Beyond 2000

Growing up, one of my favorite shows was Beyond 2000. I don’t think it played a small part in sending me down the engineering path and constantly trying to hack things into something better. The show was absolutely unbelievable, almost magic.

One episode that I remember to this day was of a small Australian town that had issues with traffic congestion. Back in the 80’s the town put up LED speed limit signs that calculated the speed the car should be moving at in order not to stop at the next stop light and glide through. This was not only supposed to reduce stop and go traffic but also improve fuel consumption.

And now way-beyond-2008, my podunk little village on the corner of a swamp is utilizing this very same technology. Hooray for Orlando. The speed limit on I4 highway will adjust depending on congestion to keep the traffic moving. As a proud owner of a stick-shift this means I will no longer look like a freak with a bulging left leg. The idea is that when the congestion is detected the speed limit will decrease to keep cars moving, hopefully reduce accidents and even emissions.

There is of course a negative angle to any government operation: the system should have been ready over two years ago but the computer software malfunctioned. I sincerely hope someone questions the city about how a software malfunction took two years to be corrected. We live in a state that cannot afford police departments, law enforcement, community services and it’s governor campaigns vigilantly to give everyone a huge tax cut. This is why we simply cannot allow more software development jobs to be given to Indian, regardless of economic benefits of globalization, because we cannot educate our population and our community resources are going to suffer more and more as a result of it.

Personally, I would severely tax any company using offshore development labor and using the proceeds in a form of technology scholarships. We aren’t Beyond 2000, we are beyond @$#%ed if keep on shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to innovation and technology.