Yeah and it will likely be the cost of a brand new combine, the utility of which is to harvest the monocrop arrangements that will feed millions of people during its operational lifetime.
It is good to be pursued as a concept for future civilization organization (I guarantee the people working on flying cars at least had the opportunity to watch "the Jetsons" as impressionable children). And even if it is emissionless, I agree the noise pollution would be a huge issue (if propulsion relies on atmospheric pressure change - Musk on Rogan says a system somehow using powerful magnetism would wreak havoc on many other things).
But noise would be an issue for the conventionally structured, compacted neighborhood where driveways are probably less than 100' from each other. Real estate restrictions come as things like forgiveness of terrain between home and town and the location relative to good roads that lead to concentration of activity. Road construction meanders such that it is minimally invasive (and/or less expensive for earth-movers) and compliant with the group of scattered private land owners called on to host the road.
You cannot go somewhere on this planet unless you want to hike, fly (flat land for long runway), drive, or wait for a road to be necessary/bid/drafted/cleared/graded/paved/painted (enough productive tax payers must need the road for the idea to even be heard in the chambers of elected officials).
Neighbors live within earshot of each other's loud, necessary machines because their acreage is limited as a satellite to a city/town and zoned as residential - utilities, sanitation, telecom, post, all have a place to corral centralized services.
The mass production of commercial VTOL transportation (we already have the similarly priced helicopter, also "hand crafted" in small batches as safety/quality measure) will fundamentally alter the sprawl of civilization. We will be able to cheaply develop neighborhoods in remote areas, without the need for a grid (isolated inter-neighborhood grids will be commonplace at this point). I'd imagine the construction logistics of this would come in the way of material&tool-laden storage containers ferried by delivery craft with payload capacity akin to the Chinook.
A 50 mile commute home from work across a mountain range could be a half hour, although high wind speeds are rarely sufficient to halt ground transportation. Parking lots would not be nearly as large (wasteful) in cities expected to be built around the concept of a 100 mile radius [scattered] metropolitan area. Roads could exist for travel within a city of concentrated activity, because flight should be limited to minimum distances of a few miles because the "last mile" or "local miles" would be congested and chaotic with that third dimension of frequent takeoff/landing at random vectors, plus the concentration of work and play that is the heart of the reformed city (Car Culture Cancelled or Concealed) would be where the decibel level matters most.
An autopilot would be a minimum requirement for this. The alternative would be that everyone has to become a pilot, which at some level will be necessary even with an effective autopilot if only to understand terminology because we will begin to discuss travel intent "as the crow flies", so heading/altitide/airspeed parameters replace fast lane etiquette, right on red, and most importantly... STOPPING during a journey at any point. Never again would you need to swipe past another incoming 2000 lb vehicle going your speed in the opposite direction a mere 3' away.
We are both replying to a flying car article, and I've seen multiple here on HN over the years, so they exist and many people are working on it and interest is there. As you say, it's a luxury at this point and I wonder if a bottleneck is technological limitation and/or risk-adverse actuaries and lawyers somehow reigning in power over time thus grooming a fearful society across several decades.
Though most of their deaths were instantaneous (if it was large meteor) - the other half of the world would have been around for a few more seasons, before the food chain was rapidly squeezed (vaporized atmosphere from ground zero sloshing around pressure systems, sunlight inhibition from dust withering vegetation).
This is why I think that, even facing the chaotic "sloshing" due to projected >8C temperature within a century referenced in parent, a civilization that has practiced/standardized/mass-produced greenhouses at a hectacre-scale could fare well despite the projected drought/storm/fire/sea-rise/permafrost-methane-feedback that is being suggested as consequence. The only "silver bullet" specialty that I know would be beneficial at any point in the future anyways (ability to grow large variety of food in barren areas with limited resources).
Norway has large greenhouse production for higher latitude growth. Commercial sized greenhouse footprint to replace existing traditional outdoor grazing and staple crops would be enormous, which is why it may be more efficient to think of how to modify a biome instead of mass producing plastic/glass/steel enclosed micro climates (which may not be compatible with traditional tractors/combines/dusters which have long been mass produced).
Sulfur dioxide from a supervolcano eruption would ironically not be considered a disaster if it were to reflect sunlight for a few years.
Since we cannot arrange for a supervolcano yet, we could purposely emit sulfur from ships and existing smoke stacks. But wouldn't this cause acid rain eventually? Crops would receive less sun. Fictional remedy to fight solar-powered machines in "the Matrix" - global solar grids would have reduced input.
"Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV affords it special properties for applications in optoelectronic,[8][9] high-power and high-frequency devices. For example, GaN is the substrate which makes violet (405 nm) laser diodes possible, without use of nonlinear optical frequency-doubling."
Imagine dozens of consecutive unmanned launches boosted into orbit by the same 2-5 Boosters each with only a payload of fuel meant for the large tank of Starship.
Yeah I remember on the Bob Lazar Joe Rogan episode he kept saying it was not metal and made of some ceramic.
But within 2 hrs in he had to correct himself by saying there's no way you could communitcate via radio because of the supposed conditions keeping it aloft silently.
Another youtube video saying his car was powered by hydrogen, but not stored under pressure because apparently his diy particle accelerator can allow him to produce lithium-6 (not sure about isotope here, but not available public sale) which is the sponge like material in the tanks, metal hydride.
The concept of extracting helium as a byproduct of a reaction with high energy output is akin to taking the lye from wood ash and processing it further as an electrolyte (potassium hydroxide) for NiFe batteries.
I suppose even the irrelevant amounts of helium resulting from this process would also be ruled out when seeking out new sources since fusion is still in the experimental phase. Bottleneck seems to be materials (superconducting/temperature?)
I enjoy solitude because I've always had this fear of being a burden to someone else. I take pride in my self sufficiency because of this - I seek to be a provider, not a consumer.
Though more recently I've started to see this behavior as a defense mechanism against predatory people. I've been an observer of many dinner table conversations among rent-seeking types, which slowly erodes away my faith in people (the current commander-in-chief of the US is the perfect physical manifestation of this type of thinking - the "I was here first so now I can extract wealth from society" mentality. And it works, because people are eager to pay for luxury real estate)
But I digress. And digression is a consequence of solitude since you are not frequently bouncing ideas between other people. It can become a self imposed echo chamber, rationalizing things the way you want without a reality check.
As pessimistic as I sound, I know that there are many pure, selfless people in the world. Lots of them have YouTube channels that I'll check up on every few weeks. I want to find more of them and shower them with resources.
Apologies for the stream of consciousness format. Apparently I'm leaning more towards loneliness than solitude at the moment, and this article is a prompt to share something outside of my own head.
The female body is our only means of citizen production. Genetic and resource input is all that's required of the male. As such, the female mind is wired to instinctually minimize risk, so as to set the stage for a healthy womb in the time leading up to conception and for the 9 months following.
That's my two cents. Otherwise, I'm concerned why people are apparently getting funded to research these sorts of things.
Local generation (Photovoltaics or turbines) set up nearby the channel where water will move uphill could run the pumps directly, without much voltage drop because of close proximity. On cloudless days it "charges" the reservoir.
Batteries still necessary to smooth things out, but not to run pumps 24\7
The Hyperloop also can only exist with government cooperation. Stringing together such a technology across multiple state (or nation) boundaries will require much more collaborative effort than the Eisenhower administration's Interstate system.
I was a warehouse worker at Amazon for a year and I made sure I sweat every day there. I would challenge myself to move product quicker and avoid forklift duty (standing in place). Requesting the labor intensive duties allowed me to use the chemical energy (food) I was inputting instead of it all going into storage from sitting in a chair all day.
After a while, I started feeling depressed. It was a combination of the monotony and a lack of purpose, and it wouldn't help when I would encounter the occasional order of cat toys or extremely overpriced items that could have been purchased at a dollar store for 400% less. I was enjoying the constant movement but there was no pride in my work. Its not like building a structure where you can witness the fruits of your toil. Because everyday was predictable and simple, I would say that I felt that my mental facilities were deteriorating at an accelerated rate which prompted my abrupt leave (without a notice).
Sometimes I would research the internal Wiki for what the AWS engineers were saying to each other. It was interesting, but I'm sure I was only doing it because I knew they made more money than me. This is where I went wrong because comparing yourself to someone else is an inefficient use of your brains resources.
My duties were simple and I felt like a grunt but I've always been in shape and never get sick. I'm fundamentally opposed to the idea of gyms because you're paying a group of people to make sure theres a place with air conditioning where you can pick up iron and put it back down in the same place. Or run in place like a hamster (some places have tracks, I know, but round and round it goes). I understand that sometimes weather will prevent an outdoor run or hike, but just do something. Rearrange the house. Build something with heavy parts. Run up your stairs every time you use them. Theres always a way to get your blood flowing without allocating a specific hour of your schedule.
The YouTube channel SV Seeker. The man is building a 74 ft steel Chinese Junk sailboat in his front yard and documenting every aspect of it. If a part is too expensive, he will melt brass and cast it himself. It's different from most DIY documentation because you feel included in his project, he's always inviting volunteer help if you want to go to Oklahoma. This is his hobby when he's not working as an Oracle DBA.
-Head of Imperial Security
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeOmilysl54