I watched the new Jim Jarmusch film, Only Lovers Left Alive, yesterday. It’s a beautiful film, with some really great ideas that stick in your mind. The male character, Adam, played by a very emo hipster Tom Hiddleston (married to the almost translucent Eve played by Tilda Swinton) talks about the lack of imagination of the zombies – the term vampires use for humans. It’s not hard to see what he means by that. He speaks about the demise of various scientists – Galileo to Tesla and Einstein and the fact that people are still arguing about Darwin. It’s a curious angle from which to approach the Vampire genre, but one that actually resonates in ways I assume the Twilight series never could.
So when I saw this next little clip, it brought a dual response from me.
The first was excitement that something new and useful and potentially world changing could exist. The second was my sustainability hat – where are the materials coming from? Which poor country rich in minerals will be exploited now? It’s a natural reflex for me. Yet those two thoughts can co-exist. The innovation is exciting, it does open possibilities and while it is developed, one can simultaneously ensure that the supply chain operates in a morally responsible way.
I don’t know how far you can take the solar roadway concept. But if it’s really that good then it should be supported as part of a future energy mix. I was at a talk a couple of years back and people were talking about distance restrictions on electric vehicles. The solution to that was having cars charge on motorways as the moved. This would also allow for smaller batteries significantly reducing the weight of the vehicle in question.
Incumbent companies maintain the status-quo by disguising incremental change as radical innovation for the most part. There are a lot of very good, game changing ideas out there that demonstrate the creative and innovative spirit of humankind. We should support these as and when we find them. There’s a lot of extremely cool stuff just around the corner.