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Over the next four weeks, BBC News will be offering a snapshot of the day in the life of a city - looking at how technology is transforming our urban landscapes, now and in the future.
Their first snapshot? What it will be like to commute by jetpack.
We start as urban dwellers around the world begin the day - with the morning commute. In the future, that may mean hailing a jetpack.
"Jetpacks will be part of future cities," Peter Coker, vice-president of innovation at KuangChi Science, Martin Aircraft Company's major Chinese shareholder.
"I see it as being the Uber of the sky."
Martin Aircraft Company, based in New Zealand, already has a working prototype that can fly at 2,800ft (850m) at 45km/h (27mph) for 28 minutes.
And Mr Coker says commuters will be able to hail an unmanned jetpack via a smartphone app.
Futurism is always fun. How would you prefer to get to work, by jetpack, Hyperloop, or VR?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @08:06PM
All that needs to happen is someone thinking it's a grand enough idea to invest money to make it happen.
So far, no takers.
Solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal are getting the investments.
...and, at the end of the lifetimes of those devices, they won't leave radioactive structures to deal with.
The future appears to be one that is renewable and more distributed.
Now, if Thorium reactors were to be used to consume the tens of thousands of tons of existing radioactive waste from the nuke plants that were based on bomb-making notions, THAT -would- be a good thing.
Not holding my breath.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @02:34AM
It's too bad we need gobs of power *right now*.
Only nukes can fill that carbon-free power gap in the immediate term. The world can't wait.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @02:37AM
I forgot to add that because we need the reactors immediately, they will have to be technology that is ready now: uranium.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @02:46AM
A nuke takes a decade to get into operation.
A neighborhood can be solarized in a week.
Your argument is nonsense.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]