Ask Lemmy

Actual high speed rail around North America. Every major metropolitan area connected to minimum 150mph speeds.

All of the idiots who joke and make fun of CHSR and Brightline have never truly seen an actual rail system in practice. I read the Facebook comments, they're all the same. "It would never work here", "We're too big", "Flights would be faster", "I just like to drive", blah blah blah. The fact is that they've never been outside of the country (and most of them outside of their immediate state area) to ever see what it's actually like, and have never seen what we're desperately missing here in America.

Oh and the worst of the complaints, the absolute worst - "It's a waste of money". Says Darrel, the guy who has done zero research about rail beyond what conservative pundits have told him, and has absolutely zero idea how much we piss away on highways every year. How much is that new lane on the local freeway costing? No freaking idea do you. But California HSR, they know to the penny how much that's costing. (You don't even have to know which freeway I'm talking about, because I know there's also a freeway near you who is getting yet another lane, everyone in the country has a freeway getting another lane.) Rail though? Oh no.. the costs!

I firmly believe this would help ease a lot of the nation's major problems. Probably not solve, but ease some of them.

• Climate Change (obviously)
• Some of the divide this nation is feeling (because it'd be easier to travel around and actually see)
  • for example, I live in Seattle, there are a lot of conservatives living just 200 miles away who never come because it's "too far" and we're "constantly having violent protests". Well come and see for yourself then. Take a day trip.
• Housing Crisis (immediately nearby cities and towns become commutable)
  • This would also help with income inequality a bit, because all of a sudden you can again commute much farther
• We waste so much land due to parking and driving, relieving that a bit could revitalize downtowns as people would pick up and leave the train in urban centers, renewing development downtown.

This list goes on

How we move around is such a huge part of our daily lives. Most people spend hours a day in their car, burning gas, driving around getting to work, stores, errands, schools, etc. We have made it so damn difficult on ourselves just to move around, and I'm sick of hearing the regurgitated excuses why it "would never work" here.

A couple good videos if you're curious.

Alan Fisher, the Armchair Urbanist explains how rail gets such scrutiny while roads get a pass

ClimateTown, How parking (and roads) are killing our towns

Find a way to live a productive life with more dignity despite my physical disability that will lead me to an ever darker future. I was hit riding a bicycle to work, by a political refugee that had the cognitive capabilities of a third grader. Surviving is so much worse than death in the USA. It is a terrible place to live like this; an inhumane and pathetic disgrace of a country.

Eliminate religion

Thinking a lot smaller here..... I've always wanted to build a custom pinball machine. I already possess most of the necessary skills, but the materials are expensive and I don't really have the time or space to do it right

I'd develop a pickup truck that would have only the bare essential features and would be built from the ground up with the intention to make it extremely durable and easy to fix. Instead of a body-on-frame I'd probably go with a stainless steel exoskeleton instead and plastic/fibre glass panels you could just swap out to a new ones if you damage them. Kind of like on side-by-sides. The newer models then would just be ones with certain parts that have been upgraded to a better ones and would be 100% compatible with older models. You wouldn't ever need to buy a new truck again. Ideally there would be both diesel and electric versions - ideally so that you could convert one into another if you so desire.

My list is quite different than the ones currently in the thread.

The boring ones:

Creating a vaccine or other cloaking to make humans invisible to ticks & mosquitoes. A separate project would be to do the same for parasites.

Enacting strict pollution/carbon limits and mandatory circular economy everywhere in the world.

Researching, trialing and Enacting a sustainable post-capitalist system everywhere in the world.

Developing solar energy until covering global energy demands, including a power network that can transport energy from the sunny side and/or orbit everywhere.

The slightly more ambitious:

Establish self-sustainable colonies living on off-earth resources, most probably also situated off-earth.

Create a Dyson swarm with enough energy output for in-system exploration, mining, colonisation, and terraforming.

Perfect matter replicators.

I have some other ideas as well, but those would be a start.

In this economy, retirement.

Free EFI conversion for any carbureted vehicle still on the road.

Space mining.

Giant floating island to stay in temperate zone, of course everyone would suffer sea sickness and it is question how would we keep everything in place.

Giant space laser to destroy military infrastructure and aircrafts. All of them. Bring peace on earth through terror.

Making food and housing free.

I’d start building O’Neill cylinders. Huge cylindrical lot extruded ring stations that simulate gravity for its occupants by rotating.

Becoming a spacefaring species is as good or better than becoming multiplanetary in terms of being able to survive impacts, and we can build these things close to Earth without transfer orbit scheduling constraints.

Obviously we should be pursuing both. But if I had the resources to do this, I’d start building the first human void city.

I would buy the space next to the breakfast/lunch cafe in my neighborhood and make it a supper and drinks place that opened right when they close each day. Bribe whoever it is you have to to get a liquor license, hire a few people, pay really well, have no set menu but a supper service and then a few hours of drinks and small plates, close by midnight. Oh and a big cappuccino machine of course, coffee too.

I know this doesn't sound impossible but it's out of my reach and is what I'd do if we got a big windfall, like more than we need.

My 3d printer could use some 220v 3 phase motors for sure.

No reason for it except that i want to know at what speed linear rails start melting.

A matching pair of show cars, custom built from the ground up to cruise in and turn heads.

Also, build the modern equivalent of the Model T, the Volkswagen Beetle, something like that. The super practical, oddly attractive, easily repairable, energy sipping cheap-mobile. It would be hard to meet all these goals plus modern safety requirements, but that's where the endless money comes in for R&D.

Making an MMO

Electrifying a 1950s pickup truck. The work would be fun, and the outcome would be superbly useless with almost no range. But I would do it if I had the resources.

"Uplifting" intelligent species through selective breeding and/or other techniques. Impractical? Yes. Probably not a good idea? You bet. However, I would really like for humanity to have sentient company.

Big? Rail gun to launch stuff into orbit.

Small? A proper shed/workshop instead of a corner of the garage. I know it asked impractical, but with how long I've been trying to make space for myself... It feels impossible at this point.

Some sort of medicine or ointment or balsam or whatever that halts hair growth. You decide your hair looks good right now at that length, and use this stuff to freeze its growth. It also protects your hair obviously so that it doesn't get weak and fall off.

Another thing I'd like is some sort of bath salt type thing that dissolves in water and painlessly removes all hair. You get in the tub with only your head above water, and then enjoy a smooth body without annoying-ass hair or annoying ass-hair.

Enjoy life!

The obsidian orb

I would finally build the dome home I dreamed of in college. Myself, no contractors.

Planning might push this in other directions like an earth berm home or similar. I might also consider some hybrid designs. Alternative housing is really interesting and uncommon.

Building a gateway to the netherworld.

Pin Bowling - A bowling alley that works like a giant pinball machine.

Make Earth post-scarcity

Except it's not impractical

A Dyson sphere

Gene edit the particular gnats in my area out of existence

~~Participate in Eurovision~~ I reconsidered after the terrible events of the edition that happened this year. And I had massive plans too. Who wouldn't wanna hear symphonic metal in this thing?

Also, as a Moroccan, representing Morocco would be the last thing I would do, even though they don't compete anymore, but still.

Personal spacecraft.

World domination

Starting the horse and dog rehab farm I used to dream of. It was taking horses and dogs that need rehab, and teaching people from a rehab program therapy animal training and animal care.