james_davis_nicoll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-07-19 01:07 am
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-07-19 01:07 am
The World of the Future: Transportation
This got long
It may be the future but we will still have to get from place to place.
Not only will we not escape the deadly scourge of the bicycle, they will diversify into even more deadly forms.
This is basically a Smart Car, as seen from a decade with ugly fashions.
And this seems largely correct: I remember how futuristic our 1978 Honda seemed...
Hey, remember maglev? It was a thing. Like bell-bottoms. Only very very expensive.
I was *just* reading something with a gratuitous hovercraft. Not Systemic Shock, although as I recall that had all of Israel prepared to flee from Israel in a mighty hovercraft fleet.
With all due respect to a frequent reader of this LJ, I do not expect these to, ah, take off.
Or these.
And I expect airships will continue to be slow, fragile and expensive compared to planes.
The shuttle: doing the job of a dozen rockets at the cost of two dozen rockets!
What happened to Truax, anyway?
This quickly dashed off starship makes me sad.
And because they couldn't go an entire chapter without Woo.
It may be the future but we will still have to get from place to place.
Not only will we not escape the deadly scourge of the bicycle, they will diversify into even more deadly forms.
This is basically a Smart Car, as seen from a decade with ugly fashions.
And this seems largely correct: I remember how futuristic our 1978 Honda seemed...
Hey, remember maglev? It was a thing. Like bell-bottoms. Only very very expensive.
I was *just* reading something with a gratuitous hovercraft. Not Systemic Shock, although as I recall that had all of Israel prepared to flee from Israel in a mighty hovercraft fleet.
With all due respect to a frequent reader of this LJ, I do not expect these to, ah, take off.
Or these.
And I expect airships will continue to be slow, fragile and expensive compared to planes.
The shuttle: doing the job of a dozen rockets at the cost of two dozen rockets!
What happened to Truax, anyway?
This quickly dashed off starship makes me sad.
And because they couldn't go an entire chapter without Woo.
no subject
In the mid-nineties, I researched electric vehicle modifications for a friend who wanted to convert a an old Toyota pickup to electrical traction, so as to use the 250KW hydro turbine in his basement for more than selling to the grid and running the public radio station up the hill. It's nice to be living in a time when you can buy electric sports cars!
no subject