The birth of an AI (artificial intelligence) -based SkyTran takes place in Volume One of my supernatural, sci-fi trilogy titled Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey. In the second and third volumes, AiTOM (pronounced "Adam;" the first SkyTran created) takes on a persona of "his" own, addressing critical problems facing the citizens of Jaden and dealing with his own sense of humanity and mortality. Among the many future roles SkyTrans and their unique SkyCabs can perform in Jaden (and, perhaps, in our own cities) is to monitor, assess and quickly respond to human needs in everyday life: intra-city commerce and medical transport, school busing, policing and related emergency management control (to name a few) and inter-city transport of commerce and people. SkyTrans and their SkyCabs represent a unique AI-based network referred to as SkyRails in Evergreen.
How and where would a SkyRails network "fit" in places like Manhattan, Los Angeles or any city in between? Anyone who has visited Sydney Australia or other cities committed to the simplest of monorail paradigms (SkyRails' scope and impact on human communities is not so simple) knows how easily below- and above-ground rails can, in turn, be strategically enmeshed within a city, attached to point-and-entry buildings and embedded in a city's social and economic fabric. You, of course, remember the horrors of 911. SkyRails must be part of the external structure of the tallest skyscrapers (straight up, reverse, straight down) so unique emergency management SkyTrans and SkyCabs can quickly reach and retrieve people in large numbers and address fires and related threats that, at present, no fire department or EMS program can effectively reach. Moreover, under extreme weather conditions like Hurricane Katrina, all intra-city SkyRails networks would be transformed into people-movers to evacuate cities en mass (In Volume Two of Evergreen, such a problem-solving scenario will unfold).
What about Detroit and the automotive industry? The big three automotive manufacturers could shift a portion of their design, manufacturing and distribution energies to SkyRails and their specially designed SkyCabs. They did something similar (producing jeeps and half-tracks, for example) during WWII, didn't they? We needn't give up our roads and highways (though, eventually, I think most of us will). We just need to use our American ingenuity to provide safe, efficient and environmentally sound alternatives to such passe' 20th Century thought. This could also create job explosions in steel manufacturing and other areas related to the creation, distribution and installation of stem and leaf, multi-tier I-beams (also described in the story) used by SkyTrans and their SkyCabs.
Imagine having the option of driving onto a SkyRails platform in your home city, being secure in the comfort of your car within an autobay (one of many specially designed SkyCabs) and efficiently and quietly transported above and below ground to another distant city in minutes -- or across the country in a few hours (like air transportation). Of course, you could travel in the comfort of another specially designed SkyCab and leave your car at home. Then, on arrival, you drive (or walk) away from one of several "SkyRails Central" platforms and enter another SkyRail network solely designed for intra-city travel to shop, dine, etc. You travel three, four and even five stories above the city streets, quietly and seemlessly advancing alongside apartments and condos, hotels, businesses and corporate centers, with other SkyRail transports (such as EMS, police or a commercial payload) traveling above and below often in the opposite direction. At the evening's end, you return to your SkyCab autobay and safely travel home. Now imagine such arrangements within cities to be entirely free (paid through a unique federal-city-private sector partnership) and between cities to be based on a nomimal fee equivalent to less than the average per gallon cost of gas per trip.
How and where would a SkyRails network "fit" in places like Manhattan, Los Angeles or any city in between? Anyone who has visited Sydney Australia or other cities committed to the simplest of monorail paradigms (SkyRails' scope and impact on human communities is not so simple) knows how easily below- and above-ground rails can, in turn, be strategically enmeshed within a city, attached to point-and-entry buildings and embedded in a city's social and economic fabric. You, of course, remember the horrors of 911. SkyRails must be part of the external structure of the tallest skyscrapers (straight up, reverse, straight down) so unique emergency management SkyTrans and SkyCabs can quickly reach and retrieve people in large numbers and address fires and related threats that, at present, no fire department or EMS program can effectively reach. Moreover, under extreme weather conditions like Hurricane Katrina, all intra-city SkyRails networks would be transformed into people-movers to evacuate cities en mass (In Volume Two of Evergreen, such a problem-solving scenario will unfold).
What about Detroit and the automotive industry? The big three automotive manufacturers could shift a portion of their design, manufacturing and distribution energies to SkyRails and their specially designed SkyCabs. They did something similar (producing jeeps and half-tracks, for example) during WWII, didn't they? We needn't give up our roads and highways (though, eventually, I think most of us will). We just need to use our American ingenuity to provide safe, efficient and environmentally sound alternatives to such passe' 20th Century thought. This could also create job explosions in steel manufacturing and other areas related to the creation, distribution and installation of stem and leaf, multi-tier I-beams (also described in the story) used by SkyTrans and their SkyCabs.
Imagine having the option of driving onto a SkyRails platform in your home city, being secure in the comfort of your car within an autobay (one of many specially designed SkyCabs) and efficiently and quietly transported above and below ground to another distant city in minutes -- or across the country in a few hours (like air transportation). Of course, you could travel in the comfort of another specially designed SkyCab and leave your car at home. Then, on arrival, you drive (or walk) away from one of several "SkyRails Central" platforms and enter another SkyRail network solely designed for intra-city travel to shop, dine, etc. You travel three, four and even five stories above the city streets, quietly and seemlessly advancing alongside apartments and condos, hotels, businesses and corporate centers, with other SkyRail transports (such as EMS, police or a commercial payload) traveling above and below often in the opposite direction. At the evening's end, you return to your SkyCab autobay and safely travel home. Now imagine such arrangements within cities to be entirely free (paid through a unique federal-city-private sector partnership) and between cities to be based on a nomimal fee equivalent to less than the average per gallon cost of gas per trip.
Think of the advantages to this alternative to our reliance on cars, cabs and trucks as we move from point A to point B. Minimally, there would be significant reductions in foreign and domestic fuel dependencies, noise and air pollution, traffic-related deaths and automotive-related expenses. SkyRails' networks within cities would revolutionize human dependencies on present forms of institutional care (such as ambulances, busing, policing, emergency management and cabbing) since SkyCabs would be created -- and parallel rail systems implemented -- to address these human needs. Plus, people could always have a guaranteed safe ride home no matter where we are within and between cities.
It's more than noteworthy that, after President Obama's recent European trip, national news covered how favorably impressed he was with the high-speed rail systems in place and how he plans to earmark non-trivial federal funds (tax dollars) toward research and development on similar technologies in the U.S. Speaking as an applied sociologist and evaluation researcher, in addition to authoring Evergreen, such an investment can only result in a win-win scenario for savvy automotive manufacturers, steel and peripheral industries related to SkyRails, and the majority of Americans and American businesses centered in urban, metropolitan areas (SMSAs and SCSAs). Concepts of "human networking," "service delivery" and "addressing civic needs" broaden significantly under a national SkyRails program. President Obama, are you listening?
This discussion touches on one of several underlying themes in my new novel Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey. Though I have written a supernatural, science fiction adventure about the tribulations of a far-away world, on closer inspection, there are dark parallels to our own world with solutions that might help us just the same.
I hope you enjoy the first leg of the journey (i.e., Volume One of Evergreen) as much as I did writing it!
Tune in. Take Part. Be Civil-Minded!
It's more than noteworthy that, after President Obama's recent European trip, national news covered how favorably impressed he was with the high-speed rail systems in place and how he plans to earmark non-trivial federal funds (tax dollars) toward research and development on similar technologies in the U.S. Speaking as an applied sociologist and evaluation researcher, in addition to authoring Evergreen, such an investment can only result in a win-win scenario for savvy automotive manufacturers, steel and peripheral industries related to SkyRails, and the majority of Americans and American businesses centered in urban, metropolitan areas (SMSAs and SCSAs). Concepts of "human networking," "service delivery" and "addressing civic needs" broaden significantly under a national SkyRails program. President Obama, are you listening?
This discussion touches on one of several underlying themes in my new novel Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey. Though I have written a supernatural, science fiction adventure about the tribulations of a far-away world, on closer inspection, there are dark parallels to our own world with solutions that might help us just the same.
I hope you enjoy the first leg of the journey (i.e., Volume One of Evergreen) as much as I did writing it!
Tune in. Take Part. Be Civil-Minded!

