'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

Future Prospects

Digital disks have replaced video-tape in less than fifteen years and disks are now being superseded by downloadable data. Would you have bought all those tapes and CD’s if you’d known?

We must know how long it will take for any of these new wonders to become fact, and that’s not easy. A couple of weeks ago on the TV, I happened to catch Buz Aldrin saying, back in 1969, that he was certain that there would be a base on the Moon in his lifetime - fat chance, Buz – or am I wrong about that? I also remember a radio programme on the BBC World Service professing that hard drive computer technology had a definable capacity and within ten years that capacity would be at full stretch and the existing technology would then be replaced by a method of transferring information through crystals by means of light waves. That was ten years ago. They are probably milking hard drive technology for all it’s worth, before moving onto these crystals. Present computers are probably very much the equivalent of Model T Fords when it comes to their evolutionary place in the scheme of things.

It seems that as with the first landing on the Moon, things can happen pretty fast when they need to, but when things are comfortable enough, further advances can take forever. ‘Old fashions please us best,’ as the saying goes, and vested interests very much like to keep it that way.

Going back to 1969 again, it seems we are only just beginning to realize the significance of the ‘moon rocks’ that they brought back. They are chock full of Helium C. The Sun spews out Helium C in enormous quantity, but because of our atmosphere, we on Earth are screened from it. The Moon’s surface, on the other hand has readily absorbed it. Helium C is apparently what we need to create Nuclear Fusion in a container that doesn’t degrade after producing a few million kilowatts of power. Nuclear fusion, as opposed to nuclear fission would produce all the energy we need with none of the noxious by-products associated with our present nuclear reactors. It seems to be this factor, is key to the revival of interest in establishing bases on the Moon. This may seem far-fetched, but if that’s far fetched consider the formation in 1599 of the East India Company. A huge amount of money was successfully gambled on sending ships around the Cape of Good Hope into waters, far less well charted than is the passage to the Moon, in the hope of them bringing back pepper, cloves and other luxury goods. The outbound voyage alone, would take their ships over a year. As far as I recall, The Moon is a matter of weeks away, so what’s the big deal? Well, we all know what the ‘big deal’ is, but you get my point. Maybe Buz will get to see his Moon base, after all. 

Probably Richard Branson has latched onto the right idea as to how to get out there on a regular basis, with the ‘spiral lift-off’ technology that he is promoting. You slowly spiral outwards from the earth in a big winged, low energy consumption vehicle, until you break free of its gravitational pull. Mind you, if there is a gyroscopic anti-gravity solution, then that would be a lot swifter, but things seem to have gone quiet on that front.

Now, turning our attention back to this wonderful world we presently live on, there does seem to be yet another frontier for us to exploit, hopefully with a little more loving care than the frontiers that we have so far despoiled. This treasure trove is the deep ocean, which, contrary to perceived scientific wisdom as little as thirty years ago, is full of life, and it’s floor, no doubt, full of minerals. Consider that the oceans offer 99 percent of the space where life can develop on Earth and the deep sea offers 85 percent of this space. What do we know about it? Practically nothing. To put things in perspective, there are approximately 1.4 million known species on land, sea, and air. Current estimates of undiscovered species vary from 10 to 30 million. If I can quote from ‘The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures Of The Abyss’ by Claire Norton, a book which according to those who are supposed to know, is likely to become a modern classic of natural history. ‘The deep sea no longer has anything to prove; it is without doubt the Earth’s largest reservoir of life.’

Finally, I am in a very literal sense going to take a ‘flyer’. Remember the sketches of how in the early 1900’s they saw the future in their wildest, and probably most humorous imaginings? There were people flying around with propellers on their back, balloons with carriages under them, and DaVinci inspired helicopters. As with the fax machine, which was invented around that time, and only came into use in the late seventies, I think that we may see the Victorians flying fantasy become much more of a reality, than either they or we ever bargained for.

My reasoning is based firstly on the mind-numbing cost of building and maintaining the billions of miles of roads we drive on, and the ever-increasing scarcity of aggregate, concrete and tarmac needed for that purpose. Secondly, it is based on my own flights in a two-seat microlyte. There you are, in the matter of minutes, flying at 60/80mph, in a straight line, powered by a two, or at most a four stroke engine, and all you need is a small field to take off and land on. Added to that, if you are airborne and make some kind of a mistake, the rig automatically rights itself and continues at the same altitude. If your engine fails, you have plenty of time to pick out a landing site and gently spiral down. There is no falling out of the sky with this technology, and I would say that it is easier to learn how to fly one of these machines than it is to learn to drive a car. It won’t get us in, out or around our cities, but it will get us, very fuel efficiently, and with a massive ecological/ infrastructure saving, between them.

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