There's something decidedly wrong with this image! What's that then you say? Well, I'm no sightseer, but I really cannot see a future for the car, or any road-borne vehicle. Not only is the use of oil-based fuels becoming untenable, but there is just way too much traffic on the roads, and no matter how expensive it becomes, it doesn't seem to deter families from having a second car, or even more than two cars.What alternative do I envision. I don't. I'm afraid that my vision of the future is quite bleak, I try not to think about it, because I am actually an optimist, but my faith in humanity fades a little more everyday. When one thinks back on history, rapid population increase tends to be followed by terrible wars, pandemics, natural catastrophes, and before humanity was around, mass extinctions. It seems like the planet always has a mechanism for having a regular clear out. It seems unlikely that we can sustain the current level of pupoulation growth, and that inevitably, if we don't bring about a huge decline in the World poulation by ourselves, then some external factor will kick-in and do it for us.
There are already signs that the planet will wreak havoc on us all; melting ice-caps, magnetic poles shifting, huge increases in UV levels, freak weather, widespread extinctions of animal species, drought and famine. The upshot is, it can't go on. There's bound to be a point where the planet goes nuts and tries to shake off it's human opressors. That moment will be critical for the survival of the human race. Some few will survive to begin again, just like they did last time, and come crawling out of the hills once more, reduced to primitive survival techniques and reliant on base instinct and adaptability.
