Those 'American' Vehicles

Recently I have the unfortunate and unexpected need to replace my vehicle after it was rudely destroyed in a hit-and-run accident.

After familiarizing myself with the US marketplace of consumer vehicles within my budget I have found myself paralyzed with closing on a purchase decision since there are simply no vehicles that meet my requirements. It is not that my requirements are overly ambitious, its imply that a lack of innovation in the auto industry driven by lackluster regulatory policy from the EPA results in overweight vehicles with hideously inefficient power-trains.

My vehicle requirements are as follows:

1. An SUV and/or vehicle with a minimum of ~10 inches of ground-frame clearance

2. MPG efficiency of ~30 mpg
3. Purchase price of < $24,000
4. 4 Wheel Drive

Potential options within the US market are:

1. Nissan Xterra
2. Subaru Forester

3. Jeep Patriot

4. Ford Escape

However, upon closer examination none of these vehicles satisfy the requirements, primarily due to lack of fuel efficiency; quite simply they were built with the premise that

1. Oil will last forever (rationing is merely a plot within a horror movie)
2. That burning fossil fuels damages neither our shared planet nor the short-term health of human beings

The only potential contender would be the Ford Escape and hats off to Ford who have innovated heavily on this vehicle however it is not designed for even mild off-road driving and thus is essentially a raised Ford Focus thus negating its "SUV" functionality.

Interestingly highly efficient SUV and off-road vehicles have been available in the UK and Europe for decades now as manufacturers have been forced to innovate due to tough governmental regulation heavily focused on emissions and combined with heavily taxed fuel. Consumers would not consider a vehicle < 40 mpg and thus to attract a loyal consumer base innovation has always been critical.

My only hope is that America will catch up to Europe sooner rather than later, it has the potential to lead the way, just sadly not the political will. Until then I remain on my quest to identify a vehicle that will get me around town and on the trail without destroying the planet.

Back to the Dark Ages

Reading this article regarding Net Neutrality in the Economist leaves me incomprehensibly flabbergasted. Who on earth is making these decisions at at&t and others offending telcos, surely they have top notch degrees from the worlds best universities do they not ?

The Internet has organically developed into a single pervasive meritocratic medium facilitating global productivity and transaction on a massive scale, and now the behemoth telcos spit out their dummies like a thrashing toddler.

This is synonymous with constructing a brand new high street packed with shops, banks, niche specialty stores, travel agents and others all touting for business except each person is only allowed a maximum of 60 minutes in the street. How does this restriction change use of this space? Observation of human behavior shows that when faced with limits people create a plan thus maximizing their gain and reward from participating in such an environment. So instead of the myriad of technological advancement such as real-time media streaming, Netflix, on-line gaming and others you have “lets do the basics and then turn off the lights”.

Currently the global economy is in the tank and the very people (the middle class) who make up the users of 99% of these services are going to be forced with limits. Inherently this is bad for growth, innovation, and advancement as a species, no single entity will benefit from this. Maybe limiting the amount we drive combustion engines could be more fitting.

The lack of creativity of these “business leaders” doesn't surprise me. They couldn't possibly dream up a new exciting business model that would prevent draconian data caps yet provide revenue streams for further capital investment; that would be called “innovation”, isn't this French? Like cheating in an exam, if you “really” have to look at the person next to you since you’re clueless for answers take a look at Singapore, hint type “Singapore fiber network” into Google and do some R&D!

Meanwhile I’m off to start building my own satellite, perhaps its the only way to stream my nightly version of the news.

Curiosity for advancement

I recently came across this article in the Harvard Business Review where the author Peter Bregman deliberates returning his iPad for fear that it will engulf his life, decanting his scant free time into the endless abyss of continuous content.

I have long felt that the western populations have tipped the balance between continuous consumption of non-essential media and entertainment, thus the reason the East is now rising to dominant power. This reliance on layers of abstraction have unknown consequences, especially for generalized intelligence and the concentration needed to really become an expert in a particular field. A wise school teacher once told me that “the height of maturity is to listen to the most boring individual whilst maintaining full attention and polite composure.” Somewhere in the recent past we have forgotten how to be curious, and the most important question of all, how can we do things differently and advance our society?

Within my living space of 720sq ft I can move from my microprocessor controlled LCD world to the precise artistic world of hammer and string, an elegant masterpiece developed in the 18th Century. This complex device known as the “Piano” allows one to blend a multitude of  vibrations to form intoxicating harmonies, and is no more and no less impressive than the ability to communicate with a family member using video on a mobile device; it is simply a scientific reflection of the present day.

I think individuals would benefit from taking the time to explore the world around them and understand how we arrived at the place we are now. Simply treading daily water to prevent drowning in a sea of Matryoshka dolls cannot yield a fulfilling life. The world is a fascinating stimulating place full of perfectly tuned ‘systems’ that have much to teach our futile minds; we cannot forget to explore, scientific advancement for the common good of all humanity should be the ultimate goal.

For the long gone individual, i’m confident there is a “Zone Out” app for the iPad/iPhone, perfectly developed to stimulate ones creative juices, the self reflection of the glass screen perhaps adding to the experience – maybe one can even post it to facebook.

Critical Innovation – Engines of the Future

I have always been fascinated by innovative engineering  and the application of technology upon the tough, serious problems that have plagued our society from the very beginning of human existence. From the Wright Brothers first Aircraft in 1903 to the immense towering wind turbines that now span vast areas of our land and coastal areas harnessing natural planetary resources to generate clean sustainable energy that we can use to build new economies, smarter cities and a better standard of living.

I believe that we are on the cusp of a new era in technological innovation, critical if we want to grow our economies, maintain stability and reduce poverty on a global scale. This revolution involves developing an interwoven global fabric of autonomous intelligence into all of our essential infrastructure; ultimately, the amalgamation of physical hardware, sensors, software and decision making capabilities through a myriad of abstraction layers that will fundamentally change the way we interact with the tangible world.

Prior to the global financial crisis of 2008, developed nations have limped along, conveniently masking pressing issues and applying “band aid” solutions to aging, crumbling infrastructure. However we no longer have a choice, this economic downturn has firmly shifted priorities back to the foundation of society, just look at the UK and Europe leading the way with infrastructure capital spending. This remains a true global economic disaster and every nation is scrambling to shed excess as its citizens wait patiently on the sidelines attempting to make sense of what exactly comes next? What will the global stage look like in the next 5 years, where will the opportunities be and what kind of skills will be needed to be a productive, contributory member of society?

The urgency to innovate and enhance our existing systems in core functional areas of Energy, Industry, Communications and Health-care that has never been greater, and until now has never been truly economically or technologically viable. Surmountable benefits such as improved safety, greater efficiency, cost savings, enhanced quality of life and a positive impact on climate change for future generations. Facing rapid population growth, notably in developing nations governments and global enterprises are faced with providing for ever increasing demand on public services, laying the infrastructure for an economy that can grow and serve its people is vital.

There are no boundaries to the limits of such dynamic, “intelligent systems”, we already possess the processing power and the engineering expertise, now its about making the case for innovation, navigating politics and getting on with the work. We have a global workforce in a state of flux, redundant from their past work and seeking new training, desperate to contribute something to the world and to provide for their families. Some of the worlds largest and most respected conglomerates GE and Siemens are already investing heavily in R&D, furthering their technology and promoting innovative solutions to hard problems such as transport infrastructure, energy, building automation and cutting edge health-care. This video from a recently opened Siemens plant in Fort Madison, Iowa highlights the positive self perpetuating cycle that is initiated by investing in innovation, people and local environment. Employees are passionate about working on something bigger than themselves, being at the cutting edge of technological innovation and engineering the future.

This call to action is akin to the enormous effort undertaken to construct the National Power Grid. This sprawling lattice of humming cable has undeniably facilitated the rise of large powerhouse economies such as the UK, US and Europe and the subsequent lifestyles that are entirely reliant on this unlimited supply of energy. It is now time to redeploy our best minds to move to the next stage, an elevated 21st century layer on which we can develop dynamic, sophisticated and self sustaining intelligent systems. A distributed far reaching network, from energy generation through to devices that are able to manage themselves, report data and have awareness of other objects and the ability to communicate over a standard protocol. Development of this layer is necessary to elevate humanity, we have already constructed a global communication and power network which allows individuals and organisations to produce and contribute from even the most remote locations.

This is an exciting time ahead, and I feel optimistic and confident that autonomous intelligence is the necessary tool for tackling some of the worlds toughest issues such as climate change, increasing poverty and domestic inequality in developed nations, rapidly increasing traffic congestion and an antiquated energy generation and distribution network. We also have developing countries such as China, India, Malaysia that are growing rapidly and placing ever greater demand on limited resources coupled with exponential worldwide population growth and all of these individuals want a greater quality of life than previous generations.

Finally, as an Engineer, I wanted to host this blog on my own server running an Ubuntu 10.10 installation. However due to the extremely unreliable power supply from the grid (average 2-3 power cycles per week) I resorted to dedicated hosting. I find this disappointing that residing in the worlds richest and largest economy in a new urban development does not provide consistent power; perhaps as a nation we’re just focused on the wrong things?

… Lets start building a smarter, more prosperous world for all of its inhabitants, and lets use technology to do it!