5 ms·

Indeed. Wave your magic wand and replace every car in America with a helicopter, every garage with a helipad, and while you're at it, throw in free fuel. Why no

by jpm_sd 6y ago

Indeed. Wave your magic wand and replace every car in America with a helicopter, every garage with a helipad, and while you're at it, throw in free fuel. Why not? What results? Most likely, huge increases in accidents and fatalities. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/06/are-helicopters-safer-than-cars.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2011/06/are-helicopters-...

mjevans 6y ago
Indeed. Though for a more luxurious experience (for everyone) imagine that all roadways were subways and vehicles were electric instead of combustion powered. Additionally they could all be on rails and fully self driving in a pedestrian and accident free environment. That's where I'd like to spend all that energy.
- germinalphrase 6y ago
  Tunnels in urban areas are wildly expensive, but it’s a cool vision. I would settle for elevated tracks.
  - xixixao 6y ago
    Unless those tracks are covered and sound proof, elevated highways cause a ton of noise. Even if they were, they block a lot of sunlight. I’d elevate the city instead. That’s essentially Manhattan.
    - germinalphrase 6y ago
      Which is essentially the hyperloop idea, no? Electric cars on skids in tunnels.
trhway 6y ago
you forgot an automated air traffic management system with the capabilities exceeding that of the best military radars of today, ie. capable of automatically tracking and routing thousands of those flying cars in the small volume, and the flying cars of course flying on autopilot following that system's directions. So, in a sense that is an infrastructure issue. That infrastructure isn't going to be built until there are a lot of those cars. A lot of those cars of course can't appear without support of such an infrastructure. Thus that slow progress - those Chinese human carrying octocopters will start flying here and there, and the Lilium and eVolo, ... Hardware-wise the "flying car" is cheap - https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 - just need better batteries which will come in due time (and with the power and motors at least in duplicate or even triplicate contours the N-copters make for much higher safety than say a single rotor helicopter) . >[...lawyers..] This is the closest we can come to measuring the effect of taking more than a million of the country’s most talented and motivated people and put them to work making arguments and filing briefs against each other so their efforts mostly cancel out, instead of inventing, developing, and manufacturing things which could have made life better. to the lawyers we need to add law enforcement and armed forces and the damage resulting from the application of force. That is the tax our civilization pays for not having intelligence high enough to avoid that violence, be it a lawyer's action enforced by court or a soldier shooting the rifle. If anything, that is my version of Great Filter - progress being completely bogged down by that practice and infrastructure of violence. I don't think we'll be able to get out of it while staying in the confines of out current society on this planet (with the exception of a totally fantastical scenario - like aliens arrival - that would put a fire under the bottoms of our spines :), and only new colonies on Moon, Mars, etc. can develop new ways of societal co-existence.

by jpm_sd 6y ago

mjevans 6y ago

Indeed. Though for a more luxurious experience (for everyone) imagine that all roadways were subways and vehicles were electric instead of combustion powered. Additionally they could all be on rails and fully self driving in a pedestrian and accident free environment. That's where I'd like to spend all that energy.

germinalphrase 6y ago
Tunnels in urban areas are wildly expensive, but it’s a cool vision. I would settle for elevated tracks.
- xixixao 6y ago
  Unless those tracks are covered and sound proof, elevated highways cause a ton of noise. Even if they were, they block a lot of sunlight. I’d elevate the city instead. That’s essentially Manhattan.
  - germinalphrase 6y ago
    Which is essentially the hyperloop idea, no? Electric cars on skids in tunnels.

trhway 6y ago

you forgot an automated air traffic management system with the capabilities exceeding that of the best military radars of today, ie. capable of automatically tracking and routing thousands of those flying cars in the small volume, and the flying cars of course flying on autopilot following that system's directions. So, in a sense that is an infrastructure issue. That infrastructure isn't going to be built until there are a lot of those cars. A lot of those cars of course can't appear without support of such an infrastructure. Thus that slow progress - those Chinese human carrying octocopters will start flying here and there, and the Lilium and eVolo, ... Hardware-wise the "flying car" is cheap - https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 https://youtu.be/EQK9m_OBVgY?t=27 - just need better batteries which will come in due time (and with the power and motors at least in duplicate or even triplicate contours the N-copters make for much higher safety than say a single rotor helicopter) . >[...lawyers..] This is the closest we can come to measuring the effect of taking more than a million of the country’s most talented and motivated people and put them to work making arguments and filing briefs against each other so their efforts mostly cancel out, instead of inventing, developing, and manufacturing things which could have made life better. to the lawyers we need to add law enforcement and armed forces and the damage resulting from the application of force. That is the tax our civilization pays for not having intelligence high enough to avoid that violence, be it a lawyer's action enforced by court or a soldier shooting the rifle. If anything, that is my version of Great Filter - progress being completely bogged down by that practice and infrastructure of violence. I don't think we'll be able to get out of it while staying in the confines of out current society on this planet (with the exception of a totally fantastical scenario - like aliens arrival - that would put a fire under the bottoms of our spines :), and only new colonies on Moon, Mars, etc. can develop new ways of societal co-existence.