2010-01-07
In the past (and unfortunately in the present as well) someone, somewhere wants to know when our society will advance to the point that we have flying cars. The answer of course, is a very hopeful never. Aside from being a terrible waste of fuel and energy, I'm hoping the flying car of the future never leaves the ground, or at least not in my lifetime.
Let me tell you a few things about the last 10 years. The average number of motor vehicle accidents per year in the United States, that resulted in at least one fatality, was about 37,000*. The yearly average of pedestrians killed by motor vehicles per year in the United States is well over 4000*. I never knew walking was so dangerous. There are a lot of negligent drivers on the roads, and apparently on the sidewalks as well.
At night, when I turn off my lights and go to sleep, I feel safe with the knowledge that, although it is ever so slightly possible, no one is going to get behind the wheel of a car and accidently drive into my house. The flying car changes all of that.
I fear the day that any idiot can fly through my neighborhood. What happens when they run out of gas, or the driver passes out while flying home from the a bar? Down they go, into my home, or my neighbor's, or maybe they crash onto the children playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. Won't someone think of the children?
Don't darken the future with a sky full of flying death machines, let the future look bright.
*statistics from http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/
Let me tell you a few things about the last 10 years. The average number of motor vehicle accidents per year in the United States, that resulted in at least one fatality, was about 37,000*. The yearly average of pedestrians killed by motor vehicles per year in the United States is well over 4000*. I never knew walking was so dangerous. There are a lot of negligent drivers on the roads, and apparently on the sidewalks as well.
At night, when I turn off my lights and go to sleep, I feel safe with the knowledge that, although it is ever so slightly possible, no one is going to get behind the wheel of a car and accidently drive into my house. The flying car changes all of that.
I fear the day that any idiot can fly through my neighborhood. What happens when they run out of gas, or the driver passes out while flying home from the a bar? Down they go, into my home, or my neighbor's, or maybe they crash onto the children playing hopscotch on the sidewalk. Won't someone think of the children?
Don't darken the future with a sky full of flying death machines, let the future look bright.
*statistics from http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/
How about Buckminster Fuller's rail system?