House of the Future?  Let’s Hope Not

Here’s a vision of the house of the future that I wanted to share, largely to make this point:  it’s 399 square feet.  That’s only a little larger than the size of a prison cell for the top white collar criminals favored by our “justice” system. People don’t like being confined to small spaces; that’s why we use this as punishment.  Are we expecting this aspect of human nature to change?  (Read more, and see larger version of graphic below.)

I’m reminded of the smart car.  Whenever I see one, I think: Wow, that sure looks uncomfortable to be in, and unpleasant (not to mention unsafe) to drive.  Do people need to suffer to do the right thing environmentally?

Answer: No. The world receives 6000 times more power from the sun than all 7.3 billion of us are consuming; all we need is a set of tools that help us harvest this minuscule fraction, and we can all pretend we never heard of fossil fuels.  If nuclear can help, which I suspect it can, so much the better.

The hurdles in front of us are not technological; they are political.  As we’ve often noted here, the oil companies essentially own the U.S. Congress.  As long as that’s the case, we’re bound to face inane hurdles like asking people to be comfortable living in 399-square-foot houses.