Category: Ideas

The Japanese word ‘Kuchi zamishi’ is the act of eating when you’re not hungry because your mouth is lonely.

This website helps you model out and visualise traffic impacts. Variables include the flow of vehicles, politeness of drivers etc.

London’s underground network (the tube) uses around 1.6TWh a year to function.

The strong winds felt on platforms and around stations is caused by the piston effect. It’s generated by the trains pushing air forward through the tunnels, and the drawing of air down into the tunnels through draught-relief shafts.

Here’s what I’m thinking – There’s a crap ton of fans noticeable in stations, is it possible to adapt them to act like micro wind turbines? It could harness the wind to power stations as it’s generated and revert to traditional means when fan-created power loses momentum – like a hybrid car. This way we wouldn’t need to worry about batteries just yet.

Even 1% of energy derived from this method would be a staggering improvement.

Lightning is underrated. I’m not sure how many people know it can be piggybacked to create decentralised applications like Signal or a VPN. Programmable money means the payment rails are data rails. Data flowing through pipes of money.

For example, Sphinx uses Lightning’s rails to send text messages free from censorship or corporate oversight. Using three of the last four words has grown to feel dangerous, as if you have something to hide. However, you’re anti-censorship if you agree Twitter shouldn’t be blocked in whole countries (e.g. Nigeria, China). You’re probably anti-corporate oversight if you’re against unfettered mining and monetisation of your data.

If Lightning stimulates layer 3 protocols, there’s potential to build tools that make today’s internet easier. Imagine not needing to give away your email, kicking off a lifetime of spam and tracking, to access sites. What if a micropayment provided you with access going forward, like a token at a fairground, but one that belongs to you forever. What if a micropayment incentivises paywalls to step aside, detracting less users and boosting traffic for creators.

If I hadn’t mentioned it, would you know this was about Bitcoin, and what it enables?

Imagine a team of goats mitigating forest fire risk and enabling a forest’s ability to regenerate diversity – bringing back insects, birds and animals necessary for a healthy ecosystem.

And here’s the real goat parkour.

There’s much to think about for the future. When I think about energy production, I see it as community-based. Imagine households taking a weekly walk to drop off food waste.

In an anaerobic digester, bacteria breaks down the food waste and releases methane as a byproduct. The methane is then captured and used as a renewable source of energy. After the digestion process, the leftover material can be composted and used as a natural fertiliser.

Benefits

• Locally-created energy equals less transmission loss, since it’s not travelling far
• Energy can be sold back to the grid, allowing communities to generate funding beyond the council tax and central government funding
• Social cohesion as there’s a common goal, where interests and incentives are aligned
• A job creator, attracting new talent and up-skilling local talent

Things to think about

• Initial investment
• It still generates Co2 and N2o and methane as an output
• How much power could a square mile of waste generate?

It’s not about a creating a profitable empire, it’s about bringing people together.

– Community focus

– Classes for plant care, kids can paint pots and grow seedlings

– Coffee and cake

– Art section

– Bring in authors, poets, artists. Give them space to create

– Be the first to donate plants and support when something negative happens in the area. Be a force for good. Restore faith in humanity

– Take a plant / leave a plant section

– Old folks encouraged to gather on Wednesday afternoons. More tea, less isolation.

– Small offering of package-free bulk foods. Instil less waste philosophy.

– I’d probably need a £1m endowment to do this without any dependencies. And anyway, how does one value the output, the social cohesion?