Diary (May 17, 2020)

Online diary of Karl Jones for Sunday May 17, 2020.

Previous: Diary (May 16, 2020) - Next: Diary (May 18, 2020)

Diary

Song of the Day for Howard Kranz

Thirteenth in a series of songs for Howard and me to cover, or be inspired by, or something.

(song title)

"..." by ...

...

• [ ] @ YouTube
• [ ]
• [ Post] @ Facebook

Flying cars

I too was incensed for decades about the lack of flying cars (and jet backpacks).

But I now understand the hidden assumptions which keep us grounded.

We incorrectly assumed that our righteous need for jet backpacks would cause the relevant laws of physics to suspend themselves in recognition of our Destiny in the Sky.

The actual situation is that we have helicopters, which already do everything we want a flying car to do except drive on a road, and that's just a engineering problem. They are loud, dangerous, and very expensive. You've seen helipads? You see the space requirements for landing and takeoff. Where will we store the helicopters we can't afford?

Even we could afford helicopters... would you really want to be *up the sky* in your flying car *with all those other people in their flying cars*?

This is all idle chatter. We can't afford it and short of a world-changing source of cheap energy we're not ever going to afford it, so let's about flying cars and instead go hang gliding or hot air ballooning so weekend, get it out of our systems.

"Why There Will Never Be Flying Cars" by Neil degrasse Tyson:

• Joe Rogan - Neil deGrasse Tyson on Why There Aren't Flying Cars
• [ Comment] @ Facebook

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Karl Jones (nonfiction)