The Challenge continuation............
It was a beautiful Saturday morning when Frank was picking up Yvonne from her shared apartment. His Ford-Astra was converted to run on Hydro-fuel for three months now, and in so far he had no complains about how the car was running. “Hello Yve! Ready for the ride?” Frank said to her when he saw her approaching his light blue convertible. “As much as you are!” she answers, dropping in the front seat and giving him a kiss. “Pete and Melanie are waiting for us at Pete’s place”, Frank said farther to Yvonne, steering into traffic and taking the looping highway toward Pete’s place.
“Hello Pete! are you there?”, Frank is just speaking in the front of the 2 way talking machine outside of the main entrance door. “Morning Frank! Yeah, we are both here, why don’t you and Yvonne just come upstairs”. “OK Pete, but don’t you make us stay long, we are kind of late”. “Don’t you worry, it won’t be long!” Pete answers, opening the door for them. Five minutes later all four are exiting Pete’s apartment heading to Laguna Seca.
The road was free of traffic, and the scenery was gorgeous. Frank’s car was running very smoothly, and he was looking at Pete to see his reaction. “OK, say it! ”What do you think?” Frank said to Pete. “Yeah Frank, it is good to see such cars on the roads of this wonderful country of ours”, Pete just said, looking at Frank with admiration. The girls were sitting in the back, smiling and letting the wind to make their hair go wild. Two hours later they were just there, in the front of a wide open space, where the parking lot was full of colorful cars and people, all ready to see the show and the car race. Laguna Seca was ready for some action!
“OK folks, we are about to start the demo show of some wonderful cars, all running on different alternative fuels, and see which is proven to be the best in the competition following the show”. That was the voice of the commentator, announcing the show which was about to start. Cars from all over the country were there showing their muscles in the race of friendly fuels. From cars running on CarboGel, to those running on alcohol, biodiesel, green batteries, all the way to the ones running on the most recently produced Hydro-fuel. All “dressed” in a vast panoply of colorful bodies. For about a half hour or so people were just browsing through them expressing their opinions and having fun.
It was amazing to see all those “green cars” leaving no smoke behind them, and to be able to breathe the air around without any fear of being polluted and harmful to your lungs. Parading at low speed in front of all spectators present there, all drivers were waving to the crowds, knowing how impatient all those present there were to see them rolling those cars at high speed. Frank and Pete were very proud to see the name of their fuels stamped on some of those cars present there. It was great moment for both of them.
Half an hour later all the cars were rolling on high speed along the tracks assigned for the race. One of the Hydro-fuel cars was in the lead at 100 miles per hour – the maximum allowed speed – and some CarboGel cars were just some feet behind. All other cars were in the wings, showing their muscles as well. The main rule established for the race was safety first, and because those cars were running on special new fuels, which were still under a testing condition, the speed was set to a max of 100 miles per hour. For the same purpose the number of laps was set to just 20 short ones, after which all the cars were parked in a special assigned place to be thoroughly tested by those involved with those projects, most of them present there among the spectators. Special sensors were also present in all those cars, to be read after by those qualified to know their meaningful message.
Pete and Frank were among those meant to conduct all those after words readings, and compile them into meaningful data inside their computers. Most of the cars were running close to the maximum set speed, their drivers trying to push them to the limits. After the first 12 laps all cars were running in a very compact formation, showing their reliability at that high speed. Starting with the 13th lap some cars started to lag behind, showing some evident problems present there. When the flag for the last lap was waived, all the cars were still in the race, with about 4 cars just lagging with about half lap or less behind. One of Frank’s Hydro-fuel cars was winning the race, and one of Pete’s CarboGel based car was coming on second place. It seems the cars on “Green Batteries” were the ones lagging far behind.
By 4:00 PM the race was over, and the cars were all lined up and ready for those trying to evaluate their real performance. Pete and Frank were there feeding their computer database with the new readings coming out from the multiple sensors present inside of those cars. Each car had a serial number to be identified by, and to be later on evaluated. In less than an hour all the tests were done.
“We are through here”, Pete and Frank voice their thoughts. After they washed their hands and gave some instructions to the people taking the cars into the trucks, they were both by their girls, ready for a spin. “I know a restaurant not too far from here, Frank said, approaching Yvonne and Melanie. Five minutes later all four were in their way to the “Mountain Crest” restaurant, just half hour drive from Laguna Seca. They were all really hungry!
Many young people they knew were there, enjoying the food and sharing their thoughts about the race, about their dreams and the future. Yvonne and Melanie were vocalizing their cheerful disposition, sharing with Frank and Pete the good memories they have that day. One hour later they were in their way back to the city, making plans for what they will do for Sunday. And as they knew very well, after a late morning sleep, the best thing to do is to go for a movie, and some exercise in a park right after. This young generation surely knew how to make a living worth living it.
***
Back in their GLabs, and loaded with a tone of data collected after the race, Pete and Frank were evaluating the results displayed on the computer screen right in front of their eyes. Everything was there, what was wrong, what was good, and what was in between. The results were very encouraging, showing strong evidence the CarboGel, as well as the Hydro-fuel, were the fuels of the near future. What needed to be improved were the car engines, which have to be farther modified for better performance. New alloys had to be used, able to sustain the high compression present in the burning chambers. The old internal combustion engines concept had to be totally modified also. Some GLabs were working on this already, with some good results.
The next “green cars” race will take place in 6 months, and all the GLabs involved were working in tandem to have all the modifications in place by then. They were very confident their efforts will show in the new coming race. Some of those projects were totally new, like the ones having the engines places straight between the wheels, reducing the energy dissipation through friction and heat by 40%. The engine crankshaft on such cars turned into wheels axle, being able also to eliminate the need of a camshaft. In order to accomplish this, special designing software has to be used, as well as an artificial intelligence compiling a huge amount of prior human experiences with those engines.
The battery based cars were a little different due to the limitations this technology was facing. New solar batteries had to be developed in order for them to be more up to the challenge. The new battery Melanie was working on was about to change all this, promising to revolutionize this new “electric fuel” to be used in cars. Some other GLabs were working assiduously to come up with new engines able to accommodate such new batteries. They were having the camshaft rotating also straight on all four wheels.
The shape of the cars will take a lip of change also, going from the “egg” to a “delta” and a “donut" shapes. The main thing to look into here was the match between the alternative fuel used and the shape of the car. The general rule was to match the shape of the car with the engine existent in the car. And each engine was different according with the type of fuel the car was using it. The ideal was of course to have one engine for all alternative fuels, but this was a real challenge. In some cars the same engine was working with several fuels, but this was valid only for the alcohol based fuels and some hybrids working with alcohol and batteries.
Some cars had several engines inside, but as the experience shown, this wasn’t a realistic approach. It was expensive and cumbersome for the driver. Those working on those projects were not so enthusiastic about this approach because, as the experience of the past was showing: "diversification is good only when goes hand in hand with standardization". The project was scrapped, and other approaches were pursued. Those young scientists have certainly learned plenty from Mother Nature. If you go with one mold, they say - and that mold accepts many other molds - that single mold will transform itself from within. And the time will prove them right!
The general effort was to find an engine to accommodate all fuels by using a special artificial intelligence module able to modify the engine according with the fuel used. All just by a push of a button. Sure this was asking for more time. The computer models were in place, but the experiments were not out yet. The only thing to be considered in this case was to find a material strong enough to sustain all type of burning temperatures different kind of fuels were having.
Then were some totally out of the wall projects which didn’t even consider fuels as a way of locomotion, but rather Sci-Fi. They were mingling with anti-gravity, anti-matter, reverse polarity, and other strange physical “anomalies” coming out from quantum physics, nano realities, and the universe at large. Those projects were the ones Greg and some others like him are involved with in their meta-physics GLabs, the physics beyond man’s normal capacity of reasoning. If they will ever succeed only the T/S will tell, when they will reconcile and make the Uncertainty Law obsolete.
***
“Hurry up you two!” Steve Norton said to the two last “tallers”, trying to make them get faster in the blue bus, on that raining day of September. They were just finishing their fieldtrip to the Flying Eagle energy plant, in Morgan Hill, California, ready to go back to their BTC in Sunnyvale. Steve is an employee with Flying Eagle, turned BBD and Prof for the “tall” group of that BTC in Sunnyvale. He is also a parent of two children, Ed and Jane, in that Basic Training Camp.
The plant was totally green, using Hydro-Fuel, the new super-compressed hydrogen fuel used also in cars lately, and extracted from water by the same new technology Joe Montoya’s team was working on. In this case the Hydro-fuel was extracted right on the plant’s campground, and stored into huge super-pressurized tanks, to be disbursed from there to the plant’s turbines. Most of the power plants in America were green, using different kind of fuels other than petroleum. Some few, in remote parts of the country, were still using nuclear fuel, but they where checked on daily basis due to their not so friendly environmental technology. It was expected to become totally out of commission in five years. All charcoal based power plants were put out of commission few years ago.
Half an hour later, Steve and all the children were inside their class, all sitting on the floor with a big size pillow under them ready for the half hour brainstorming session. Everybody was very relaxed, and all the benches, tests, exams, grades and such were a thing of the past. The subject of discussion for today, as Steve decided as being appropriate, was the Infinite Harmony present all around in life and in all of us. Drawings with the human body were hanging on the walls, together with pictures and schematics of the Flying Eagle plant, all helping Steve to get the message across.
“Alright! After what we have seen today at the plant, I would like you to think of the harmony present all around us and inside us as well. Let’s start with us first and try to see the harmony present there. As you can see from the drawings, we have a complex body in which each part has to play his role in order to accomplish a living task. Let’s take the speech for example, what I am doing now in front of you. A vast amount of muscles is enabling my mouth and my lips to move. The tongue in my mouth is also a powerful muscle, helping the mouth and the lips to express the words as you hear now. All those placed inside of a very ingeniously shaped solid bony cavity having an echo effect and making us all able to communicate with one another. Many animals have their means to accomplish this as well.”
“And let not forget the air coming from our lungs and the trachea for all the speech to be heard through the medium of air”, one of the students impatiently adds up. “You are absolutely right Roger, thank you for your nice touch”, Steve is addressing to Roger, stirring up lots of laughs among the kids. “Please be free and add whatever you consider as useful for the discussion at hand”, Steve is addressing to all students this time.
“And sure, for all this to happen we need the continuous flow of energy from our blood, and the food we eat, all this in a harmonious relationship with the habitat outside of us. This habitat is of the same kind we humans are, except of the fact it is inside out instead of being outside in, as we humans are”. “Can you picture this amazing relationship?” Steve asks the students present there with a shadow of doubt in his voice. “Yes we can!” they answer in a collective voice, to Steve delightful content.
“Let’s talk about the outside of us now! and see what we’ve learned from our fieldtrip today”, Steve continues, trying to involve them in discussion. “What kind of fuel did we see today the Flying Eagle plant was using?..........you Pete! “The Hydro-fuel extracted from water”, Peter answers without hesitation. “So that was the “food” the plant was “living” on, right?”, Steve was saying, trying to make a parallel between the harmony present in man and that in man’s environment. “What impressed you the most from what you have seen today?” Steve continues.
One by one the children present there were giving to Steve their pertinent feedback of what impressed them the most, about their vision of the future, and most of all about how the harmony present in all living works in man and all around him. Those students present in that BTC were very much aware of the subtle harmony present at all living levels, and how fragile that harmony can be if not respected and cherished enough. Those kids were for sure the new generation in formation the present mankind was counting on.
By each passing day those very young students will travel into new dimensions of this wonderful living harmony, having many of their own parents taking the helm of showing them the harmony present there as well. In doing this, their respect for this harmony will increase more and more, until the harmony present inside them will be envisioned as one and the same with the one all around them. They will learn this way how to listen to that same harmony present in both and to discover new manifestations of this harmony as new ways to accomplish wellbeing and happiness.
They will learn how to accomplish happiness without hurting Mother Nature, but rather to collaborate with Her and listen to what She has to say to improve the without of man, as well as the within, in the most harmonious manner. Learning from their fieldtrips and other living encounters, by the time they will reach the age of getting into the GLabs they will be very knowledgeable of how the life deploys and works at all its levels: individual, social, and natural.
This new and well balanced approach instilled into this very young generation of man was what the Prophecy was calling “the golden seed of mankind to come”. Hurdles were present at times, due mostly to the adult parents’ lack of responsibility and dedication. The issue was usually promptly addressed and drastic measures taken for this not to happen again. They were instances where parents were losing portion of their salary by not showing up on those BTCs, and in very many occasions the children themselves were the ones telling their parents to “behave”. |
Prior To be Continued............. Next