A Future For Humanity
It is obvious to many that the world is headed for at least one
major calamity. Some only see global warming, others also foresee
things
such as pole shifts or other major movements of the Earth's crust with
their attendant seismic events. But even normal warfare is frequently a
calamity, and should also be kept in mind.
No matter the cause, it would seem wise to collectively take
measures
designed to ensure the best possible chances of survival of the human
race.
This may seem overly dramatic, however there is good reason to worry.
A large portion of humanity currently lives in cities, and cities are
very vulnerable to disaster.
Consider that cities rely upon centralized power, gas, and water
supplies,
any or all of which can fail in dire times.
Failure of power generation facilities probably will also mean failure
of centralized water supplies, which rely frequently on electric motors
to power pumps. Increased seismic activity could also result in dams
rupturing
so that there simply isn't any water.
Failure of water supplies leads to poor hygiene, which in turn leads
to disease. Disease that hospitals will find hard to deal with, given
that
they already have neither power nor water.
It seems that the heart of the problem lies in the centralization of
facilities. This also points the way to at least a partial solution -
decentralization.
If individual homes had their own power supplies, independent of the
grid,
then grid failure would not instantly knock out society. With
sufficient
capacity, it would even be possible for individual homes to distill
their
own fresh water in an emergency, especially if distillation equipment
based
upon semi permeable membrane technology were widely adopted.
This solution is however predicated upon the existence of individual
power generation capability.
Home based generators need to meet a number of requirements, if they
are to remain useful in a long duration emergency, i.e.
one lasting one or more years.
As I see it, these requirements are (in no particular order):
Needless to say, there are no widely accepted current technologies that
meet all of these requirements. There are however some that meet
many of the requirements, and there also others that have either been
neglected,
or not yet fully developed. Some of these would perhaps be better
suited
to use in many local "sub-stations", where public access can be
limited.
Existing technologies:
Neglected technologies (numbers are patent numbers):
Potential technologies based upon new physics that should be explored:
Clearly what is needed is an international effort, with
investigation
of all of the above being done concurrently, but distributed across the
globe. Advances would be distributed immediately to the world by means
of web pages, which are kept up to date by the respective research
organizations.
All web pages would have a URL specified by a single central page on
the
UN web site.
OUR TIME IS RUNNING OUT