As a small child, I used this barn cleaner. A child too short to use a wheelbarrow could move tons without the ground clutter. As an infantry officer, cargo nets with helicopters consumed vastly more energy and, similar to the barn cleaner, avoided ground clutter.
With JPods we added robots and solar collectors. US Patent 6,180,817:
- Self-driving vehicles on grade-separated guideways: “A method of controlling a transportation System for moving people, freight, and any combination whereof using a distributed network of intelligent devices without requiring the aid of a human driver”
- Networks are solar-powered: “The method… providing… Solar and wind power generators integrated into the physical Structure of Said transportation System….”
Creating the technology was the easy part. The hard part was to get governments to allow innovation. The 28-year civics less is that we create governments for the very important purpose of minimizing violence from war and crime. By the Consent of the Governed, we grant governments a monopoly on the use of violence. Our taxes fund armies (my education) and police to coerce compliance with law.
The problem with innovation: Innovation is a compliance failure. Innovation is disruptive. So when the Federal government controlled:
- Communication between July 1918 and 1982 America had a nearly a centur of rotary telephones. Yet innovation was clearly available:
Federal highways: Oil wars, traffic jams, $37 trillion in federal debt, Climate Change, and unwalkable cities all have a single Root Cause, Federal highways.
I was surprised that this Root Cause is unconstitutional. The Boston Tea Party was a demonstration against the general government’s mercantile transportation monopoly that triggered a war. To prevent rebuilding that path to war, the Constitutional Convention voted 8 states to 3 to forbid federal highways. There are 21 Presidential veto messages enforcing the Preamble, post Roads, No Preference, and Amendments 9 and 10 of the Constitution.
Rebuilding the path to currect oil wars started with Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1916.