Future Perfect by Robyn Williams

Author:Robyn Williams [Williams, Robyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science

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The real challenge, though, it seems to me, will be social. Stunning new machines exist for us to use as trains, planes or road vehicles, but in the main, we misuse them. Concorde has gone, super trains are exotic wonders, and Arnie’s Tesla car could legally use only one-tenth of its capacity on Australia ’s roads.

Imagine, instead, a transport system in which the approach of your bus would be signalled with a ping on your mobile phone and you could stroll to the bus stop knowing the wait would be barely a minute (this technology is ready). Imagine forsaking your car (converting the garage into a romper room or workshop) and having a vehicle-a carlet-only when you really needed it. As private cars already cost more than the taxi equivalent of trips taken, you would also save heaps. Imagine taking trains from the centre of town and moving at 300-350 kph to your destination, getting off just a five-minute walk from where you want to be. Imagine making a plane trip special again, instead of a long-distance endurance test.

Imagine biking or walking (running) to where you want to be, without playing dodgems with killer traffic. And imagine converting your rushed attendance at the gym into a health-giving routine, in which your legs don’t engage with a treadmill going nowhere but take you where you want to be. Imagine that your exercise in exasperation, in going shopping at the supermarket beyond the ring road with three apoplectic kids, is turned into an Internet search for bargains followed by delivery right to your door by an electric go-cart. Imagine travelling only when you really want to. All the time with a smug grin on your face from your appreciation that you’re not wrecking the neighbourhood.

And that future could be ours. Not in 2027, or 2037- but tomorrow!

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