You know... this remark got me thinking, and it turns we've been here before as a society, with remarkably similar technology (superficially, at least) and tech

You know... this remark got me thinking, and it turns we've been here before as a society, with remarkably similar technology (superficially, at least) and technologists hyping it up a little. Look up Beach Pneumatic Transit - the first New York City subway, in a tube, powered by compressed air. Which is kind of cool: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit "A tube, a car, a revolving fan! Little more is required. The ponderous locomotive, with its various appurtenances, is dispensed with, and the light aerial fluid that we breathe is the substituted motor!" -- http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beach/chapter2.html http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beach/chapter2.html Trains in tubes and promises of dramatic changes in the way people think of transportation! People thought they would be building tubes all over the countryside to move trains around... and then they went and invented the electric-multiple-unit subway train which took off instead. :P Better luck this time?