to a use he couldn't even imagine. The light bulbs he designed that never needed to be plugged into a wall could service the roads of the future at night - using electricity transmitted in the very air around the structure. Less copper and metals used less resources wasted, full efficiency and full economic benefits that equal the costs.
I have covered the general idea of a fully electric society without the pollution output of cars and power plants - along with a super high speed non-polluting highway system... now how will this highway system work? We will explore that further - keep in mind that currently we have predictive technology in development (machines and computers that can predict what will happen through an action/consequence loop). Vehicles in development can see obstacles and adjust accordingly on a non-rail road and do so with accuracy. A railed road would require technology we already have - and we would not make this Microsoft Based because we need systems that are fast, but don't need a supercomputer to run. Let's start new with the ability of electrification along these rails first and foremost - and how the tires you use on the normal road won't be used on the highway.
The highway rails will have a sunken groove on both sides, leaving a way for drainage to occur and to keep the rubber tires from ever being used on the road - that's right - the rubber never touches the highway. The wear and tare is purely placed on the metal rails - and that means the roads don't need constant repair every other day - we can alloy coat the rails using the strongest metals known to man. The rail wheels will be located a few inches inward of the normal tires on the vehicle. Entering the highway will involve driving up the on ramp, then your tires are sunk into the road with the grooves and the rail wheels take over. The cars around adjust automatically to let you on and within a few minutes you are going faster than any current legal speed limit - and these speeds are no longer monitored by the law since it is computer run. This highway will not degrade as fast as the current system, and use less building materials than the I-40 for contact surface.
The rail lines will be electrified and have an electric sensor for each foot - allowing for total car monitoring and plotting of where each vehicle is. Accompanying this is a pressure sensor, so the ability to monitor is two-fold. Cars drivers no longer have control of their driving - they will have plotted their course along the way. Should there be an immediate need to exit the occupant will need to specify it as an emergency situation - and the vehicle will be lane changed and track switched to the nearest available exit. Other cars around this vehicle will detect and adjust, there will be no collisions on this highway due to the predictive nature of the computers that are in the car and decentralized along the highway. The rails serve as a mode of transport, supply of power, supply of information, and network between all the computers on the road. Because of this, the driver does not really need to keep an eye on what is going on - and could use his or her cellular, watch the console news, or spend their time reading a book - although you will arrive faster than ever before and this may not be an option.
The decentralized computers will constantly feed information to the vehicles, and the vehicles will feed information to these computer nodes, these nodes will communicate amongst themselves constantly and keep everything in real-time. If a vehicle does break down, an immediate slowdown will occur, and the effected lane will be switched off of by all vehicles until a repair vehicle makes it to the location and tows the defective vehicle from the highway. This could account for a significant slowdown of traffic for fifteen minutes - however that is less time than a traditional highway. If there ever is an accident - these vehicles will be designed to withstand high speed accidents, insuring the survivability of occupants in all conditions foreseeable. Should an entire stretch of highway be made unusable across all track lanes - everyone will be lined to exits as far as 10 miles back and given a route to follow that will bypass the highway stretch that is no longer usable. When they get back on the highway further down past from the accident things will continue as normal.
The old highway system will not be eliminated, but many of the inner city stretches will be nullified and made into normal roads, while the rail system takes over for this. The legacy systems will remain in place for legacy vehicles, that way some of the older vehicles will not be made completely obsolete - however you will need to pay a permit to own any vehicle not relegated as a "classic" or "collectible." These new cars will still be able to use legacy roads, and will use ethanol and clean fuels when not on the highways, along with a recharged electric battery from using the highway. The vehicles will also have a magnetic bumper - if a vehicle gets too close it will repel and use the electric battery to create a strong electromagnet that will push the other vehicle back.
This system will be efficient, intelligent, preventative of accidents, and safe. It will be much safer than the current system today that relies on you trusting all other humans to your life, and your well being. Considering that humans are responsible for the deaths of millions each year I think it would be better to trust a well tested well put together highway system that takes advantage of predictive and preventative technologies to stop any kind of accident before it happens. Because computers are efficient and make logical choices they will be better suited to emergency situations, rather than trusting a fallible human. What if a car breaks and axel falls off, and there is a strewn path of debris for over a mile? Normal humans wouldn't know about it until it was too late - the highway would automatically slowdown all vehicles, and avoid every item along the way while cleanup crews took care of the problem. Perhaps the highway itself could take care of that problem.
I have now covered both the ways this will be done, the infrastructure and the building costs. You might now be asking yourself the question of: "How will this make revenue, and how will it benefit me?" Well to look at it economically what we are doing is increasing the amounts of possible input by increasing speed and effectiveness and capacity, which is all fine and dandy - however the principal of diminishing returns tells us that eventually if we only focus on one aspect we will make less and less each time, until the marginal cost outweighs the benefits. That's why we do more than one. Power input is increased (making of a huge capacity), road speed is increased (making for faster production time), workers get to where they need to go faster (meaning workers are more efficient), car production for the new cars is increased (meaning there is an industry improved by this project), demand for labor is increased (meaning all the other inputs are causing the workers to be needed - another input), and demand for goods is increased as trade speeds quadruples (because now people get it faster, better, and more efficient than before). The only thing that remains static is that people still need to go places (and they always will). But, because there are constantly more and more people, this increases the demand for better ways of doing that. As more commerce, trade, and productivity is increased the more my government will benefit off of consumption taxes while providing back with more capital investments in infrastructure.
The cost of building this will be a government cost, which means it will use up more domestic goods and services, causing more imports - wait, that's right, it is WORLD WIDE so - the entire world's economy adjusts to this. There will be greater scarcity of the goods and services I will need to use in the project, which does mean prices will increase, and demand will increase - demand for innovation and replacement products made out of alternate materials will increase too, along with recycling. It is true that many people will need to switch to inferior products; however it is not true that this project will ruin the world's economy. Because of the enormous amount of employment needing to be supplied people will make a living off of the 10-20 years of massive construction across the world. If you factor in that the government will have a large supply of non-human workforce to compensate for much of the law enforcement, health care, and legislation - the jobs will offset.
In the end you get a greater demand from suppliers, you get a greater demand for workers and you get an increased standard of living. When the jobs are finished on these roadways of the Electric Future people will be unemployed for a while - spurring businesses to create jobs. With this expanded capital investment in infrastructure thousands of new businesses could crop up because of the speeds now obtainable. Because no trucks would be allowed on these highways - trains would be the future of transporting mail, transporting livestock, and transporting generally everything. Millions of jobs will be needed for the new demands in shipping - best of all these trains follow the same electric future principals. Speed, accuracy, efficiency, and of course safety to you and the environment you live in are all things this, and I, shall bring to you humans.
Technology will be one of the biggest factors in this overhaul, computer programmers and network specialists will be needed by the million, so will advance metallurgy and plastic companies. Don't worry; it's not as if my government would let these people go after such a feat as this: I have many, many, more projects to complete before the world is a better place - including the harvesting of materials not on our planet.
In my view, the economic benefits of doing this in the long run will by far outweigh the costs and hardships in the short run - which is the risk I take by making a capital investment in the future.
1. CO2 is decreased overall by the cutting of 90% of the sources it comes from - this means we don't lose land to water levels rising rapidly and we avoid the worst economic outcome of the annihilation of planet Earth. We also get to keep the polar bears, penguins, and Antarctica. Antarctica is probably the most important place for the future empire.
2. The roadways provide a faster means to get to work - people who live further away from their jobs can now do so cheaply with a commute 4x faster. Instead of people needing to be 30 miles out to make it to work in 30 minutes - they can be nearly 120 miles out. Those who are used to even longer commutes, over several hundred miles for meeting or because they have a job out of town, can save time and increase productivity by getting to work in a fraction of the time.
3. Insurance costs will decline and insurance companies will make more from the safety and lack of Moral Hazards.
4. Jobs created and skills taught here will give the human workforce a greater knowledge and advantage world wide - everyone who participates will need to be trained in skills that they would not normally learn in what is considered the "3rd World."
5. Living standards and income with a standard unit of trade would boost their GDPs and boost their living conditions.
6. There are many more I could list but this one will be the last one I do here - in addition to all of these wonderful things - the excess food that has been for years stockpiled and stored away to keep farmers making money will evaporate overnight as the work will demand more nutrition - farmers worldwide will profit off of the food demand, and the ability to be paid for the food - along with ethanol crops.
The entire world's standards of living will rise to an equal level, and hopefully this means that the number of starving and/or illiterate and homeless will fall to all time lows as people are educated for this project and become assets to the overall world economy. At the end of the construction prices will fall, things will normalize from the massive amount of hyperactivity, and then the men and women with this new knowledge and productivity will be able to put it to use in thousands of new industries and commercial markets. Everyone gets the benefits off of this without the need for income redistribution of any kind.
Now to bring everything together for the final article that will sum up the energy policies, the transportation policies, the technological impacts and finally any loose ends or points of discussion about the Electric Future policy I will endorse as the Dictator of Earth. Before we delve into the topic I hope you do note that the means of accomplishment of these goals is in no way absolutely forbidden to contractors - it all depends on how I finally have the entire planet submit to my will - should the planet go quietly along with me there will be no problems and all of this will go smoothly... however the consequences for a long overdrawn battle for the conquest of earth might mean a lack of human labor force - hence I may need to create my own labor force and the humans shall not reap the benefits I would have otherwise bestowed upon them. It is blatantly apparent after these past few weeks; if not the past 22 years I have been on this wretched rock that many and most human being lack the ability to live together... Well, back to topic.
Firstly we will re-cover the technological aspects needed. We have all the technology we need today to carry out this task and great construction for the benefit of mankind and the environment NOW. The only prospective technological advancements needed would be the Fusion reactor - but this would only cut costs and is not essential. We can wait. Another item of interest would be the network capabilities of a highway system that uses millions of IP addresses. This has already been addressed by IPv6. You see, IPv6 has an exponentially large amount of IP addresses compared to IPv4. If all else fails we will make a new protocol called HIPv2, and it will be fully capable of a number with so many zeroes it could reach the moon and back on paper. The highway will also use current transmission technologies that allow more than several gigabytes of information to be transferred... using optical systems or just using a different type of transmission media available today will ensure no bandwidth clogs never happen. This technological demand should be noted.
Transportation will be safer than ever before! Humans will no longer be in control, and a rail system will immediately reduce highways deaths. With a fully capable computerized network that uses predictive, preventative, preemptive and smart technologies with over thirty built in fail safes for every computer with backup computers (due to load sharing amongst each highway computer) there will be no more accidents involving 30 car pile ups, no more tragedies, no more deaths every day. The fact the system will completely compensate for any loss including power insures life against death and ensures that there will be no accidental fatalities from reckless driving. The vehicles will be built in a fashion that will prevent death at speeds in excess of 250 miles per hour, and that means infant fatalities too. The days of a meat grinder roadway that millions use each year, and thousands die on each year, will be over.
The entire impact of the need of all the technology and construction required will bring about a new and improved workforce. The human race will be more skilled in the labor force, better standards of living will exist because of the mass employment and incomes that are generated - the entire economy will boom in the world wide 3 year project! Yes, 3 years. How? I will employ BILLIONS of human beings on this, I will have the economy running at the hottest levels than ever before, billions will be trained in one skill or another by the training force and inspectors will ensure a safe and absolutely capable working environment. The entire species will benefit from the effects of a cleaner environment and the costs will be offset easily by the increased commerce when the project is finished. Businesses will have the ability to ship faster than ever before with personal carriers, and using the train system which will be overhauled (see Electric Future Vol3 Mass Transit). When the job of this is over - you might think there'd be mass unemployment and the overheating of the market will cause a worldwide depression. You'd be wrong for two reasons - firstly I have another project (actually several) and secondly I will enforce the economy at gunpoint if I have to. Who said fear doesn't pay?
This entire electric system will completely destroy the slick gripping spears of the oil companies on the world, and they will fade away. I will no longer have a challenger from them, I won't be threatened by them and I will no longer need to worry about the entire world flooding - because global warming will end. After this I will demand the growth of more trees or bamboo to be used for ethanol production - also we will NOT be enforcing some crazy idea about "One Sheet per Trip to the Washroom" as the insane Crow said we should. One of the major focuses of my dictatorship will be the worldwide distribution of toilet paper. It is the greatest invention of mankind, and I dare anyone to challenge that - and if they do, I certainly will not shake their hand.
Well in closing, I hope you enjoyed the idea; it would help save the planet you live on, and improve the world's overall quality of life from Africa to Asia to both Americas and Europe - Australia too. Everyone wins, even you! Highways and byways electrified at day and lit by wireless lights by night, who would have ever though the roads could be used in such a way this day? Remember, you can help me take over the world! Join the forum, post, get involved! Spread the policies and ideas!
Signed - Yinepu Jackuul, S.W.B. Future World Dictator