

Putting on the Brakes: Mankind Nears the End of the Age of Speed - Gibbon
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704587004576242450234233350.html

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ozziegooen
"In the 19th, with trains, they reached 60 mph. In the 20th, with jet
aircraft, we could travel at 600 mph. Can we expect 6,000 mph in the 21st?"
The 21st century still has 90 years left in it. We have no idea what
technologies will emerge in that time. If a technological Singularity occurs,
well...

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demallien
Yes. If we ever manage to build a space elevator for example, it will open up
the entire inner solar system for exploration / colonisation, at which point
the people that continent hop today will be able to world (planets and large
moons) hop tomorrow, with a corresponding jump in the maximum speed that a
person will travel at...

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dantheman
I don't think the space shuttle can be really deemed reusable.

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mmcconnell1618
What's really incredible is that the SR-71 was built in the 1960's. I just
read Ben Rich's book about his days at the Skunk Works and it was incredible
to see what they had to do to build a titanium airplane. Tools would break
when attempting to drill through the material. The plan would stretch several
inches in length during flight from heat expansion. The cockpit would get so
hot that they risked cooking the pilot alive if the air conditioning failed
(and don't ever touch the windshield if you want to keep your hands). LA to DC
in 62 minutes!

I'd like to think we've got something faster now that's just classified but I
suspect we've gone to slower remote drones and satellite data that has less
political repercussions.

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cas
Bit odd that the article doesn't mention the current research into scramjets
(Mach 5+) or the Bloodhound SSC land speed record project (~1000mph).

Edit: Forgot to add the continued advancement of high speed trains (~360mph)
and the Vactrain concept.

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fleitz
Totally incorrect synopsis, humanity IS on the quest for speed.

What killed the Concorde was not that humanity was no longer looking for
faster ways to communicate, it's that most of their customers died during 911.
For the rest of us Twitter / Email, Skype fill the role of quick highly
personal information dissemination.

Companies like SpaceX and Virgin who dare to explore the boundaries of human
travel will take humanity to ever greater heights. They are picking up the
torch where the government left it in 1969. One of those two companies will
eventually partner with FedEx to offer New York to Sydney 'yesterday
afternoon' service. The companies that can capitalize on that kind of mobility
and speed will rocket infront of their competitors.

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potatolicious
Not to mention we're throwing much more effort into getting people moving
faster, every day, instead of throwing all of our resources getting the ultra-
rich faster, sometimes.

Think advances in high speed rail, infrastructure development in mass transit
everywhere (except North America, it seems)... Instead of pouring billions
into a few showpieces like the Concorde, we're finally working on getting
_everyone_ moving faster, more frequently. This is a good thing.

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saturn
The whole problem is friction. Give me the robots to build an evacuated tunnel
from Australia to the US with a maglev train in it and I'll show you what
"speed" means.

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borism
are you telling me there is less air friction 4km below sea level than there
is 12km above it?

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streety
The key word is "evacuated"

There is less air friction if your tunnel is maintained at vacuum.

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borism
Interesting. I wonder what kind of energy is needed to keep 12000km long
tunnel situated 4+km below sea level at partial vacuum...

Without even getting into problems that will occur at tectonic plate
boundaries...

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saturn
Well, once the thing was built you'd expect that particular task to be quite
easy. An airtight tunnel surrounded by kilometres of rock - not much air down
there in the first place, and you'd just need some effective airlocks on the
ends.

Not to downplay the size of the task, of course; it would be an astonishing
feat of engineering and probably quite out of our reach for the foreseeable
future, at any kind of reasonable cost anyway. The tectonic boundaries, as you
say, would present a particularly challenging aspect of the project. However,
theoretically it's probably the most efficient way from A to B on our little
blue marble and so no doubt it'll be done eventually.

