Crowdfunding a Cold Fusion Car
Dr. Dennis Cravens has taken the engine out of a 1928 Model "A" Ford he bought and will replace it with a cold fusion power source. He is looking to raise $20,000 using crowdfunding. In the video he posted on YouTube he states that if he can make cold fusion work a liter of heavy water would provide enough energy to run a house for a couple of centuries, and that a fusion-powered car would need one fill up in its entire operational life.
Is Dr. Cravens for real?
The donations page link he uploaded to YouTube doesn't work. I hope he fixes that.
You can learn more about what he is doing by following along as he posts notes on the Dennis Fusioncar Facebook page.
The engine he is building runs on steam like the old Stanley Steamer. I've given you a link to a previous blog posting of mine in which I described how steam-powered cars lost out to the internal combustion engine in the 1920s. But if Dr. Cravens can make his cold fusion power plant reliable enough to heat up a boiler filled with water and get enough torque to get the car moving then maybe we will see a steam engine revival.
Whether Dr. Cravens succeeds or not, he has started a countdown clock with the hope of driving his fusion-powered car in a parade in his hometown of Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
Digg
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
Twitter
Yahoo
Like us on Facebook
WorldFutureSoc on TwitterNotice
Essays and comments posted in World Future Society and THE FUTURIST magazine blog portion of this site are the intellectual property of the authors, who retain full responsibility for and rights to their content. For permission to publish, distribute copies, use excerpts, etc., please contact the author. The opinions expressed are those of the author. The World Future Society takes no stand on what the future will or should be like.
About 21st Century Tech
Len Rosen is futurist, writer, and researcher based in Toronto, Canada. Read more of his work at 21stcentech.com. Follow him at @lenrosen4.
Free Email Newsletter
Sign up for Futurist Update, our free monthly email newsletter. Just type your email into the box below and click subscribe.
Blogs
Star Trek Into Darkness: Eye Candy For The Amygdala
Star Trek Into Darkness: Eye candy for the amygdala. Yes, this is another Hollywood blockbuster depicting a dystopian future with big explosions and small innovations. However, the first ten minutes are worth the price of the ticket. I was pleasantly surprised to see J.J. Abrams using the Ancient Aliens theory and a huge wink to author Zecharia Sitchin's work in the opening scene located on the fictional (depending on who you ask) world of Nibiru.
Investing in the Future of Regenerative Medicine
Spray-on skin. Lab-grown ears. Human tissue grown in a petri dish. We're going deep into sci-fi territory (and it is already happening).
The Principles of Extropy: A Quarter Century Later
“Extropy” is celebrating its first quarter of a century. The idea was formally introduced as a philosophy of the future in 1988, and many things have happened from the end of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century. A new millennium has been born and the philosophy of extropy is well-suited for these new times of accelerating change, full of challenges and opportunities.
Resilience: Exploring the edge of new possibilities in the Anthropocene
One definition of resilience is “the ability to cope with shocks and keep functioning in a satisfying way”. Resilience is about the self organizing capacity of systems. This means the ability to bounce back after disaster, or the ability to transform if a bad stage has happened.
Developers Making Net-Zero-Energy Homes Happen in DC
The townhouse on 4310 St. NW was just like any other family-sized unit in DC. Then the developers at energy-efficient-building company True Turtle Real Estate and construction-management firm C.A.T.
Headlines at 21st Century Tech for May 17, 2013
This is my last posting for the next few days. I will be taking my office apart so that we can move to our new apartment downtown next Tuesday. I will be unplugged and disconnected except by tablet. Expect me to be back in the saddle before the end of next week probably in time to provide you with some more headlines. In the interim these are the stories I share with you this week:
Colorado: the Alternative Transportation Mecca?
Today, literally thousands of alternative transportation vehicles are coming out of the woodwork and they nearly all have the same problem – no place to drive them. Most are banned from biking and hiking trails, and they are neither licensed, nor licensable, for use on the streets. I’d like to discuss some new possible solutions and why Colorado is poised to take the lead in the alternative transportation marketplace.
Googlenature
In a recent conference promoting not only their latest gizmos but their company's animating vision as well, Google executives declared they were working toward a future in which technology "disappears," "fades into the background," becomes more "intuitive and anticipatory." Commenting on this apparently "bizarre mission for a tech company," Bianca Bosker warns that their genial and enthusiastic promotional language masks Google's aspiration to omnipresence via invisibility, an effort to render us dependent and uncritical of their prevalence through its marketing as easy, intuitive, companionable.
Comments
Post new comment