Science: Fuel Technologies

January 6, 2003

Q. This is a two-part question. The first part is: what does Michael think about using fuel-cell technology to run cars? The second is: are there other technologies out there that we're not looking at?

A. As to the current methodologies under consideration, we would think that the methods being tested now have some validity, and may in fact prove popular enough to attract the "speed demons" to another form of propulsion other than oil.

We have said before but we will reiterate, there are at least nine available sources of energy that can run automobiles and similar vehicles, and while such things as fuel cells and hybrid vehicles are the most likely to succeed at the moment, due to the economic structures of automobiles and the petroleum industry, we would think that secondary propulsion methods are apt to come to the fore in the next ten to fifteen years. Those running on methane and all manner of recycled material[s] are likely to be "the next step" in automotive vehicular evolution, which is of course governed by algorithmic fractals -- for as surely as species evolve, so do ideas, and can follow similar patterns as those we have already discussed.

Incidentally, combination-fuel-source vehicles would strike us as the most successful hybridization for the next forty years. That does not mean necessarily fuel cells, hydrogen, petroleum, or other source currently identified, but the combination approach, we believe, is apt to provide the most successful bridge over which to pass.