patrick.net

You can prevent the video from auto-loading by using a link without the "vp=1" statement at the end.

Or, go directly to the source, which says, "ET3 can be built for 1/10th the cost of High Speed Rail, or 1/4th the cost of a freeway."

More coverage on MSN.

An added relativity bonus: you arrive younger than when you left.

I'm not holding my breath

Yes, :) :)

At last a truly innovative idea from America.

Cold fusion has more chance of success than this.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Why not just cover people in three layers of bubble wrap and shoot them out of cannons? Because of some pussy regulations, that's why! America could have 20 minute transport between NY and LA if it weren't for commie fuck oppressions like this. This is why America is fucked and the Chinese will be eating our kids and raping our wives.

Nice idea but even the best canons (or railguns) only have a range of 200 miles or so.

I saw a documentary including a high speed tube train, they called it a "subshuttle".

Seemed pretty cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_II_%28film%29

"Startram is based on existing maglev technology and basic physics. A motivated nation could build a startram system capable of launching 300,000 tons of payload into orbit for less than $40/kg. The infrastructure for a cargo-only version would cost on the order of $20 Billion to build and could be completed within 10 years. A people-capable version could be built for $60 Billion and be completed within 20 years."

Also read about the 1960s HARP project, which set the altitude record in 1966:

"Jules Verne chose a Supergun for his story because he didn't think that anyone would believe that a rocket could actually take people to the Moon. For years gun propulsion was considered the only practical means of launching vehicles into space, as rockets were still relatively small and crude gunpowder-based devices. By the 1930's the first liquid propellant rockets began appearing and gun propulsion was soon abandoned as a means of space launching.
The High Altitude Research Program (HARP) was unique in the history of the space age. For the first time in history a serious attempt was made to use cannons in place of rockets to explore earth's upper atmosphere and to try to launch satellites."

Moving people is really silly given tel-presence. And given automation and robotics, more and more will become unemployed and moving will be obsolete. Just strap on the mind programming device and sit in your mind prison like a good little sheeple. Now, where is my hour of hate, 1984 style, have to have something to hate to keep the police state growing.

John Bailo says

I was thinking. Since everyone has SUVs now do we even need paved roads? Why not go back to dirt at the neighborhood level?

And, while we're building bike trails, why not more horse trails as well?

Fuel efficiency, mud and dust. All good reasons for well maintained paved roads even for SUVs

New Renter says

Nice idea but even the best canons (or railguns) only have a range of 200
miles or so.

Low earth orbit with minimum practical decay is only 120 miles up, though some rocket boost assistance might be needed to reach orbital velocity. A long/strong enough railgun could easily do better. Perhaps the Pike's Peak launch rails of 1940s/50s science fiction will become real after all.

Authors usually arrive at future tech and future society decades to centuries before we actually get there. Imagination is the most powerful force in the universe.

Yeah, I think it was Heinlein that wrote of a semiballistic tube system on a colonized moon. It was a one tube system with a fixed capacity, and in the story, a woman in a tour group complained that "they" should put in more cars.

Quigley says

Authors usually arrive at future tech and future society decades to centuries before we actually get there.

you know of any author or journalist who came up with Semiconductors, Transistors or Vacuum Tubes before it became reality. It reminds me of when journalists discovered Silicon Valley (1999) thinking it was San Francisco.

Vicente says

Seemed pretty cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_II_%28film%29

its a monorail like the one in present day Disneyland... 1950s tech one of a kind ahead of everyone else.

Automan Empire says

New Renter says

Nice idea but even the best canons (or railguns) only have a range of 200

miles or so.

Low earth orbit with minimum practical decay is only 120 miles up, though some rocket boost assistance might be needed to reach orbital velocity. A long/strong enough railgun could easily do better. Perhaps the Pike's Peak launch rails of 1940s/50s science fiction will become real after all.

Or not.

Straw Man says

New Renter says

Low earth orbit with minimum practical decay is only 120 miles up, though some rocket boost assistance might be needed to reach orbital velocity. A long/strong enough railgun could easily do better. Perhaps the Pike's Peak launch rails of 1940s/50s science fiction will become real after all.

Or not.

Still waiting for my flying car....

http://listverse.com/2013/05/17/10-amazing-flying-cars-that-really-existed/

In 1971, the Advanced Vehicle Engineers company in California decided to design a flying car that was reminiscent of the ConvAirCar of the 1940s. They took a Ford Pinto, welded a Cessna Skymaster to the top, and essentially called it a day. The bizarre hybrid monster that resulted was dubbed the Ave Mizar.

The car-half of the craft was fairly similar to any normal Ford Pinto on the street. The Pinto’s engine brought the plane up to speed for take off, at which point the plane’s propeller took over. Upon landing, the car’s brakes were responsible for slowing it down. Unfortunately, in 1973—just a year before the car was scheduled to begin mass production—the right wing of one prototype crumpled in mid-air. The car plummeted to the ground, taking any future it might have had with it.

And no doubt the Pinto exploded upon impact...

New Renter says

Nice idea but even the best canons (or railguns) only have a range of 200 miles or so.

Reload and reshoot every 200 miles.

thomaswong.1986 says

its a monorail like the one in present day Disneyland... 1950s tech one of a kind ahead of everyone else.

No, no. This was a vacuum tube high-speed mag-lev train. Well at least as envisioned by Gene Rodenberry. Bonus points for hotties with two navels.

New Renter says

Fuel efficiency, mud and dust. All good reasons for well maintained paved roads even for SUVs

Plus unpaved roads you need to learn to live with a broken windshield.

zzyzzx says

New Renter says

Nice idea but even the best canons (or railguns) only have a range of 200 miles or so.

Reload and reshoot every 200 miles.

The traveler would arrive as a red stain of goo on the floor of the capsule