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Mr. Luddite

On 1/8/2016 7:56 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 19:17:38 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 12:10:20 -0500,
wrote:

On Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:53:38 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 07 Jan 2016 22:50:20 -0500,
wrote:

We now take a much needed break from the ongoing gun battle:

http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/01/07/2016-is-a-breakthrough-year-for-hyperloo?videoId=366947489&videoChannel=118169

This is real life science fiction taking place.

The only fiction here is the idea that they can come up with the money
to build it, allay health concerns and get all of the environmental
permits.
This is California where there are plenty of people who think power
lines will kill them. This magnetic drive will send them over the
edge.

===

Elon Musk has a proven track record of being able to move a project
that no one thinks is possible. It will be interesting to see how
this one evolves. I consider him to be the Thomas Edison of our time
and would not bet against anything that he's advocating.

Musk is an amazing guy but this is a Mars shot in this environment and
not near as exciting in the long run.

===

In some ways it's more exciting than a Mars shot. We've already sent
a whole bunch of probes to Mars and it's just an incremental step or
two to send people there, just as it was with the moon 50 years ago.
On the other hand the Hyper Loop is a whole new form of land based
transportation. There's been nothing truly revolutionary in that
category for over 100 years. I don't see why it couldn't share
right-of-way with existing rail lines or interstate highways. It's
extremely energy efficient, non-poluting, and offers potential speeds
greater than Mach I since it travels in a near vacuum. Assuming it
can be built, all that it needs for complete acceptance is some sort
of car sharing service at each end. We might have partially robotic
cars in the near future that would be all lined up at your destination
waiting for you to jump in and take off.

Aristotle sayeth, "Nature abhors a vacuum".

Having spent most of my adult working career creating them, I think he
was on to something. :-)