human powered transportation

The most basic expression of freedom is the ability to go where you want to go. Humans evolved while spreading across the planet, roaming where ever they pleased. It is a romantic way of expressing it, eh? like their motivations were to frolic or something :-D But like with bees, we have spent thousands of years unable to comprehend the external physical limits of where we can go. Only in this last tiny moment of human history have we conceptualized any external physical limit at all. (and finally proved Plato and Pythagoras right once and for all). Not to mention disrupting the constraints of the space-time continuum. The ones that used to make it impossible to communicate with anyone on the opposite side of the planet, much less see their face while you are talking to them. It's mind blowing. You have to do some crazy mental gymnastics to not just sit slack jawed and wide eyed like the right ancient ancestor might do.

The ability for humans to travel to every corner of the planet is essential for a society that values the existence of the human species. We must be able to understand the similarities and differences of the members of our species. Humans learn best from their own experiences. I can talk until my head falls off. I can show you videos until your eyes pop out. Read account after account of what the locals think and do. But, you really can not experience my part of the world unless you have been here yourself. To be immersed in a culture that is not your own is a life experience that every human can use to become a better version of themselves, no matter how long the immersion. And the only way we can immerse ourselves in other places is by using the transportation infrastructure of the world.

Transportation infrastructure is important. Human powered transportation is the most successful method of transportation. IF we are valuing the future existence of humanity most, of course. Once given the option of burning something else to carry us places, humans stopped working on transportation that made them feel the burn of their muscles working hard. This is not an accusation of sloth. I am budgeting my energy more than any other resource in my life, I get why it happened. And it is good because there are humans who require the assistance of non-human powered transportation in order to function as well as their peers. So while there are benefits, technology as a tool has not been applied to the best of its ability in human powered transportation. The same can not be said about combustion. Combustion does create a lot of ways money can be used (and created, if we dig deep holes) from the commodity known as "energy."

Not that everyone has stopped focusing on human powered transportation: This guy who flies the human powered "airplane" and helicopter. I know him. we were roommates for a summertime once. He is and always has been a physical specimen that many aspire to be, but very few work hard enough to achieve. He is not the "normal" experience for a human in the business of human powered flight. Being in the business of human powered flight is rare enough, I guess. If we focused the global markets of the world to value high margins in the probability of human existence, we would be selecting for people like Todd. I can, personally, approve of that selection.

As a symbol for the importance of transportation to a globe-based society, I use the bicycle. because bicycles are the most accessible vehicle of the current transportation model. They pull people out of poverty. But any form of human powered transportation could be lifted up. Humans who propel themselves through the world are healthier than humans who rely on combustion to get from place to place. Healthier, contributing to a longer human life span, a positive impact on the value measuring 'the affect on the existence of global humanity'. You know, if we measured existence probability as we do money in free markets, the bicycle is a good investment.