The Future of High Speed Travel

Most of us earth bound humans travel someplace during our lives. There are many ways to do that. Most of us have some kind of personal vehicle or a bus pass for nearby destinations. If it’s a long way off we generally fly. There are also boats, trains, cannons (if you belong to the circus), motorcycles, bicycles, Segways, and Areocars, to name a few.


Now let’s look into the future. Time Magazine (Feb 21, 2011) has a story about a group of people who developed a theory they call “Singularity.” The definition is “the moment when technological change becomes so rapid and profound; it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.” Basically the time when computers are smarter than us.

I think its Moore’s Law that says the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on a circuit board doubles every two years. As we develop faster and faster processors and smaller memory chips the pace of change is also getting faster.

What the singularity guys are saying is that at some point not too far away (they mention 2045) computing power will surpass that of all human brains. At my house that was around 1994. OK, my wife is still much smarter than computers, but not me.

Another near magical development in the fabric of development (see, I told you I wasn’t very smart) is telecommuting. Sort of a high tech way to phone it in. This also is evolving. As internet speeds increase and more data can travel over the networks we can get more and more realistic as a fake presence. Right now we can sit in front of a computer in any location (with fast broadband) and talk to another person as if you’re in the same room. That person’s image is on your screen and your image is on their screen. You both speak in normal tones and you may forget you’re 3000 miles apart.

Companies are making portable robots whose function is to go to meetings for you. One is from a company called vgo Communications. It has a camera and a monitor on top and wheels, battery, and other works on the floor. It can move around. If you and another person each have one of those you just sit in front of it and have a discussion. Try to comb that mop before you make the connection.

Since it wheels around it can attend meetings almost like a person. Better, actually, because it’ll be on time. It can roll down the hall to another room, ride the elevator, take a lunch break, or several can gather in the broom closet and plot against the humans.

The name for this modern meeting attendance is “telepresence.” The robot carries on in meetings just as if you are there in person. For added fun you can make a video of yourself looking interested and then just play it in a loop so the folks in the meeting can’t see you making funny faces. If the people in the meeting don’t want the person 3000 miles away to see a stupid pie chart they just throw a towel over the robot.

Telepresence technology is a substitute to travel. As I said there are several companies making telepresence devices. They’re working very hard to simulate actually being there. They have conference rooms that are duplicated in all the locations with people who work together. The room has a round table that’s actually only half a table. The other half is a segmented video screen. When the meeting is going on people at the tables in many locations have the visual illusion they are all at the same table.

OK, now combine this telepresence technology and its evolution with the idea if Singularity and what have you got? That’s right! Nobody goes anywhere. We all have a camera mounted on a harness that hovers a few feet in front of our faces and someplace below that we have a screen. Since everyone has this we can virtually visit anyone at any time. There may be a few issues with the concept. If computers are so smart let them work out the issues. Why should I waste energy thinking when pretty soon that can be done for me?

The next step is even more illogical: humans become robots. The theory is that as artificial intelligence and computing power reach that Singularity thing we humans won’t be any smarter or better looking than we are today. In fact some of us may even look a little older. But if you want to continue living beyond the capability of your human body you just merge with a robot. Your body is no longer the vessel that carries you around. That Segway you bought becomes obsolete because your new robot body is even cooler.

Besides robots don’t eat anything, don’t need air or water, and would have a programmable sleep mode. All kinds of benefits. Here’s one to think about: space travel. First you get a bunch of people who have major curiosity about space. You convince them it would be a good idea to merge with robots and abandon those bodies that take so much maintenance. Load the robot/humans on a space ship and tell them to have a good rest. A few hundred light years away they arrive at a different planet that’s still inhabited by dinosaurs.

Or maybe we’ve been visited by robot beings from another planet and don’t even know it. Maybe they reached the Singularity point millions of years ago and their whole population eventually merged with robots until there weren’t any live beings left. Then their super brains figured out that their planet was on its last legs and they lit out in all directions to find new places to live. Sound familiar? Anyone have Kryptonite?

They wouldn’t need to carry food, water, air, or anything else but an propulsion energy source. Maybe some of those robots landed here. Think about it. Maybe you have a better explanation for the pyramids. (Hint; they weren’t built by Hebrew slaves)

One of the more timely benefits of the evolving computing power and telepresence is a reduction in our need to make arduous journeys. Lots of us still want to go on vacations and visit relatives and have fun. That’s just fine, go and have a good time. But who wants to fly overnight to Chicago for a 7 AM business meeting and fly back to the office for a 1 PM meeting with some dweeb who doesn’t show up because he’s flying to Dallas for a meeting that you should also attend? Everyone gets a good night’s sleep and then connects via telepresence and takes care of business.

Who needs high speed rail when we can have light speed virtual images? Just think, in 1910 cities had a spider web of streetcar tracks. 100 years later we’re spending billions to replace those tracks that we spent so much tearing up. I think 100 years from now we’ll again be without rails in our cities. Write this in your calendar and check on it in 100 years. Your robot will be amazed that I was right.

Oh, and just in case: keep your electrical outlets covered.

Al

How do You Make Water Bright?

Are you like me? Do you like sewage? Neither do I. Well our close personal friends over at King County (Motto: “Send us your money, please”) are helping to fix the problem. Apparently the problem they want to fix is too many of us flushing in the North King and South Snohomish county area. Please wait until 2012.


The fix is to construct a giant sewage treatment plant. Somebody decided “Brightwater” is a good name for it. “Brownwater” got fewer votes, along with “Dirtywater,” “Lifelesswater,” and “Smellywater.” The suggestions were many and the voting was lively. http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/Construction/North/Brightwater.aspx

Check the link if you think I’m kidding about the project. I have no idea how they really chose that name. Maybe they think once the water’s cleaned it’ll brighten up Puget Sound. Who knows?

Anyway, the project will be complete long before either the SR 520 Bridge replacement or the Alaska Way Viaduct replacement. That’s because this is a King County project and nobody messes with the King. Those other two are urgent and critical but then what’s more urgent than finally getting to flush?

Here’s the plan in a nutshell in case you don’t have time to read all the double talk on the web page. They take 114 acres that used to be auto wrecking yards and build a giant sewage treatment plant – a long way from Puget Sound. The actual plant only takes about 43 acres and the rest is PC area. Wetlands, habitats, trails, woods, etc. In other words don’t offend anyone. But it used to be auto wrecking yards so how much mitigation do we need?

Another large part of the project is what we call “tunnels.” People don’t normally like their sewage in open canals and they don’t even like big pipes on the surface. So put that stuff underground in very secure pipes.

They hired this tunnel boring machine and hollowed out several miles of dirt. These are lined with concrete to keep dirt from falling back into the tunnel. See in this area we had glaciers many years ago that left large quantities of gravel and loose rock and only a little actual dirt. So don’t look for the material being removed from these tunnels to go into your gardens. Maybe somebody in Maple Valley will wash the rocks and sell them for landscaping. Hang on a sec, I want to make a quick phone call.

OK, I’m back now. No, I can’t make a fortune washing rocks in Maple Valley.

Inside the tunnels they’re building pipelines that will bring the bad water into the plant and then send the bright water out to Puget Sound. Two way tunnels, what a great idea. Basically what they do is de-color the water so the fish won’t be offended. Maybe there’s more to it than that. It’s not my job to understand what goes on in those places. I just don’t know.

What I do understand is that running these pipes inside concrete lined tunnels provides good access. That way if they ever get a leak or somebody wants to add a connection they won’t have to spend all kinds of money digging up the pipes. They just walk into the tunnel, turn a few valves, and take care of the issue. Maybe a couple of hours tops.

Now we have these tunnels done. The boring machine has been hauled out and it’s just sitting there by I-405 not doing anything. What could we do with it? I know! We can move it to Bellevue and dig tunnels for the light rail. Start somewhere on Mercer Island and just keep going down in a general east and north direction. Add a few surface stations along the way so people can lower themselves to the trains. As long as it gets under all the utilities and waterways we should be OK.

Next make sure it gets under downtown Bellevue so that any foundation cracks in those high rise towers can be blamed on Sound Transit. The rest is simple. This eliminates the argument about where to lay the tracks from I-90 to downtown Bellevue.

Even better: Maybe we could start the tunnel over in Seattle. We could have waterproof tubes running about 100 feet below the surface of Lake Washington. The salmon would love it.

That would remove the issue about using the I-90 express lanes too. I don’t know how much I’ll get for this brilliant idea, but it should be a fortune. Don’t worry, I’ll share.

Wait, I got off the subject back there somewhere. Let me see…….. Oh, yeah!

We currently have two other sewage treatment plants operating in King County. One is on the shore of Puget Sound not too far north of downtown Seattle. That gives it direct access to send the “bright” water way out into the sound. The other one is located in Renton. That’s right, Renton. No surprise there. It dumps into the Green River which becomes the Duwamish right about the same place. What a coincidence.

The Duwamish River meanders through mostly industrial area on its way to Elliott Bay and then into Puget Sound. It gets mixed with the salt water.

Once Brightwater is on line it’ll also be releasing into Puget Sound. We have pods of killer whales out there and if the water isn’t bright enough they’ll be annoyed. They’re not called “killer whales” because of their cheerful smiles. The state runs ferry boats full of tasty people back and forth across Puget Sound. We don’t want the killer whales annoyed so rest assured these three plants will only let clean bright water out there. What could possibly go wrong? I wonder if we could get a cable stay bridge out if this somehow.

Al

Link Light Rail not on Eastside

We have grand plans to run the LINK Light Rail on the express lanes of I-90 from Seattle to Bellevue via Mercer Island. Once in Bellevue it’s supposed to turn left and head downtown to a fancy tunnel under the main office towers. Riders will have a space age underground station with elevators and everything. To save money they might opt for rope ladders but that’s still in negotiation.


Please refer to a map of Seattle/Bellevue in your handy Rand McNally. Upon leaving the downtown Bellevue tunnel the track will meander across I-405 somehow and follow a fun path through the Bell-Red area eventually to Redmond. Microsoft awaits. In about 2100 people will be able to ride a light rail all the way from Sea Tac International Airport to Redmond. How wonderful. We’ll have flying cars by then so the trains will be empty.

Here’s where we are today. Some important folks in Mercer Island and Bellevue have filed a suit to prevent the use of I-90 for light rail. The point they make is that we paid for the I-90 corridor with gas tax money and Washington State Law says you can’t use gas tax money for anything but roads.

The other side is interpreting the law to mean general transportation not specifically limited to rubber tire vehicles. This is being decided by the Washington State Supreme Court. Those guys. Anything that annoys the most people is pretty much what guides their decisions. The biggest trouble is figuring out what would annoy the most people in this case.

Lake Washington is a big gouge in the earth made during the last Ice Age. It’s very wide and very deep. We only have two bridge routes over the lake. Both are floating bridges because of the challenges. One is SR 520 and the other is I-90. The alternatives are going north or south around the lake. What a choice: you either face Bothell or Renton. Might as well stay home and telecommute.

It’s fairly certain we’ll have mandatory tolling on the SR 520 (Evergreen Point) Bridge very soon. We don’t know how many drivers will switch to I-90. Maybe lots. That means I-90 will get even more crowded. WashDOT says they expect drivers to sort out which route they can stand in a few weeks. If I-90 gets too bad they’ll try to figure out what to do next. Probably make people pay tolls on I-90 too. Again, might as well stay home.

Construction of a light rail will naturally take away at least one general purpose lane in addition to the express lanes on I-90. Construction crews need lots of room and they can’t share. So instead of five lanes into Seattle in the morning and five lanes out in the evening we’ll have two during construction. They promised us they would add a lane each way on the existing bridges. Budget cuts will prevent that as well.

Mercer Island is in the way. Once the glacier melted the original Americans found it hard to get across the lake so they began a project to dump lots of dirt and rocks so they could get over the lake without going via Renton or Bothell. It’s a landfill. Now people actually live there for reasons I have not yet determined. But I-90 uses it. Thus the light rail corridor would also use it.

The result of all this is nobody knows if we’ll get the tracks will get across the lake.

The other problem is Bellevue. There’s a heated debate over the route from I-90 into downtown. One plan has it run along, or possibly on, Bellevue Way. Currently that’s one of the main road connections from I-90 to downtown. Not during construction.

The other proposed route is to use the former railroad bed along I-405. In order to accommodate that route a brand new parking facility is proposed on the edge of I-90. There would be a station there. This route has been roundly criticized as going too far from where potential riders live. And that’s the point – the “potential riders” don’t want light rail anywhere near their homes. Thus they insist that the Bellevue Way proposal is bad.

Bellevue has a city council that makes decisions in the “best interests of its residents.” I have no idea if those decisions are based on logic or facts but at least they make decisions. So they decided to launch a three phase study on the route proposals to determine which one is. The first phase is costing $670,000 which is coming from the light rail budget. One has to assume that if the other two phases cost this much it will remove over $2 million from the budget. Light rail is already underfunded.

Oh yeah, that’s another issue: there’s not enough money to do this anyway. So what are we talking about here? There’s an underfunded plan to that’s in a political dispute, still being “studied,” and is challenged in the Supreme Court. Boy I’m looking forward to riding that sucker.

Meanwhile the Newcastle Library Branch is finally under construction. They’ve broken ground and are now actively digging a big hole in the ground. Trucks are running to Maple Valley and back with old dirt and new dirt. It’s a sight to see. I just hope the hole they are digging doesn’t run into the Brightwater Treatment Plant outfall tunnel. Nobody really knows where that thing runs.

Al

Disclaimer

By the way, those who may ave thought I had a lousy time in Central America just remember - the Lake Boren Report is all in fun. We world famous comedy writers empahsize the minor insignificant stuff because it's hard to fill a 2000 word piece with "Oh, wow, that was really cool!" Too much syrup can make the pancakes hard to eat. So if you're planning a trip go ahead and go and have a good time. See the world and enjoy it.


Al

That little monkey was really cool!

Visit a Banana Republic

Pacific Ocean During a Rare Sun Break

Everyone should make the effort to visit a banana republic. Why? Well it’ll help you appreciate America more.

I recently visited Costa Rica where their money is made out of old beer cans and Kleenex. Here are a few travel tips you may not see in the guide books:

• The cash value of an American $20 bill is 10000 Colones. A colon is flexible in value depending on what you’re trying to buy. If you want a $2 ticket to get into a park it’s around 7500 Colones, for example. Don’t try to pay with American money because you’ll get change in hundreds of colones. Seems like a lot but it ain’t. It’s not a rich country so one easy way to make money is a confusing exchange rate.

• Don’t try to get around in a rental car. The roads are terrible. The drivers are terrible. They have millions of busses, shuttles, and taxis. Just get a pocket full of colones and be ready to hand over a handful whenever you see a bus driver. Even if he won’t pick you up just give him some money anyway. We Americans like to have control and freedom to move about on our own. I got a rental and a 35 mile trip can take over 4 hours unless you encounter traffic – then it’s longer.

• GPS – if you want to know where you are take a GPS. It’s essential in a rental car but it can be handy without one. GPS Saga appears below.

• Bathrooms are important – bring your own. The toilets in CR don’t work because Americans can’t deal with the requirement NOT to flush toilet paper. See, the sewer systems are so delicate they can’t handle TP. So if you flush TP don’t expect what you’ve always expected at home – sooner or later the toilet will rebel.

• It rains in Central America. Bananas need a lot of water and so do dense jungles. That’s why a lot of them are located in Central America. You’ll need lots of clothes if you go there because all your stuff will get wet. Especially if you put your suitcase on the bathroom floor.

Our room entrance at La Posada Jungle

• Best places to stay don’t mean the most expensive. In fact it’s just the opposite. If you’d like a nice room try to find a small place where the owner takes personal charge of most of the services. You can get a load of laundry done in a couple hours. Those big fancy smancy resort destinations will take 24 hours and there’s a charge to wash each and every item. Then they deliver it to the wrong room anyway.

• Telephones are a challenge. First of all don’t believe it when your trusted cell phone carrier promises you’ll have coverage. It’s a lie. If you really need a phone you have to rent one there and there’s a charge for each minute in addition to the rent. Plus, if other people are on the trip with you they won’t know your rented cell phone number unless you call them and tell them. That costs money. But their phone won’t work either so don’t even try it. There has to be a secret that I didn’t fathom. My rented phone had “No Service” but our guide on a jungle hike was getting calls. He knows the secret. I decided that I didn’t want to know the secret.

• Heaters in rooms don’t exist. Normally in a tropical jungle you might think heat wouldn’t be needed. But if you’re 6000 feet above sea level it can get chilly at night. But no heat. No fans or AC either. Just vent windows. That way you can hear every word from the people down the hall wondering whose laundry came to their door (it’s yours).

He had a nearby room but didn't bother us much.

• International Driver’s Permit – scam. Don’t bother. A valid American license is all you need to drive there. Plus more money. Your passport is all the identification you’ll need.

• Passports are required. You won’t get there without one. Airports and customs places have scanners and they swipe your passport photo page. That gives them everything they need to know. Just make sure you apply for a passport in plenty of time because “rush” jobs cost extra and you can’t get one at the airport.

• Be prepared for lines. I don’t know how many lines we stood during the trip. Mostly the lines are in the airports, but some are at the parks. I can’t imagine what it’s like in season.

GPS Saga: I got a Garmin last year when Amazon had a big price cut to help move inventory. Nice outfit for trips. (The one in my POV is built in.) I thought it would be good to take to Costa Rica since I would be renting a car. Actually you should take one even if you plan to use the busses.

Garmin doesn’t normally include Central America in their pre-loaded maps. But you can download them from the web. So I did. The instructions for transferring CR maps to my unit didn’t make sense. It wanted me to use something called Map Source. I remembered I had used that a few years ago so I hunted around and found the old CD. I loaded it on my PC and it actually worked (apparently). The message said something like “Congratulations you have successfully loaded Costa Rica on your device!” It required a 25 character password.

OK, so how do I verify that? I know! I’ll have it find a city that I know only exists in Costa Rica. Well, it couldn’t find it. Hours went by and still no success. OK, the message says the map was loaded successfully so I’ll just have to trust it. Besides I have a magic cell phone with GPS as a backup. What could possibly go wrong?

We arrived in Costa Rica and holed up in a motel at the airport the first night. Seemed easier to deal with the rental car first thing the next morning. Why pay rent until we actually need it, right? The following morning I went to the rental car office to pick up my 4WD heap. By that time I had accepted the fact that my cell phone that “would work just fine” would not work. The car rental office also had cell phones for rent. Cool.

As I rode over in the rental car company van I turned on my GPS to see how it displayed things. Well, by the time we arrived at the rental office it had not acquired satellites. There was another person in front of me so I stood by a big window to offer my GPS a clear view of the sky.

The person in front of me was not happy. The discussion was in Spanish but there’s a universal worldwide language called “Jerkola” and this person was fluent. He insisted on arguing with the one clerk for an hour. Even though I don’t speak the language I can understand when somebody is saying the same thing over and over again. It’s classic Jerkola.

During the extremely boring exchange I kept checking the GPS and it found itself after about 45 minutes. Great, at least that issue seems resolved. Now to hustle the jerk out of the way. I finally got my 4WD car rented and arranged for the cell phone to be delivered to the motel near the airport. Everything’s coming together.

When I started up the car I thought it would probably quit at some remote location because it sounded really bad. Then I realized it was diesel. Once it was out in the street it sounded a lot better.

The GPS turned out to be a real help. For one thing you can’t go places in a straight line. They have mountains and lakes and you have to go around everything; even cattle. The other problem is the horrible roads. In November they had 4 ½ feet of rain which means some of the hillsides were still covering some of the roads. Other roads have gargantuan potholes and most were just not wide enough, even where the pavement was good. So it was a challenge. Unless you are an absolute hard nose about having your own vehicle just take the busses. They crash rarely and the drivers know how to get around obstacles.

Anyway, the GPS saved us several times. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place where I was so confused about which way to go so often. When we left Monte Verde heading for Arenal Volcano I was positive we were going the wrong way. But eventually we found a town that was on the way and the landmarks kept coming up right. The GPS got us there. I was sure it was wrong. Lucky for me I decided to rely on it since I knew it was a small country and the worst we could do was still not too bad.

Here’s another tidbit for anyone who wants to visit one of these insect infested banana republics: go ahead and pay extra for a guide on jungle walks. We had a couple of really good guides and they helped a lot. Miguel at Manuel Antonio was the best. He pointed out varmints nobody else saw. The only problem was he was not interested in birds. The guide at Monte Verde Cloud Forest was interested in birds but couldn’t find any. At least we got some interesting information. You know they have bugs as big as small raccoons there?

Oh, and the rains of November weren’t really over. It rained a lot. Sometimes it rained so hard it woke us up at night. We live in the Greater Newcastle Metropolitan area where it seems to rain a lot, but it’s more of a persistent mist. Down there it really rains. People use umbrellas because raincoats get just as wet inside as outside. The only exception is in the high cloud forest where the wind blows constantly. Then you just get wet.

What about rapid transit? Nope! They have a four lane highway that runs thru San Jose and it’s regularly at a dead stop because some Jerkola in a rented car did something really stupid in front of a large truck. Crunch! Once that happens the local law comes out and chases everyone off the four lane. Bus and van drivers are good at avoiding those scenes. Luckily we didn’t spend much time in that mess.

They also have a toll road that’s four lane at random sections and sometimes not. The speed limit is in meters or something. It works out to about 50 mph. I was going 60 and cars went by us way faster than that. The biggest problem with the toll road is you need to pay cash and it’s hundreds of colones. Makes a guy nervous. “How much did we give that guy?”

You know what I didn’t see? Railroads. Given the condition of the highways (washed out dirt tracks in some places) I can’t imagine how they would keep two parallel rails from getting all jumbled up. My guess is Costa Rica won’t see rapid rail transit very soon.

Conclusion: Don’t go. If you do go take plenty of cash and dry clothing. Learn Spanish. It won’t do any good but it’ll give you the illusion you’re preparing for the trip. Oh, and say hello to Mike at La Posada Jungle.

Pool at La Posada on the Edge of Manuel Antonio NP

Web Sites:

http://www.laposadajungle.com/ Where we stayed at Manuel Antonio. Very quaint.

http://www.manuelantoniopark.com/mapk/english/photogallery.html The park and lots of photos.

For birds search Google images “Costa Rica Birds” and see hundreds of photos of birds. We even saw a few. Elin saw a pair of resplendent quetzals.

http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/ Cloud Forest. We stayed at Hotel El Establo – didn’t really care for it.

http://www.arenal.net/photo-gallery.htm Volcano area.

http://www.arenal.net/observatory-lodge/ Where we stayed at the volcano. It’s within the potential blast zone for the next overdue eruption!

Al

Here's the Jungle Near Arenal Volcano