Check this video about the car of the future by the futurist thinker Dr. Michu Kaku

[TrotskistMarx]

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Dear friends, check out this video about how cars around the year 2030 will be explained by the futurist thinker Dr. Michu Kaku. Watch footage of the new Discovery Science show FutureCar and hear noted physicist Dr Michio Kaku explain his vision of the automobile and the industry in the year 2030. The futurist elaborates on the innovations that carmakers will introduce and on how our cities will look down the track.



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[Decommissioner]

I remember reading about the idea of self navigating cars using smart roads way back. I am a big fan of the idea, though it would take massive restructuring of our transit system. It's a good middle of the road and logical resolution between the dynamic of the car and public transit. Though obviously michio is strictly talking about the technology, implemented in a capitalist system this still means many people would be buying new cars every 5 or so years which is wasteful. In a socialist system these cars could be publicly available and could in their own way act as public transit without the setbacks of our modern public transit. Your car could take you to where you need to go in a reasonable time and without the risks automobiles bring us today.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I remember reading about the idea of self navigating cars using smart roads way back.

It's the dumbest most useless rubbish ever.

Why, generally speaking, do people like automobiles as opposed to taking minibus, bus or a train? Is it because it goes faster? It is not.

There is one thing that the automobile offers that the other does not; this is that it lets you drive. You can take it wherever you want, and you are in charge of its movements and its speed. Though this is of little practical relevance, it is a psychological sense of being in control, and it is this that sets it aside from other means of transport.

If cars were to be automated, we might as well get rid of them entirely.

[Q]

If cars were to be automated, we might as well get rid of them entirely.

Brilliant idea!

Seriously, while I don't oppose cars as such, to use them as a form of mass transportation has been the dumbest idea in infrastructural history.

[Decommissioner]

It's the dumbest most useless rubbish ever.

Why, generally speaking, do people like automobiles as opposed to taking minibus, bus or a train? Is it because it goes faster? It is not.

There is one thing that the automobile offers that the other does not; this is that it lets you drive. You can take it wherever you want, and you are in charge of its movements and its speed. Though this is of little practical relevance, it is a psychological sense of being in control, and it is this that sets it aside from other means of transport.

If cars were to be automated, we might as well get rid of them entirely.

But buses and trains do take longer. I would just say only in my area they do (midwest), but I've experienced trains and and taxis in chicago and it usually took hours to get around the city. If all the cars were automated there wouldn't be congestion so even big cities could benefit.

The obvious reason for automated (or by extension just regular) cars is it can take you places trains cannot. There are huge areas outside the reach of train tracks, and cars can cover those areas. And of course there is also the need to have compartments to carry large items. For most trains and buses you only have room to carry whats in your hands or on your person.

For the record, I am all for more trains and public transport. I like the idea of being able to just walk outside and go places without any worry of stepping in a vehicle (in my city this impossible as everything is spaced out), I just think this is a good idea also and would be easy to implement.

[Decolonize The Left]

It's the dumbest most useless rubbish ever.

Why, generally speaking, do people like automobiles as opposed to taking minibus, bus or a train? Is it because it goes faster? It is not.

There is one thing that the automobile offers that the other does not; this is that it lets you drive. You can take it wherever you want, and you are in charge of its movements and its speed. Though this is of little practical relevance, it is a psychological sense of being in control, and it is this that sets it aside from other means of transport.

If cars were to be automated, we might as well get rid of them entirely.

While I agree with your overall sentiment, many people prefer cars not because they get to drive them but because they are a private space unlike busses, trains, etc... Cars are, in effect, the ultimate consumer product - a product which trains/busses cannot be.


But buses and trains do take longer. I would just say only in my area they do (midwest), but I've experienced trains and and taxis in chicago and it usually took hours to get around the city. If all the cars were automated there wouldn't be congestion so even big cities could benefit.

It depends on context. In high traffic areas cars take forever, perhaps hours longer than a bus would take on an alternate route or in a bus-only lane. Over long distances a train is vastly superior to a car given that a high-speed rail can travel easily at 100+ mph while a car cannot do so reasonably over a long course.

- August

[Psy]

But buses and trains do take longer. I would just say only in my area they do (midwest), but I've experienced trains and and taxis in chicago and it usually took hours to get around the city. If all the cars were automated there wouldn't be congestion so even big cities could benefit.

The obvious reason for automated (or by extension just regular) cars is it can take you places trains cannot. There are huge areas outside the reach of train tracks, and cars can cover those areas. And of course there is also the need to have compartments to carry large items. For most trains and buses you only have room to carry whats in your hands or on your person.

For the record, I am all for more trains and public transport. I like the idea of being able to just walk outside and go places without any worry of stepping in a vehicle (in my city this impossible as everything is spaced out), I just think this is a good idea also and would be easy to implement.
The advantage of mass transit is parking, as mass transit vehicles don't have to park in dense areas they can park in rural areas and simply service urban centers. Meaning less space needs to be set aside for parking in cities thus distances between buildings can be closed thus making areas more walkable.

[Ele'ill]

I think this conversation is about right now but also quite a bit about the future. I'm not a technocrat but I think our cities will be restructured to be more efficient for us. I think our relation to our work places and learning centers will change too- geographically.

[StalinFanboy]

great, just what we need: a car that knows exactly where we are all the time, and is transmitting that data to someone else.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon#The_panopticon_as_metaphor

[NewLeft]

I think this conversation is about right now but also quite a bit about the future. I'm not a technocrat but I think our cities will be restructured to be more efficient for us. I think our relation to our work places and learning centers will change too- geographically.
More efficient? I don't know. It seems like the interest is to develop an alternative source of energy that will allow us to use even more energy.. Is that more efficient?

[TrotskistMarx]

Takayuki: You know something, I think that Karl Marx and many other socialist thinkers were also psychologists, psychiatrists. Because according to Marx what determines the behaviour of people is the economic status of people, the place in which they live, the political system, the urban planning and all external things that have impact on the body and minds of people. What I am trying to state related to your last comment, is that I think that most americans suffer from an extreme shyness and an extreme social-phobia. I think that the ultra-shyness and the ultra social phobia of most people who live in USA and even many other countries that look like USA and have the same sort of lifestyle, urban planing with the self service gas stations, with the drive thru restaurants, and even drive-thru supermarkets. and many many other techological advanced things that in one way or the other have caused the psychologic disorders of social-phobia, shyness, agora-phobia (Fear of being outside), and many other psychologic disorders as a result of the way the USA is built, the political system and of course the car itself, which foments and promotes social-phobia, shyness, avoidant personality disorder, anti-people behaviour patterns, narcissism. Watch this cool video called "Subdivisions" about the psychologic effect on people of the car, the urban planning, and the neoliberal economic model of neoliberal industrial big cities.


Lu9Ycq64Gy4

RUSH
Subdivisions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9Ycq64Gy4

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions ---
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out
Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory

.

Its a song about non-conformity and how society tries to make people into a conforming drone. This is particularily bad in most cities suburbs where the roads, the corners, the mini shopping centers, the buildings and the homes are built exactly the same by the same builder, where people drive the same types and brands of cars, they all do the same things, dress in the same way, have the same behaviour patterns, and going out to shop at supermarkets, Wal Marts, K-Marts, Target Stores, shopping malls, high schools, and baseball, basketball and football games is all about being part of the crowd. The song is about the need for conformity and mass consumerism in the neoliberal economic model we live in. Neoliberalism cannot function without it. When I listen to it, I hear an amazingly written eulogy for society by Neil Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.

I also think it represents Neil Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson falling away a bit from their earlier capitalist beliefs, as they mentioned they had, as opposed to their current anti-neoliberalism revolutionary lyrics in their latest albums. There is nothing inherently wrong with suburbia or living in it, if that is what someone desires. A lot of people don't have the desire to go to "the bright lights." This song is clearly more about conformity, which can be found anywhere in United States: the suburbs, in the city, or "the far unlit unknown." In my opinion, the only flaw in this song is the focus on suburbia as the only place where conformity can be found. Popular opinion has been manipulated to belive that The Suburbs are the worst place for conformity.

Conformity also occurs when many people do and seek the same thing, including excitement in The Bright Lights (Everyone else is doing "the cool thing", so why shouldn't I?). That being said, Subdivisions is my favorite Rush song, and the best synth song ever. So much to write about this song. Basically, it's a song about the "ticking traps" that american people in this violent country fall into. A nightmare neoliberal-world where a person's main desire is a never ending escape from the suburbs. The suburbs can take many forms: from the boring, quiet life of suburbia to the pleasure seeking thrill ride of the big city. Ultimately, the suburbs offer nothing meaningful, and there is no escape within or between them.

However, in the first verse an outlet is available: "the far unlit unknown." This unknown exist within each person-the unique thoughts and feelings that make an individual; tragically, few venture very far into this territory. I'm also inclined to think that it's more about teens trying to breakaway from suburbia (and thier upper-middle class parents telling them HOW to think/beleive/be), only for some to discover (as Neil Peart writes) "

...Some will sell their dreams for small desires - Or lose the race to rats - Get caught in ticking traps "

Afterwards these suburb-raised, city-stressed folk "...start to dream of somewhere - To relax their restless flight - Somewhere out of a memory - Of lighted streets on quiet nights... "

I think it's more of a commentary on the seduction of city life and the potential trappings it brings. It is also a social commentary on how cliques are hurtful, and how expectations of comformity often drive away our best and brightest. Very much like the suburbs of New Jersey, Tennessee, Boston, Pennsylvania, New York and Chicago






It's the dumbest most useless rubbish ever.

Why, generally speaking, do people like automobiles as opposed to taking minibus, bus or a train? Is it because it goes faster? It is not.

There is one thing that the automobile offers that the other does not; this is that it lets you drive. You can take it wherever you want, and you are in charge of its movements and its speed. Though this is of little practical relevance, it is a psychological sense of being in control, and it is this that sets it aside from other means of transport.

If cars were to be automated, we might as well get rid of them entirely.