Slashdot Mirror
"Crowd Farm" to Collect Energy?
Cain writes to mention that a couple of MIT students would like to harness the mechanical power of large groups of people. "A Crowd Farm in Boston's South Station railway terminal would work like this: A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath the station's main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current."
God Smack Your Ass !!
So you are going to ask people who are pushing and shoving, exhausted at the end of the day, who only want to get home to walk on a floor that is going to pull energy out of their stride. Are ye freakin' nuts. Why not go full ahead and have escalators that fall backward as people walk up them running a generator -- same difference. More practically, how about turning off the escalators -- seems to me that would save not only energy cost but maintenance cost too.
Somehow, I see the heirs of a guy who dropped dead due to heart attack suing and winning more money than the earning/savings from harnessing crowd power. Moreover what about the class action suit representing the "crowd" to get their money out.
Anything to help fat-@ss Americans lose weight.
Yay! What a great idea. This means you yanks can keep up your wasteful way of life. Too bad for the rest of us not living in your fantasy world. Fuck y'all.