Building a Brighter Future

I bought my first home in 1968. I was still in college and money was always tight. I could never sit down and pay bills without thinking it would sure be great if all I had to pay was my mortgage. Can you imagine owing a house that didn’t require insurance, and didn’t have water, sewer, electric, or gas hookups?

Few people are that independent, and no doubt some that are wish they weren’t, because the systems they have to maintain are far more costly. There are certainly backwoods dwellings that utilize wood burning stoves for heat and cooking, a well for water, septic systems for sewer, and perhaps solar for a minimal amount of electricity. They get by and they are independent, and no doubt there are times they feel good about their independence.

What would have to change to make people think seriously about autonomous living? It’s clear you can’t build a conventional stick built house with conventional wiring and plumbing and have all the amenities and not have all the problems. If you are truly serious about being independent, then the total approach has to be different.

When I began writing futuristic fiction, I found that the idea of independence was always strong in my protagonists. I loved their attitude because it was a reflection of my attitude, only they got to pursue their dreams. My dream is to build autonomous superstructures. I call them umPODS (unishell modular Permacast Optimal Detached Superstructures). The concept simplifies construction and eliminates most of the labor. Spray casting unishell modules with robots could potentially create affordable superstructures.

Engineering such structures to ride on slip planes that would allow the structures to float in floods and ride out earthquakes is anything but conventional. Making sure that they can survive firestorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and all the perils covered by insurance would make them the safest place to be when disaster strikes. Having them produce and store their own energy in highly efficient kinetic energy storage systems, and collect and recirculate water solely from precipitation, would insure their independence. Adding a semi-biospheric means of cleansing and oxygenating air and producing food as a byproduct would make them a safe haven and a place to survive no matter what ills befall mankind.

Certainly there’s always the possibility that man will annihilate the world in an atomic holocaust, or an asteroid from space will turn Earth into a deepfreeze. Who can predict anything and insure humanity has a future? The way we are headed, it’s pretty clear that we’ll poison ourselves off the face of the Earth, so we better start looking for solutions. Helping people gain their independence from government, mass consumerism, and mass infrastructure would be a good beginning.