Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion Car. How long ago was that? The 1930's. A car from the 1930's that could haul 11 and get over 30 mpg. Now 70 years have passed and we've got car's that can haul 11 people and get 12 mpg, or cars that can haul two people and get 30 mpg. Oh, what progress we have made. Those who stand in the way of the march of scientific exploration will get trampled!What have we here? A car that runs on water from the 1980's! I'm sure everyone will jump right on board with that now with our rising gas prices.
Fear of an oil embargo inspired the design. Fantastic. Now that we have control of and have completely stabilized Iraq we don't need to worry about another oil embargo. So let's get back to gas!
Does 300 mpg sound good?
Yowza!
So looking back to the 1930's and the Dymaxion Car, why have we progressed so little? Why does the modern automobile seem more like a trackless cousin of the old locomotive? Is there some conspiracy keeping the damn things locked away where the public can never have them?
Market economics. The lack of innovative design in the automotive industry is propelled by the vast majority being such backwards hicks that no manufacturer can risk bringing one to market except in the specialty class. Toys for the wealthy. And xenophobia. Loan officers and insurance companies have stacks of books that tell them everything they need to know when financing and insuring your motor vehicle. Once again, you will need to be rich to buy the thing outright because no loan company will finance you for it. They know the rate and resale of a Hummer and can calculate at your current rate of pay what their risk level is and adjust your financing appropriately. From their point of view, these strange vehicles have a zero resale value because their books don't have any data on them. Insurance companies can look up all kinds of info about everything from a '54 Dodge to a new Ferrari. How are they supposed to calculate the risks of driving something that looks like a wingless airplane? So if you want to insure it, you better have some money in your pocket.
The great mass of morons, a giant flock of sheep through which we must navigate to get to the future. Though it often seems more like swimming through a sea of sheep shit.
5 comments:
The big corporations are actively holding back humanity. The more I learn about them, the more I conclude the "free" market economy is a weapon, not a philosophy. The class war is an entirely one-sided massacre, and we're all too eager to just line up at our unmarked mass grave and make it easy for them.
Of course they are. But I tend to think it is less out of some nefarious plot and more out of reactionary stupidity. They act like lions who have brought down their kill and chase away all the hyenas and buzzards then chase them away from all other carrion they come across just for good measure. It's greed and they use every weapon at their disposal. Being so wealthy, they have a lot of tools available to them in their efforts to maintain their top spots. It's part of the free market which is in no way a fair market and... okay this could get way too long now. I wasn't expecting that. Head rush. FREEDOM! porn. End Transmissions, both manual and automatic! beep
Interestingly, I just the other week watched a science show about how Lions were growing cowardly, Hyenas were learning to fight back, and certain african lion prides may die off due to hyena-pressure.
Hmmm. Cracking water into hydrogen and oxygen takes a lot of energy though. You get that energy back when you burn the hydrogen, but it's not very efficient. Every time you transform energy from one form to another, you lose about half of it. So to run this water car:
1. Burn oil in a power plant make heat energy to boil water.
2. Run a steam turbine to convert heat into motion.
3. Drive an electric generator to turn motion into electrical energy
4. Electroysize water to make hydrogen
5. Burn hydrogen to run an engine
It's actually way more efficinet to just burn the oil in your car's engine.
My question is, why aren't people working (again) on the turbine powered car. Turbines are way more fuel efficient than piston engines. It's all politics and no science, as far as I can tell.
Yes, that is the currently accepted way to make hydrogen from water. The most common 'ecological' varriant typically involves setting up shop in the ocean to utilize either solar or wave power or both to get rid of the need for a power source such as petrochemicals, nuclear power, wood furnace, etc.
The vehicle mentioned in the video in this article is claimed to use a process that eliminates the need for pre-separation of the hydrogen. I have not looked deeply into how this supposed technology works. The inventor (now deceased) and his family continue to insist that it does work and can't figure out why nobody is paying attention.
Much like Bucky Fuller's fabulous idea for the Dymaxian house or geodesic dome homes. Both were good ideas that made sense (and still do), but people have a hell of a time convincing themselves to live in anything other than a box. And there was some politics involved as well.
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