Another wild thought that will likey pan out

Many years ago I thought of the notion of 'defarming the planet' or, in essence, through hydroponics and anacephalic animals, create manufacturing style food production. It was an idea that seemed more than a little wild at the time (mid eighties) that now is coming to mainstream. I direct you to Peter Diamandis new book, Abundance, where he speaks of vertical farming. Of course, cultured meat is now all the rage.

I do, however, stay ahead of the curve. About six yeas ago, MIT researchers found a way to extend the range of efficient inductive coupling to several meters. This is one possible way to take the supply offboard in an electric car and eliminate the need for expensive and heavy batteries by placing the power supply in the roadway.

It isn't my preferred method which is the technology suggested by Gerard K. O'Neil for transmitting electricity from space. That is putting masers in the roadways and rectifiers in the automobiles. Computers allow us to have the maser 'lock in' on the rectifier and thereby maintain high efficiency while simultaneously eliminating worries over a high microwave environment (think of concerns over the cell phone) while riding in cars.

There is a secondary benefit. Driverless cars rely on GPS positioning. The microwave locking procedure will be able to create even greater accuracy in locating a vehicle and assisting in improving the driverless car efficiency and, perhaps, cost. It can do this because a maser can be modulated to provide the onboard coputer with huge amounts of information related to traffic laws, location of various hazards and impediments and even the status of semaphores.

A google search returns a similar technology in Korea reported in 2010. This really is something that should catch on and, to date, it has not. I just can't see that continuing for very long.

As we explore in The Future 101 premium service, the emergence of boutique villages and the death of the Industrial Age metropolitan areas, telepresence and the rise of Knowledge Class professions, will greatly alter our driving (or riding) patterns. Combined with this or a better offboard electrical car technology, these factors will be very significantly alter our every day lives.