Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

You just stepped in a pile of posts.

The future is expensive. Very expensive.

Posted in All on November 6th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Again, news from Slashdot:

“The City Car, a design project under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is envisioned as a two-seater electric vehicle powered by lithium-ion batteries. It would weigh between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds and could collapse, then stack like a shopping cart with six to eight fitting into a typical parking space. It isn’t just a car, but is designed as a system of shared cars with kiosks at locations around a city or small community.”

Here is one of the ways I see it:

  • most families won’t be able to afford children (”two-seater electric vehicle”)
  • most families won’t be able to afford petrol powered cars (”powered by lithium-ion batterries”)
  • most families won’t be able to afford their own cars (”shared cars”)
  • most families won’t be able to afford parking spaces (”six to eight fitting into a typical parking space”)

I’m glad that science in general and MIT in particular are here to help us survive in the future.

P.S.: by the way, most families won’t be able to afford university education either, so MIT is giving out for free already - MIT OpenCourseWare.

P.P.S.: yes, I’m just kidding.  The stuff linked to from above is cool.

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4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Sanjay M // Nov 9, 2007 at 10:40 am

    had come across the MIT courseware long ago had forgotten about it, revisited it again and boy it sure is a gold mine - thanks a lot Leonid!

    Eg look at this one: Software Engineering for Internet Applications, such a fantastic book free online…

    http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/?

    which I could get from the CSE dept

  • 2 Sanjay M // Nov 9, 2007 at 10:40 am

    Also good one was
    SQL for Web Nerds
    http://philip.greenspun.com/sql/

  • 3 Sanjay M // Nov 9, 2007 at 10:45 am

    btw scary inferences! ;)

    Manna by Marshall Brain gives an idea of the future as well :)

  • 4 Leonid Mamchenkov // Nov 9, 2007 at 11:25 am

    Thanks for the links, Sanjay! Something to spend a weekend with :)

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