Seven Generational Ruminations

In todays context we face two major challenges both of which stem largely from the abundance of gasoline driven cars on American roads. On one hand the U.S. and the world is facing high oil prices a looming shortage of oil as oil fields around the world go into depletion. On another hand the whole world is facing a global environmental catastrophe that's destabilizing environmental conditions world-wide. On yet another hand (we must be from Mars) the U.S. style of building cities is wasteful of land and ties our hands to possible solutions because of the highway infrastructure.

Brad Templeton is a high tech pioneer, having been involved with some of the very earliest attempts to commercialize the Internet. This makes him an entrepeneur, and he has published a series of articles outlining a vision of robotically driven cars that can improve human safety on the road and reduce or eliminate the poisonous emissions produced by normal cars. In reading this I remember that I met Brad once, sometime around 1993, during a job interview while he was running ClariNet. He offered me the job but for some reason I turned it down. Oh well.

One way to reduce oil dependence is to stop using it if you don't need to. SOMS Technologies has developed an oil filter system which does a better job of removing fine particles from oil, allowing oil to be used longer.

BMW has produced a hydrogen burning internal combustion engine car. They're distributing this car to "celebrities" in Germany, and there are a series of fueling stations in Berlin that provide liquid hydrogen. It is discussed in the Spiegel Online article, Not as Green as it Seems.

It would seem that burning hydrogen is a great thing. There's no carbon in the fuel, so the exhaust is not poisonous.