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Pipeline Mass Transit?
pipingguy writes "'Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) is a new kind of transportation system that requires less than two percent of the energy of current transportation methods. It is also much safer, and can be faster. [...] Anyone can visualize 2 tubes (one for each direction) along a travel route. Air is permanently removed from the tubes; so travel takes place without friction. Pressurized passenger capsules (like a 2 - 8 person airplane cabin), travel in the tubes on thin steel wheels or on nearly frictionless Maglev. Airlocks allow access without admitting air to the tubes. Linear motors (as used on new rollercoasters) accelerate the capsules. During most of the trip the capsules coast; using no power. When the capsules slow down, linear generators recover most of the electrical energy used to accelerate the capsules.' Some CG images and drawings here, the FAQ is here." MSNBC had an article on monorails a few days ago. Don't bother making Simpsons jokes, the article has them covered already.
Even if you do manage to invent a method of tranportation that uses "less than 2%" of the energy of "current methods," all you're doing is enabling the same old planet to support that many more warm bodies. You're still gonna run out of other things, like fresh water, a place to put the trash, coal, tolerance, etc, etc...
At what point does the species introspect and note that it probably isn't necessary to have 6, 8, 15 or 20 billion copies of itself stumbling around munching on stuff? Hmm?
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
sure, but I just lost my job a few months back. Now I don't have a job, I also don't have a place to live. Oh, and because I don't have a job none of the few places left to rent living space will rent to me, so I'm homeless.
It is hard enough to keep my house payments up without a job (only for a few months, though I'm still looking for a good job if your hiring programers). It would be worse if I had to find new temperary living quarters until I got that job. Oh, did I mention that nobody wants to rent to me even with money because in a short time I plan to have a new job. Seems the landlords prefer to have some income for long enough that they can pay for all the improvements they had to do to make the apartment livable after the last guy left.
Did I mention that I'm a country kid? I'd love to walk to work every day, but I don't like to see my neighbor's houses. My ideal house would be on 6000 acres of land. (I don't want to farm however, and there is no way I could afford that much, not to mention the impractability of everyone living on that much land.