Re: Agricultural Skyscrapers

Lee Daniel Crocker (
Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:39:30 -0800 (PST)

> Also i heard that they have very bright and inexpensive light bulbs (and grow
> lights) that dont go out that require not very much electricity but the light
> companies are supressing it, kinna like the way oil companies supress
> alternative energy devices.

Have you ever read Douglas Adams' book _The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul_?
There's a character (actually a robot) called the electric monk: he was
constructed to believe things; anything you told him to, without question.
He starts out in the book unable to move about because a malfunction has
made him believe that everything in the world is a particular shade of
pink, so he can't see anything else.

Isn't it blindingly obvious that any major advance in energy production,
which would instantly make a millionaire out of the first guy to get to
the patent office, can't possibly be "supressed" by anyone, and the
larger the corporation, the /less/ likely it is that there will be leaks.
Hell, Texaco couldn't even keep secret that one of their executives
referred to black employees as "black jelly beans". You honestly think
that same gang--and every other company--could keep secret an efficient
motor? And besides, it wouldn't be them who created it--it would be
engine makers, and they have no love of oil companies; in fact, they'd
love nothing more than to drop the price of oil to nothing to make their
profits go up.

There's a very good reason this "information" has never been leaked--
because it never existed.