train-shining train-shining train-shining

  • context [fae/faer, fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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    19 days ago

    cyber-lenin so you want to move large amounts of people and cargo around? it will be most efficient to build one large specialized engine that pulls a bunch of cheap, modular passenger and cargo compartments in a long line

    my-hero no they definitely all have to have their own engine

    cyber-lenin very well, i suppose that increases the modularity. we can have vehicles that carry 50 to 100 people, perhaps, and…

    my-hero no, we’re talking like 5 people, at most, and they have to be very friendly with each other

    cyber-lenin ugh, fine, so we physically attach them to each other and…

    my-hero no no no! they can’t be physically attached!

    cyber-lenin coordinate a virtual tether over wifi by having them drive really close to one another?

    my-hero finally! a technological solution to this problem!

    • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      19 days ago

      The first one would say:

      bazinga no they definitely all have to have their own engine, because they should have the freedom of choice. Trains are authoritarian because they only allow for one route.

      Which then leads to
      cyber-lenin But they’re all mainly travelling the same few routes

      bazinga Yes, but they should have the freedom to choose other routes

      cyber-lenin So you want to build highways everywhere?

      bazinga Yes! Or no, not really. Just highways for the main routes people travel.

      cyber-lenin That’s just rail lines but worse.

      bazinga No it isn’t, people can completely decide where they want to go themselves. We’re gonna have offramps at major clusters of traffic, you know where a lot of people get on and off the highway. And then we’re gonna have less heavily dedicated roads for smaller traffic.

      cyber-lenin That’s just light rail, you’re describing light rail. Are you going to asphalt the entire world?

      bazinga No, there’s not enough money in that.

      cyber-lenin So you still decide what routes people can take. Whatever, this "road"system will require immense resources to maintain.

      bazinga No it won’t, there’s not enough money in maintaining public infrastructure. We’re going to let things just sort of… decay. Maybe we will sell off some major nodes to private companies that can then charge outrageous amounts of money for using the road.

      cyber-lenin Will you use trains for anything?

      bazinga Yes! We will use them to transport toxic chemicals.

      • LaBellaLotta [any]@hexbear.net
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        19 days ago

        The power of our emoji game on this site never fails to impress me. Did not expect to be reading the dialectic of lib Sheldon and robo Lenin but what better parties to have the debate

  • Trains are simply an example of Mustelization, a similar phenomena to Carcinization where life-forms convergently evolve weasel-like traits, instead of evolving crab-like traits.

    the long, flexible ‘body’ and short ‘legs’ are peak Weasel, way more than Crab. Perhaps trains are a combination of the best features of both, the spinal flexibility and body length from Weasels and multi-legged stability and armored exoskeleton from Crabs.