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Internal Combustion Engines

By Bruce R.

If there is anything that comes closest to symbolizing the evils of technology and the current society, I would say it is the automobile (powered by Hydrocarbon Burning Internal Combustion Engines - HYBRICE).

Why I dislike (possible even fear driving) is the car seems to have an air of death about it, with tremendous power. There is a big difference between being a passenger, putting my life and trust into another person's skill and luck, and driving myself, where my skill and luck determines if there will be blood shed or not!

I can feel the lack of control that I have with a car, compared with a bicycle. My vision is sometimes blurred and distorted through the glass windows, there are blind spots where anything can be, sounds I receive about me are distorted, muffled, amplified, and redirected, and my choices of action and reaction are vary limited. In short, all of my senses are dulled and slow when I become the "brain" of the HYBRICE--a stupid and seemingly harmless animal that can kill only by "accident"!

To survive as long as I have riding a bicycle (with only one accident, at age 9, with a car), I have had to think of cars as beasts, because even though the people controlling them are highly intelligent, the HYBRICE is of a very low mentality, with very limited senses and reactions.

The HYBRICE is my "devil". It is my symbol of the technological ills of this society. It murders, yet little redesigning has been done to prevent this. It pollutes, yet little has been done to replace its method of locomotion.

2006/08/14 - My comments:

My, my, I what a drama queen! Well, this was an essay, that I wrote to myself, to solidify my resolve to not drive, or own a car. It worked. I was 45 when I bought a car for the first time; the family car, which I only drive on the freeway for long trips. I was 50 when I bought my first car, which I use regularly.

HYBRICE - I used this odd acronym, because I had finished reading a book about Lear's external combustion turbine car, which burns fuel at air pressure, so it has very low emissions.

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