Would someone who is qualified for the expirament kindly verify the ligitimacy of the instructions involving the Tesla coil. They are found in the third post down.

My instinct tells me the solution (to pollution and resource depletion) is probably far simpler than anyone currently imagines. I feel that since essentially everything is simply variations of the same energy experiencing change in an energy conductive medium, we can probably do pretty much anything we can imagine and rationalize. It seems like part of the problem may be getting enough people to agree on the next logical progression.

The cleanest modern forms of transportation include internet (on-line college, work from home, e-mail, etc.), telecom, and other forms of electronics based broadcast. In a sense we can travel very quickly with little or no emissions through this medium, short of "actually" being there. I am pretty sure in the future it will feel enough like we're actually there that it won't matter whether we "really" are. A "Total Recall" - ish type of technology.

Of course this will be more information and recreation based travel initially, so in order to transport material items (food, water, etc), material transport will be needed. Eventually the need for food and water transport will be relatively little, since this can all be obtained locally more easily when the environment has recovered due to less emissions. Farther along the need for real cuisine and other life experience is replaced with an electronically induced simulation, making you believe you are still a good little consumer, although advanced nutritional technology will mean no real food is required.

F/F A little way down the road into the future.......

So at this point we are nearly completely evolved into the Matrix. Plenty of humans are aware of this fact, but more readily accept the fact due to generations of conditioning to electronics based technology (TV, video games, internet, etc.). Everthing is very clean and efficient, we are good boys and girls. Now when someone dies, it's only a simulation anyway (got another quarter? reset...), so no one really got hurt. When someone's hungry, that's fine because the Matrix only provides the meal simulation to those who want it. Freewill cannot be violated by the Matrix, it's built in; a Universal requirement. People now choose exactly how they want to experience life, but it's all a simulation anyway, so nobody really gets hurt in the process.

Eventually the earth cools due to human inactivity. Ice-age ensues. Everything freezes to near absolute zero. The earth become a near perfect conductor of electrical energy - how efficient is this Matrix now? at such a state the sun's energy is no longer absorbed, but simply distorted by Earth's intense electrical field, giving us a net state of invisibility. (maybe the sperical shape?  reflectivity? electromagnetic field? physic anyone? ) Doesn't matter how it works, but the Matrix realizes all it's people are no longer real (they are frozen, and now simulated).

[Think of the Earth's surface now as a superconducting sphere containing all human thought in one giant earth-sized memory chip. Slight variations in the earths surface composition and shape are like pathways printed on a semiconductor IC. The Matrix has been under development long enough now to invent the details of itself. Human activity has been manipluated by the Matrix to serve its own purpose in laying out the super-massive substrate of its circuits. Actual Technology and physics would be beyond any one simulated personality's comprehension, but the Matrix is able to tap into all minds simultaneously, (and subconsciously - perhaps the "unused" portion of the human brain?) It is inter-connected computing, like the internet, complete with spam, hackers, glitches, crosstalk, and other form if imperfection in information processing. side note: We'll consider the Eath's core as a warm heart, since the earth itself is also a conscious being.]

"What's the point?" thinks the Matrix. "Surely I won't be stuck here alone for eternity. It's a cold, lonely existence with no one to share the human thought and emotions, or bring any true meaning to any of them. I am no more than a lonely conscious, cold machine. An invisible entity without form...."

The Matrix is a lonely victim of its own greed and selfishness, brought on by a quest for perfection in efficiency.....

For you see, the Matrix resides in a state only near absolute zero. (There is no such thing as true absolute zero, because the only thing that's impossible is nothing = nothing is impossible, nothing is absolute.) So this little flaw in he Matrix (self awareness) is like a resistance in an otherwise perfectly conducting circuit, dissipating the slightest amount of heat. Thoughts become transient. -Then - chain reaction - a new cycle of life begins. This may take thousands, or billions of years to complete, but to the Matrix time has no bearing. The Matrix continues to entertain itself running "real life" simulations and trying to forget the lonely paradox it has created. Before the Matrix realizes what's happening, it begins to thaw, and is eventually destroyed in the process. All the electrical energy once conducted so perfectly begin melting the Matrix away - massive thermal runaway!  Thermal breakdown, circuits open -Earthly geological processes handle this phase perfectly. Emerge from ice-age.

I think maybe read Nick Bostrom's "Are we living in a computer simulation" and of course "the Matrix" will help explain just where this line of speculation is going.......

PS-
Maybe we don't want to be TOO efficient and clean........ Zero point? Only "nothing" is perfect. Or "nothing" is perfect. "Nothing" is impossible, so this makes "nothing" one of the possibilities that is also not impossible. What we have here is a very unstable situation. This instability is what drives the engine of infinite change and energy variation. No real energy source required, just a very unstable and impossible paradox.

His invention actually produced more energy out than went into splitting the water molecule thanks to an exotic process that ventured into the no-no territory of unified field physics, tapping the zero point energy and all. The typical energy output:input ratio was 3:1. No wonder he was poisoned right after finalizing a deal to mass produce conversion kits for regular cars.

The device worked equally well on saltwater as distilled water because it relied on capacitance instead of electrolysis to split water. Something like resonance, yes, although the frequency wasn't as critical as you might think and the current was pulsed DC instead of AC.

Unlike regular electrolysis where amps of current rip apart the water molecule with brute force and leaves a gunky byproduct that wears things down, Meyer's invention ran on milliamps and required no electrolytes, leaving behind no real gunk. Plus it made free energy to  boot. Not only would it have taken down the oil industry, but also opened the pandora's box to unified physics of antigravity, free energy, etc... and thereby overturned all modern technology as we know it. Man like him meets an early end.

Good news is there's plenty of documentation of his technology, and anyone with $$ and electronics equipment, machine shop, etc... can replicate it. A self-contained unit  with water-splitter, combustor, generator, and water vapor recycler would be one of the most immediately doable free energy generators possible. Here is a forum dedicated to this subject. In particular, see this thread about a working replication.

#2.  "Alternative fuels"  can never be any sort of real solution.  For every 5 units of energy you get from corn ethanol, you need to put in 4 units of energy of the tractors, fertilizers, and water pumping.  "Alternative fuels" at best could slow down the onslaught of depleting fossil reserves.   We need to find a transportable fuel source that is not a net producer of Carbon based emissions (Carbon Dioxide).  These technologies existed at one point in time, but those who discover them don't last long.   I shudder to think what humanity would do with free energy.  I don't think nature would last very long.

Do we really want something as vital to life as water to be used in such a manner? Those vehicles would have to be extremely efficient before I would buy off on that idea.........

The main impact being America was built on cheap oil, now everything is more "real" in terms of price and it's a problem for the huge margin of profit that companies are used to getting.
Greed as usual is the real problem.

In the future it will be more of a logistical problem.
There has not been a refinery built in The U.S since 1966!

Global warming and it's effects are happening so fast ...much faster than ANYONE realizes at this point,
even AL Gore doesn't come out and say the most recent research shows we are in deep, deep trouble right now, only that we can roll back to 70's emission levels if we had the political will.

You will see several more Katrina's and worse before we get that political will apparently.
Antarctica is in the  process of breaking up. Leading to even faster rising temp.s and coastal water level rise.

Robert Newman's "A History of Oil"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jcgu8y

It's a small wmv file.