Picture this: It’s the future; you are driving your electric vehicle in Indiana. Golly, your batteries are low, and there’s no charging station for miles. No problemo; as you drive, your vehicle gets a recharge from the magment, a magnetized road pavement recently developed and now being tested in Indiana. * Sounds pretty amazing. No worries about the location of a charging station. Just get on the road and drive.
Magnetized cement? What could go wrong? It’s not as though a group of tap dancers will be in the crosswalk unable to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Certainly, workers in steel-toed boots won’t find themselves stuck, abandoning their footwear in the middle of the highway, and walking home in their socks. Lightning? No one seems to have asked that question yet. Will a magnetized road surface attract lightning? There, I asked it.
Now I can imagine the complaints and the law suits. I can see special insurance rates. I can envision that old rusted tail pipe requiring two to pry it from the road. What of the wrecks, those scattered pieces of steel that are not so easy to pick up? And the pranks! Oh! The pranks. Inventive Purdue University engineering students trying to outdo another engineering school: Can we try levitating something, maybe a metal effigy of a Michigan quarterback? What about the power source for the magnetism? “Sorry I’m late for supper, dear, I was driving home when the road went out; some car hit the generator beside the road in South Bend.” “How many times have I told you to charge the car before you leave for home? Anyway, I told you to avoid that section of the highway. The tolls are excessive. You’re paying for everyone else’s charge. By the way, who’s paying for the electrification of the road?”
Maybe “magment” is the future of pavement. I only facetiously suggested that pedestrians with metal in their shoes would be stuck, but pranks by engineering students don’t seem out of the question. So little of what we do is simple. So much of what we do generates unintended and unexpected consequences. Making life simple in a complex technological world is a difficult task, and as you have experienced, the greater the complexity, the greater the chance of surprises.
Remember the famous lines Robert Burns wrote in the second last stanza of “To a Mouse”
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
A magnetic roadway. Great technological scheme. What could go wrong?
*Yirka, Bob. 28 July 2021. Indiana to test ‘magment’: a magnetized concrete to charge electric vehicles. TechXplore. Online at https://techxplore.com/news/2021-07-indiana-magment-magnetized-concrete-electric.html
Magnetized cement? What could go wrong? It’s not as though a group of tap dancers will be in the crosswalk unable to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. Certainly, workers in steel-toed boots won’t find themselves stuck, abandoning their footwear in the middle of the highway, and walking home in their socks. Lightning? No one seems to have asked that question yet. Will a magnetized road surface attract lightning? There, I asked it.
Now I can imagine the complaints and the law suits. I can see special insurance rates. I can envision that old rusted tail pipe requiring two to pry it from the road. What of the wrecks, those scattered pieces of steel that are not so easy to pick up? And the pranks! Oh! The pranks. Inventive Purdue University engineering students trying to outdo another engineering school: Can we try levitating something, maybe a metal effigy of a Michigan quarterback? What about the power source for the magnetism? “Sorry I’m late for supper, dear, I was driving home when the road went out; some car hit the generator beside the road in South Bend.” “How many times have I told you to charge the car before you leave for home? Anyway, I told you to avoid that section of the highway. The tolls are excessive. You’re paying for everyone else’s charge. By the way, who’s paying for the electrification of the road?”
Maybe “magment” is the future of pavement. I only facetiously suggested that pedestrians with metal in their shoes would be stuck, but pranks by engineering students don’t seem out of the question. So little of what we do is simple. So much of what we do generates unintended and unexpected consequences. Making life simple in a complex technological world is a difficult task, and as you have experienced, the greater the complexity, the greater the chance of surprises.
Remember the famous lines Robert Burns wrote in the second last stanza of “To a Mouse”
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
A magnetic roadway. Great technological scheme. What could go wrong?
*Yirka, Bob. 28 July 2021. Indiana to test ‘magment’: a magnetized concrete to charge electric vehicles. TechXplore. Online at https://techxplore.com/news/2021-07-indiana-magment-magnetized-concrete-electric.html
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