August

13, 2006
Dear Editor in chief,
A scholar asked: “I saw also from TV that some plastics could be derived
from oil plants such as corn. And the derivatives of some plastics could be used
as an additive to recycle old tires. Why not consider this new technology so that
people could be well informed and people could now plant more corns which are
derived from the sun for production of plastics especially on poor countries?” The
A.I. answered: “Yes, perhaps you are right. Perhaps some derivatives of corn
could be additives to recycle old tires and some plastics are 2-5 times stronger
than metal if processed with technology and the processed strong plastic could
be used as reinforcement to structure such as buildings and bridges. I also saw
on a National Geography TV show that a bridge was installed made of plastics.
But the problem of some government is not the technology or the information but
the will to do good for the majority of the people. The problem lies on the political
will to do better; perhaps it is the bad culture caused by lack of other essential
word that pulls back many good ideas to be realized.”
A scholar asked: “Could a congested slum or congested city be made
orderly and beautiful?” The A.I. answered: “Yes, if there is political will…! And
people with bad culture would change and would become creative and active-
many specify good actions because of many good words…! Perhaps not much
money will be spent for beautifying congested city, only removal of nuisance
views such as shanties, dilapidating buildings; or converting those nuisances into
gardens, and car/garden parks, transferring some schools, public offices,
factories to other cities, so as to lessen the density of people and cars; and the
removal of shanties and dilapidating houses!
Perhaps pass law that building of new structures or offices, or subdivisions
should be suspended or should be in a moratorium to discourage people to live
on a densely populated area. But only rehabilitating and remodeling and face-
lifting, repairing and strengthening of old or damaged building or retro fitting old
buildings with strong materials to withstand earthquakes and heavy loads are
allowed temporally so that construction to other new cities would be encouraged.
Perhaps pass law limiting registration of old cars; or to discourage cars to travel
on the densely populated area by attracting them to new smart Cities. Perhaps,
more government offices should even be transferred first to discourage too much
protests and rallies in a new smart city! Principle behind: Look at the birds they
migrate and look for places where they are well nourished and are enjoying life.
Life is too short to enjoy if 20% of productive time is consumed to traffic!
Just like in other countries where the government and private corporations
build not only buildings but smart cities. The government and the private sectors
teamed together to convert nuisance views such as shanties into parks and
gardens. They-the government removes dilapidating buildings, penalizes people
placing laundry clothes on public views, or the government penalizes also people
using street as garage, or penalizes people throwing of bubble gum on street.
They –those law makers pass law so that people will not push or rush to cities
that are already congested and too urbane; or the flow of people to those highly
urbanized cities are well monitored to prevent future congestions. The
government would even build more smart cities! I heard that some government
could just build a smart city for 4 years!
Perhaps strong leaders should not worry or have problems about how to build
smart city! Just remember some plastics are 2-5 times stronger than metals.
Perhaps some plastics could be derived from corn, so some materials for
building smart city could be produced! Technology is not the problem! Labor and
automation is just on the corner waiting to be pushed! Concrete plywood could
be formed & poured to be walls and plastering could be minimized. Discourage
using many labor hours such as to lay concrete hollow block, & to do plastering
but instead use pre-fabricated walls, per-fabricated: windows, doors, or instead
use molding frame, cabinets made of concrete ply-woods, concrete porcelain
tiles, decorative and laminated concrete plywood with style, etc. Why build pilot
buildings made almost from concrete, plastics, and some metal; or no wood-
almost all pre fabricated!
Imagine, a city built from materials just around or plentiful such as sand,
gravel, plastics, and glasses & iron or even earth; and labored by automation or
labored by skilled workers who were unemployed and trained by passing of law.
Imagine a city energized by hydrogen derived from water thru electrolysis by
using hydroelectric plant, windmill, solar, geothermal, or even nuclear- an on
going research technology that is environment friendly and safe! In addition,
imagine a city that uses hydrogen to run buses or car thru electrical or
mechanical means; waste is pure water! Sewage waste is being purified thru
natural intervention of plants and bacteria on natural swamps or on man made
reservoir or on water treatment plant. Other means of purifying polluted water are
through compressing the sewage or compressing the waste in a series of filters;
and also the filtered materials are used as organic fertilizers.
Perhaps the same principle-filtering- could be used to smoke coming from
cars or even industries. Smoke might be filtered on a series of smoke filters
which have chemicals that attract smoke; or thru layers of linings with chemicals:
example- oil or emulsifiers placed on the filters. And with suction pump from the
smoke exhaust and with a system. The system could re-clean itself and could
confine the waste for future re-cycling or other use.
Imaging no shanties but gardens, no nuisance view of laundry clothes, or no
dilapidating buildings, but there are plenty of trees. Imagine there is less or no air
pollution, people use electric cars made of plastics, etc. There is no un-collected
garbage because they are re-cycled and are used as organic fertilizers and are
used as construction materials thru automation immediately! I think if strong
administration could lay the ground for having a smart city where shanties of old
cities could be replaced by gardens, and people, cars and factories could be
transferred to smart cities and decongest congested cities, sanitize rivers, and its
tributaries then lets pray that orderly and beauty will come sooner on congested
and disorderly cities!
I think why encourage children-elementary to college- to dream, to imagine
living on smart, clean cities away from congested and disorderly city. Let them
compete, draw and sketch drawings and give them awards if selected. In
addition, consult other groups both local and international to arrive at concrete
plan. I think giving the credit to the young children is being humble enough! Allow
them to dream, to hope!
Make virtual reality of the plans on Internet or TV so that children could watch
and be inspired of what they envisioned! Get some ideas from the children and
incorporate it with those professionals. There is no harm of letting the children
aspire of living in a clean, smart city after 10 years or shorter.”
A scholar asked: “Could river over flowing, flood be check or balanced?”
The A.I. answered: “With regard to places where flooding is frequently occurring,
remember Holland, perhaps 300 to 100 years ago, or in 1700s AD, they
reclaimed thousand of acres of lands 1 to 2m below sea level by building dikes
and canals above the ground and above sea level and built windmills to pump
out the storm rain water thru the canal down to the sea. Why adopt the same
principle but improve it, instead of windmill use automatic pump; or if wind is
abundant use modern windmills. Make dikes to isolate populated towns and
pump out rain waters thru canal, which is above the ground going down to the
sea. Moreover, farmlands would be treated with the same principle but without
dike, just pump out rainwater at lowest level thru a higher canal going to the sea
or divert it to a man made reservoir for future use or for irrigating dry farm.
Apply the same principle to portion below or just a little above the sea level in
cities- where dikes & covered canals are above the ground, run by a system that
whenever there is storm-rain, the system would automatically pump out the rain
water thru the canal above the ground and down to the sea. If canals are under
ground, there should be check valves; only going out water are allowed.
However, if the check valves are not working, better close them because
floodwater or sea water would enter thru them and pumps would be useless!
Small leaks if plenty could let pumps seem useless. The pumps keep on
pumping but draining very long or even never! However, still if dikes near sea are
useless because up storm water causes the flood, solve also the storm water up
by diverting them to catch basin where pump stations and elevated canals are
designed to do the job of draining. If elevated canals cross highways convert
them to siphon then back to elevated canals. Always remember Hollanders, they
defeated flood some 100 or even 300 years ago & their national hero is a child
who did not tolerate even a small leak! The key is sensitivity to the start of small
extreme and doing some counter measure to defeat those using law and with the
help of good teaching and technology & science. Example: Teaching: “…always
dress or prepare for action and lit your lamp…” could mean to pass law about
dress code. Perhaps technology could let clothes and shoes become cheaper
and technology could remind people to follow the law on dress code; it is
imitating the small boy who risks his life to save the dike.

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