Photo by: Al Forbes
Director Mobry parked on the modest street where Thomas J. Bird worked in Manchester. Mobry couldn’t understand why Bird insisted on working at his humble neighborhood flat, but the Supra-Genius worked that way, so he got his way.
Mobry walked in and said, “What are you working on, Bird?”
“A new battery technology. It could revolutionize cars and industry storage worldwide.”
“You were working on a time machine!”
“Oh that’s done,” he said as if the news were trivial.
“It’s done? You invent Humanity’s greatest creation and don’t say anything?”
Bird sighed. “While testing I sent a robot 20 years then 50 years into the future. I asked it to return with the most evolved life form each time.”
“Okay.”
“It returned with a writer then a blacksmith.”
“Blacksmith? So low tech!”
“Chilling isn’t it?”
“No politicians?”
“I did ask for evolved creatures.”
“Ahh.”
Bird led him to cage. “I then sent it 200 years forward. It brought back this.”
In the cage was a meter-long roach.
Mobry paled.
“Apparently, the oil supply never ran out, but World War III began as a fight over oil and energy.”
“Right then,” choked Mobry. “Stop dawdling Bird. Get to work on that battery.”
_____________________________________
Written for Sunday Photo Fiction: https://sundayphotofictioner.wordpress.com/2018/01/07/sunday-photo-fiction-january-7th-2018/
Author’s Notes:
Battery technology stalled for decades. Lead-acid batteries were good enough for internal combustion cars. Now with electric cars on the rise and a growing need to store power gathered by alternative energy sources, battery tech is developing apace.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2015/09/15/five-emerging-battery-technologies-for-electric-vehicles/
EagleAye
Momus News 
Build a better battery but you’ll still have to be mindful about how you generate electricity in the first place. I don’t see how we won’t eventually run out of oil. It’s got to go sooner or later.
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The oil WILL run out eventually. I’ve seen no definitive (or at least convincing) timetable for when that will happen. And believe me, I’ve looked for it. With the world’s most populated countries (China and India) trying to live like energy-wasting Americans, this will ensure oil production, whether or not it runs out, will never be enough to serve everybody. And that’s when a war will start.
Alternative energy and Thorium nuclear plants ARE the solution. However, with solar/wind/wave there’s no way to economically store excess energy. That’s why they haven’t taken off as much as they could so far. Build a better battery and that will create a new world energy paradigm. Oil will cease to be the end-all be-all and, I believe, a practically inevitable war could be averted.
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Renewable energy is being increasingly taken very seriously in India since the last few years, with extremely aggressive targets. Even on Electric Vehicles, the Government is pushing for a deadline of 2030 for ONLY EVs to be sold in India, though the automobile industry is obviously resisting it forcefully.In both the cases, a super-storage battery will work wonders.
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That’s excellent. I hope they can push that goal through. I wish the US was doing something like that. China and India have every right to want to live like Americans. Why wouldn’t they? Trouble is, we Americans consume far more energy per capita than anyone else. If all that energy came from renewables then no problem, but that’s not the case. We still get the majority of our energy from oil, natural gas, and coal. If more countries start doing that as well, it will be a big problem. China also has an assertive renewables program but their energy needs are rising sharply. They’re building one coal plant a week. They’ve claimed nearly all the South China Sea. Why? To get at the oil & gas beneath the small island chains. This has already led to conflict with China’s neighbors and the sinking of one Vietnamese ship.
We need that super-battery, and soon.
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Let’s hope he has enough time. Enjoy this.
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Me too. I’m happy you enjoyed it. Thank you kindly!
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Enoyed! Not so much the roach. Hate those little buggers!
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Thank you! I hate ’em too. I’m not ready for them to take our place. 😉
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Remember the size batteries used to be? Imagine what they could be like in a few decades.
I saw a documentary the other day on a new form of propeller that is almost completely soundless. One edge of the blade has ridges a bit like a saw. They are looking into it for use in planes and wind turbines. If you want cheap unlimited power, we need a real life Eddie Kasalivich 😉
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That propeller sounds really cool. Could be handy in windmills. But who is Eddie Kasalivich? Sounds like we need him. 😉
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Eddie Kasalivich -> Keanu Reeves in Chain Reaction – 1996. Also staring Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz. Good flick.
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Oh right! I saw that in the theater way back . Thanks for reminder!
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I hope your predictive skills turn out to be wildly wrong. Nice story – clever and funny.
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Thank you! Yeah, I hope I’m wrong too. This isn’t a good thing to be right about. 😉
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I guess a roach is not a fish, as it is in Scotland, but a cockroach?
Cheery stuff, Eric.
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Oh right. I forgot about that. Yeah, this was a cockroach – the most likely survivor of a nuclear war. Thanks so much, CE!
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Our fish are pretty tough too!
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I saw the roach as a fish, so at least the ocean remains healthy? Myself I do not see the battery living up to our needs. I believe that humanity will have to find better ways to utilise the power of the oceans
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Oops. I should’ve written “cockroach.” I’d forgotten about the roach fish. I imagine if cockroaches were the most evolved land creature remaining, then the seas wouldn’t be too healthy either.
Batteries can be really handy for alternative energy because AE doesn’t always generate just the right amount of power exactly when you need it. Any excess is just lost. Batteries help with this by holding the extra and supplying power when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.
I think we can use ocean power in better ways too. Wave power looks the most promising to me. I believe there’s a Scottish company that’s doing just that. This would be a superior alternative energy source. There’s always waves. They could supply power 24/7 and even work on holidays. Tide power generates enormous energy but only twice a day. Turbines in rivers is another favorite. Power for 24/7. Rivers always run. If we develop these sources we’ll be in fine shape.
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I believe that ‘today’s society’ undervalues the ocean. May the ocean live forever.
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I hope the energy supply doesn’t run out or we’ll go back to the horse and buggy. I’m not surprised by the roach. I seem to remember Stephen Hawking predicting the world would explode in 600 years because of increase of power. I refuse to worry about it. Good writing, Eric 😀 — Suzanne
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Oh we won’t run out of energy. The potential energy in wind and solar alone could power the entire world several times over. We might run out of oil, though. So that’s why we need to remove the dependency on it long before that happens.
And I agree with you. We shouldn’t “worry” about it. It’s a very fixable problem. We just need the national will, and the world wide will to get started on it.
Thanks Suzanne!
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