Tuesday 28 September 1999

Comic book

Pic of the day: The future looks like a pretty interesting place to be, in this comic book about some young people in the 30th century. One of the funnier issues of "Legionnaires", for a change without the overdose of violence found in many American comics (including this series at times).

...

Hello! Yes, I am still alive. I guess the experiment of whining is still in a tie. I don't suddenly feel a lot better, then again I did sleep quite often this night. And today I've been coughing up mouthfuls of icky green-grey goo, which must certainly be better than having it in my bronchies. Ick.

So I dragged my sorry ass (I guess I can spare you the details today) to work and ran around helping my coworkers with the new computers. They are still taking the interactive education that came with the stuff, and have problems with this. Some are also experimenting with things and will call for me when things don't work out as expected. It is kind of nice to feel useful, even at a useless workplace.

And as the day was grinding to a halt, I settled down for a few minutes with my favorite Norwegian newspaper, DN. Soon I was approached by a friendly chatty coworker who made me aware of the new transport plans and budgets. According to the local newspaper, a modern highway from Kristiansand to Grimstad (the nearest large town to the east) would now take from 65 to 140 years to build. Which, said my coworker, means never. And then I told him about the Dalsfjord Bridge.

...

I grew up in the Norwegian province of Sogn & Fjordane. Yes, like in fjords: Long narrow valleys flooded by ocean, and separated by mountains. A wild and beautiful nature. In years gone by, the fjords were means of transportation: Waterways that connected even tiny villages with the outside world. But with the introduction of the car, things turned around. From connecting people, the fjords started to separate them. So the people along my home fjord started to plan projects that would re-connect them to the world: The North Side Road, the South Side Road, and the Dalsfjord Bridge.

When my grandmother was young, they planned the North Side Road. When my mother was young, they decided to build it. When I was young, they started to build it. By now my brother's kids are young, and the road extends like a few hundred meters into the wilderness along the fjord. The local goats especially valued the tunnell, which is a dry place in the frequent rains of the west coast. In a few hundred more years, it just may be completed. Or not. Who knows?

...

My coworker insisted, however, that the car as we know it will come to an end really soon now. I pointed out that there is a lot of investment in the current net of roads and in the existing fleet of cars, and the sheer inertia of this would keep it going way past its time. I also pointed out that people are emotionally attached to their cars. (I can see this clearly, as I don't have a car myself. I also don't have a TV, so I can see how people are bound to the telly. I also am not married, but I guess we have to stop this parenthesis somewhere.) And so together we decided on the next generation of car, which would solve most of the problems with the existing version while retaining its charm.

The obvious drawback of the car is the pollution, both noise and stink, from its explosion motor. Electric cars avoid this, but they tend to have a limited radius of action or enormous batteries, or both. The irony is that people want the freedom of the fossil fuel car, but they do not use it. Most of the time the car is used to travel to and from work or similar assigments (daycare and shopping and stuff) which could just as easily been reached by collective transport: Bus, subway, train. But collective transport means being packed in with unkempt and unwashed strangers with a flickering gaze who press their tighs against yours given the slightest chance. That's why people use cars, not because they need them. They want the freedom to be left alone by humanoids not of their own tribe. A basic instinct, which economists and central planners have been stupid to ignore. Luckily I and my coworker have the ideal solution: The inter-city electric car!

Yes, that is right. In the Near Future, each family will have two cars, each a small light two-seater which will normally be occupied by only one person, the driver. It will have a battery with rather limited capacity, and here is why: You will drive on the battery from your home in the suburbs and to the outskirts of town. There, at the traffic center, you will join a Monoline. The monoline is slightly raised element in the middle of a one-way road. It carries electric current as well as control signals. As you join a car-avan, your destination will be transferred to the guidance system. It may be a different traffic center on the other side of town, or in another town or city far away from here.

In short order, the car will set off for your programmed destination, following the monoline, with a short but constant distance to the e-car in front of you. Emergency sensors will brake if the car in front of you malfunctions, but normally all the cars are guided by the traffic network through the monoline. They move along at high speed: Since there are no individual preferences, all cars can move at a constant and high speed in the same direction. At the infrequent forks, cars will be gently separated or merged with little loss of speed.

This way, you can enjoy the freedom from strangers, in your own little car, with your favorite music. You can read the newspaper or watch television - there is no reason why there should not be both cable TV and broadband Internet in the monoline. And safe speed will be a lot higher than it used to be in 1999, when you depended on the other people (idiots, most of them) for your safety. (Remember, if you are an average American, you are a better driver than 90% of Americans. No wonder they always block your way.)

At your destination node, your car goes off the monoline and rolls onto an open place. An alarm reminds you to take over manual control before this happens, and you now drive a normal battery-powered car from here to your actual destination: Workplace, daycare or whatever. Or you put the car on the nearby parking lot if the destination is right nearby (as with most malls). The batteries have been fully recharged during the monoline run. Later in the day, you do the same thing in reverse: For each monoline in one direction, there is a mirror line in the other direction.

There you are, world. The solution. And we need and want no other compensation for this our gift to the world, except one large statue for each of us, and the starry-eyed adoration from thousands and thousands of beautiful women. :)

...

But even without any of the above, the future is bound to be an interesting place. I dearly want to be there, and see as many as possible of you there, too.

Gurgle has updated again! Isn't she, like, a total baby? Coo!


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