[Zon]

How is nanotech going to revolutionize transportation? I can't see it (not saying you're wrong) how is nanotech going to move big ol' Americans and their groceries?

I can only speak of potentials because useful nanotechnology is still at least ten years out. Groceries/food is manufactured at home. What happens to groceries stores? Will they be revolutionized or obsolete? If not home manufacturing of food, perhaps grocery stores will manufacture the food? What happens to today's food supply chain? So maybe people will still have need to go to the grocery store for food, but I doubt it. Transportation to the store? A solar-cell absorption layer coated on Canada's major roadways covered by a coating that is a hundred times stronger than steel at one sixth the weight could produce enough electricity to power the world at today's usage. Electric vehicles will be the norm if road-vehicles are still used for transportation? For more distant travel needs underground/tunnel transportation will whisk the traveler at speeds greater mach1. But that encroaches more on air transportation than road vehicles. How's that? Want more? Peruse this Web site: http://www.nanozine.com/

[discostu]

Hmm interesting stuff. I've never thought about nanotech as a possible energy source, makes sense once you say it though. Just so long as we don't have automated highways before I die, that's just a dystopia to me, I take such pleasure in driving a car, and so little in being a passenger. We'll see, there's some exciting stuff going on.

I think the drive train for the Segway will be the revolutionary thing (the control system is neat, but that kind of stuff is only good for low speeds, at high speeds turning the vehicle moves your body too much for tilt controlling to be safe), if it's half as efficient as they say it is it's very impressive. The worst invention in the world always has one thing about it that's cool the question is did the inventor use that cool part well. In the case of Segway I think the answer is a resounding no, but we'll see what people do with that drive train, that actually could revolutionize things. I want to know what happens when you put 6 of those engines on 4 wheels of a car instead of 2 on 2 wheels of a half assed scooter. What kind of fuel efficiency and top speed are we talking then? What can be done to this to make it run a fully loaded sedan at highway speeds for 250 miles (roughly what the average sedan gets per tank now) and how fast can you recharge it? That's what interests me in Segway.