I'm a big fan of tunnels. I've previously blogged about tunnels for package delivery and tunnels for infrastructure like electricity, internet, water, etc. But I think tunnels might also be useful at a very small scale, within my yard. If we had flexible tunnel boring machines that could dig 4mm diameter tunnels:
- For each plant with invasive root systems (bamboo, blackberry) I'd tell the machine to follow the roots and set fire to them 🔥
- For each tree I'd tell the machine to follow the roots and deliver nutrients and dislodge pests 🐛
- For drough prone areas I'd tell the machine to dig a network of tunnels that could absorb precious rainwater into the ground so that it doesn't run off 🏜
I expect the small diameter tunnels would be much easier to dig but at the same time the flexible paths would be harder to build robots for.
[Terminology note: microtunneling already refers to 40mm tunnels much larger than these, and nanotunneling already refers to 40nm tunnels much smaller than these, but micro seems like a closer match]
Labels: future
0 comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Post a Comment