Анатолий Юницкий о высокоскоростном транспорте uST в США
Hello everyone. Dmitry Fadin, journalist Today, we will talk with Anatoli Unitsky — a Belarusian engineer-inventor and entrepreneur. I am not exaggerating when I call him a visionary. So, Anatoli, please correct me if I’m wrong: you began your developments back in the Soviet Union, then continued them in Belarus, moved to Russia, and later relocated your company to Dubai. Is everything correct at this point?
It’s partly true but not entirely so. Let me tell you a bit about myself and the story of how I became an inventor. I started inventing when I was a child. My journey into invention began with rockets. I made model rockets when I was probably around 7 or 8 years old, in the first or second grade. Then I grew up and became a chief designer, so to speak, and even built a three-stage rocket. And I even had a mouse as a passenger. How old were you? I was in the eighth or ninth grade.
And the mouse was descending with a parachute from a height of two kilometers, because the rocket had three stages. And the passenger was in the third stage. I shudder to ask. Did the mouse survive? Sure, it ran away afterwards. I was calculating everything so that it wouldn’t get hurt. And I succeeded in doing so.
My congratulations. And by the way, my first diploma was in my tenth grade, awarded by the Dzhezkazgan Regional Committee of the Komsomol. And Dzhezkazgan is where the Baikonur Cosmodrome is located. My first diploma was for the functioning cosmodrome:
my rockets were launching. I took first place in a young inventors’ competition. This was, I think, in 1966. At that time, I began to wonder whether rockets are good or bad. And I realized that they are not suitable for space exploration. By then, I was already starting to understand that the industry, transport, and primarily rockets, which are also a form of transport, create ecological problems. The thing is, when a rocket launches, it burns hundreds or sometimes even thousands of tons of fuel. Moreover, when the rocket takes off, it ascends into orbit and “digs” a tunnel in the atmosphere.
This tunnel is inclined, and it depletes the ozone layer. One heavy rocket can destroy more than a million tons of ozone. But it is ozone that protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The ozone layer also plays a role in weather formation because it retains about 4% of solar energy, which is a hundred times more than the entire industry emits.
Thus, the influence of ozone on the weather and climate of the planet is stronger than that of all our industry combined. Okay, let me get this straight. The entire industry? Right, the entire planetary industry. I also dreamed of flying to Mars. I read a lot of science fiction about space exploration and other planets… And I realized that my dreams were unattainable because rockets are not suitable for that. Firstly, concerning the disadvantages of rockets, they have very low efficiency. To create a space industry, there should be millions of tons of cargo and millions of passengers transported each year.
There will be specialists working to support this industry and so on. Entirely different capabilities for space transportation need to be developed. Then it turned out that I calculated this too while I was still in school. Especially since I was interested in that, as I was making rockets myself — so, I calculated that the efficiency ratio… well, we know what the efficiency ratio is… Well… The rocket has less than 1% efficiency, and the price is insane. We know the current prices are about $10 million per ton.
So, it doesn’t matter if we want to send this cup of tea, which weighs approximately half a kilogram, into space — its transportation would cost $5,000. Everything becomes incredibly expensive. How can we do anything significant with such transportation costs? Clearly, we can’t. Therefore, we need to find something that can increase the volume of transportation a thousandfold.
And we need the efficiency to be not 1%, but, say, 99%. Well, 100% is not possible, right? Additionally, it should not harm the environment and should be at least a thousand times cheaper, not just ten times cheaper. I see that you have a solution. Yes, I do. I found it later when I started studying in Tyumen.
I enrolled in an engineering and construction institute — first in the industrial program, then I switched to civil engineering. My first specialization was as a transport engineer, specifically in ‘Road Engineering.’ I have an educational background in transportation. Even then, while studying at the institute, I didn’t abandon my dreams of space. I found a very simple solution. It was unique. This is how the General Planetary Vehicle was conceived. It features belt flywheels within protective vacuum channels, a magnetic levitation system, and linear electric motors.
This is what later became used in high-speed trains with magnetic levitation, which Elon Musk also talked about and wanted to use in the Hyperloop, in particular. So, I realized that these solutions needed to be implemented here. I understood that this was the direction that needed to be developed. I wasn’t daunted by questions like how we would create a vacuum on such a scale, how we would cross the ocean with an overpass, or how we would traverse the Andes.
Where would we get so much energy or materials? I understand; I’m an inventor — these are all solvable issues. In fact, we have addressed most of these questions today. Yes, this was the starting point for all my subsequent developments. That’s why I described this in such detail... Okay. Аll further developments didn’t just come out of nowhere; they emerged from this project.
I started to think, ‘Okay, I need to simplify the overpass and make it cheaper.’ At that time, I was studying material resistance, construction mechanics, and other sciences that allow for design and construction. I realized that a pre-tensioned structure is stronger and more material-efficient.
So, I developed an overpass that is literally almost a hundred times lighter than if it were built traditionally. I reduced the overpass to essentially a single string rail. Then I thought, ‘What if I place a wheeled vehicle on this rail? It would be a road — different, cheaper, and more efficient. Thus, the string system branched off from this space project. This happened a long time ago when I was still a student. Then I began to develop this direction
and realized that the exploration of space and the transfer of industry into space is a bright future. Meanwhile, the string system represents a business that is needed today, not just in the distant future. Yes, there is a problem with financing these efforts, but it’s possible to earn money and invest it in the development of my space program. Therefore, I started to develop both directions in parallel. Yes, then let’s talk about today.
Yes. So, it actually started back then. Today we are speaking in Atlanta, USA. You came here as a researcher, engineer, and entrepreneur. How would you describe that? Altogether. But again, this story begins from… So, I’ll continue. When I started to develop the string system as a business, it became clear that I needed engineers, scientific research, a team, experiments, and, of course, funding. How could I do it without money? I searched everywhere for it, but I was turned down repeatedly.
There were some minor supports; I even received two UN grants. During the Soviet era, I was supported by the Soviet Peace Fund, which provided a grant. But these were very small amounts. This whole story is detailed in my book ‘The Engineer.’ I continued to develop the transportation system almost on my own. The search for funding and opportunities to scale everything took me about 40 years, or maybe even more.
When did you first start trying to implement this on the ground? In the Soviet era. Ah, during the Soviet era. Yes, I created the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth. It was 1988. I earned my first $5 million, when converted to dollars, through the implementation of innovations. In a year and a half, we realized about a hundred of my innovations. There’s even a film about it, produced by Belarusfilm.
The film about these innovations is available online, in Russian and, I believe, in English. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and wild capitalism came. I had to survive. That’s when I started opening some stores and even began building small factories. I produced ceramic tableware — I had such a factory. Then I became a farmer to make a living and earn some money. In the end, I had enough to live on, but not enough for these developments and growth. I realized that this was not what I wanted. I needed to find other options
to focus on those developments that are necessary for all humanity. According to my information, in the late 1990s you tried to implement your developments in the Krasnoyarsk region. Yes, it was the late 1990s to early 2000s.
At that time, I basically had nothing but papers, analyses, articles, and drawings. But was there any support from some local or regional authorities? I reached out to the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, General Alexander Lebed. He was the governor at the time, and he supported me. He said, ‘Russia needs this!’ I also know that he told the president about this project then.
Vladimir Putin had just become president, and he talked to him about it. This was in 2001, and Lebed became my first major investor. He mentioned the need to build a high-speed string track from Norilsk to Krasnoyarsk, so people could work in the north but live in Krasnoyarsk, in the south.
Yes, he was indeed talking about this to Putin back then. This was in 2001. Unfortunately, a few months later, Lebed died, and I naturally lost that support. We were still building… We managed to construct the first test site in Ozyory. But there wasn’t much money,
so we only made a short track. It was inclined at one to ten. Instead of our uBus or uPod, we used a ZIL truck, which we modified and fitted with steel wheels. This was because you could buy a ZIL for a couple of thousand dollars.
I understand it, yes. It’s just hard to imagine. There are also films and videos about this. We worked on this test site to develop the technology. At least we began to investigate and study whether it was possible to travel along a string rail.
What is the deformability, what are the wear and noise levels? And much more. What is the wheel adhesion? There were many aspects to research. Unfortunately, our unscrupulous competitors destroyed this test site in 2009. But I still tried to gain support from the government.
By the way, I was supported by President Medvedev at that time. Dmitry Anatolyevich was the president then. He loved innovations – that’s true. And by the way… There is, again, a video report from the State Council on innovations and transport. It was in 2009, in November, I believe… Where Morozov, the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, reported on this project at the State Council: ‘We should build string roads, including the Moscow-St. Petersburg route. This high-speed road will be five times cheaper than existing ones,
and a ticket will cost $10, not $100.’ At that time, Medvedev said, ‘This is a true innovation. Russia needs it.’ But it all ended with lip service. Moreover, this provoked a counter reaction from unscrupulous competitors. Because why would they need such a competitor?
At that point, I realized that this was also a dead end. It wouldn’t work. Then I thought: but this is needed by ordinary people, the users. I made a video and reached out to ordinary people. I said that ministers, presidents, or oligarchs don’t need this innovation. They are doing fine. They have their own airplanes, their own villas. Why would they need any string track? This is something we need! This is for us, ordinary users. Why is the string road the future?
By that time, all the calculations had already been done — I’m an engineer, I’m a scientist. Because it is cheaper than any other road. Even cheaper than a cable car. It runs at the second level and doesn’t occupy land. And today, the highways and railways have paved over and buried five territories of the United Kingdom under asphalt and sleepers. Can you imagine, five territories of the UK under asphalt? This land is worth over a hundred trillion dollars. It has already been taken out of the biosphere. Nothing grows there.
There are no green plants that produce oxygen, which we breathe, by the way. On the roads worldwide, one and a half million people die each year. Statistics show a smaller number—about one hundred and twenty thousand. But fifteen hundred die later in hospitals from their injuries, and these are not included in the statistics. Therefore, the number of victims is at least one and a half million. Over ten million become disabled or incapacitated each year!
And multiply that by one hundred — more than a hundred million people would die. Name those wars that kill so much! Over a billion people will become disabled or incapacitated. More than a billion! Right.
And we can avoid this. We have no human factor involved: there’s an anti-derailment system. It’s a segregated path. What accidents? I said to people, ‘I have invented a new type of transport!’ Okay. Which is even more powerful than the railway transport. Its niche in the global economy will be larger than that of the automotive or aviation industries. We should not focus on any private advantages,
but rather on these general benefits, based on the laws of physics. What Stephenson, Ford, and Boeing accomplished together — that’s what we can achieve in terms of scale and possibilities. I turned to crowdfunding, which is when funding comes from the crowd. Crowdfunding is widespread in many countries. Currently, we have about 700,000 investors from 220 countries and territories. That’s more than in the UN, which has 192 countries. Yes, we have a bit more. We have already accomplished so much! Both in Belarus and in the Arab Emirates.
With this funding, we achieved what others couldn’t do with $10 billion. We made it a reality and demonstrated it. Since this is an industry, just like any other, we have passenger transport, freight transport, and mixed cargo-passenger transport. High-speed and super high-speed options are all represented — every niche of the transportation process. And the most promising aspect — I initially came to this conclusion — is the need for super high-speed transport.
It is the most important, after all, because the most valuable thing we have is time. High speed allows us to save time. High-speed transportation differs from super high-speed transportation… where’s the line drawn? The line is somewhere around... it varies. Generally, it’s about 150-200 km/h.
Is that considered super high-speed? Up to 300 km/h is considered high-speed. Although a rapid tram operates at 40 km/h, which is insignificant. But it is still called a high-speed tram. For me, super high-speed transport starts at around 300 km/h. Therefore, it’s more than 300 km/h — 400-500 km/h, and even possibly 600 km/h. High speed requires a comfortable acceleration and then comfortable braking.
. If you accelerate at less than one meter per second squared, you feel relatively comfortable. Yes. But then you need to accelerate for 10 km to reach 500 km/h, and if you need to brake, you also need to brake over 10 km. So, if you travel part of the distance at a calculated speed of 500 km/h, you will need extra 25 km. This means we need a 25 km stretch of land to build a super high-speed route. Because at super high speeds, everything is different. These are not low speeds. The dynamics are unique,
especially since the structure is not absolutely rigid; it is quite flexible. The dynamics of flexible systems at high speeds is a very complex science. But we have solved all these problems, and all the solutions are available. However, we couldn’t secure the necessary land. We only obtained land for short tracks. For example, in Belarus, we have a plot of land about one kilometer long. We built five test tracks there,
including an acceleration section for the super high-speed system. This is a real photo; it’s not Photoshop. This is a super high-speed vehicle. But the track is only 800 meters long. Therefore, naturally, we can only reach speeds of 50-60 km/h there, not 500 km/h. Those are different types of tracks.
Here you can see other types of vehicles and systems that fall under super high-speed systems — suspended and mounted systems. But in any case, all of this involves string systems. In the Emirates, we have a land stretch of about two and a half kilometers. There, we have already built a track and are testing it, where we can achieve speeds of 150 km/h.
However, we haven’t been able to secure land anywhere — neither in Belarus, nor in Russia, nor in other countries, nor in the Emirates. These are the main reasons that brought me to the USA. One shouldn’t think that land is just freely available here, and so on. But here, it’s all solvable. You can buy it here. You can’t buy it in Belarus, or in Russia, for example. And you can’t buy it in the Emirates either. Here, you can purchase it or take it on a long-term lease. You can negotiate with the landowner to become an investor — contribute the land.
We established a company here, and it will develop this direction. It sounds quite feasible. Specifically super high-speed transportation. Not urban transport. Not freight transport with low speed, and so on. We did that in Belarus and the Emirates. But specifically, super high-speed transport is what can be done here. I was granted a visa as an extraordinary individual — an O-1 visa. And it’s not given to just anyone. I have over 200 inventions, more than 20 scientific monographs, and several hundred scientific articles.
So much has been accomplished! We have designed, manufactured in our own facilities, and tested 15 models of our uPods. Completely different types — urban, suspended, mounted, high-speed, and freight. Name someone else who has done this without support. On the contrary, everyone just hindered us. There are undoubtedly many opportunities here. But I have a few questions regarding the local specifics. It is known that the automotive lobby in the USA is very strong. Essentially, it has buried American railroads and public transport.
They won in the competitive struggle. That’s normal — in fair competition. Because the railroad, for example, lost for several reasons. It will lose to us for the same reasons as well. The automobile has two advantages: the first is door-to-door service. Can a train provide door-to-door service? No. Right.
The second is that anyone can buy a car — any person or family. But can you buy a train? No, I can’t. But it has also a third advantage... And the third is that it is ten times more expensive to operate; that’s already... People want to possess it! That’s why... So I say – it can be purchased. When you think of automotive transport, do you think it’s just the car? No! Automotive transport is the road – transport relies on roads. How would you drive without them? Are you going to drive through swamps or forests? The road reaches every home. And when string roads reach every home, I will also travel door-to-door as well.
We have electric vehicles that are cheaper. So, bringing a string road to each home will be cheaper than laying asphalt. Moreover, we won’t take up land. We will live on the second level, or on the ground floor, while the transport will arrive at the second level, not bothering anyone. This is all solvable. Therefore, we’re not competing with roads and cars here.
Instead, we will actually help with freight transport in the USA. Overall, the main freight transport... How? The main freight transport in the USA involves trucks carrying containers — 18-wheelers. By the way, it’s a trillion-dollar business per year.It accounts for about 90% of all transport here. But imagine this truck driving on these tracks, kicking up dust, emitting gases, and sometimes hitting animals or even people.
Moreover, the transport costs are not cheap. Now, imagine we can create a rolling stock where we place the truck’s trailer, along with its chassis, onto our vehicle and transport it from city to city. Then, within the city, the truck can distribute the goods.
We would be helping them, not hindering them. They would be interested in this. They could increase their traffic, and the user would benefit because the delivered goods would ultimately cost less. So, we have something to offer to freight carriers. To manufacturers, certainly. But to the industry of truck drivers, freight carriers, and road builders…
But the truck will still be there. It will still distribute goods within the city. Why transport goods from New York to Miami by truck? Or, conversely, bring a truck here to Atlanta? Let it bring goods from the port to the terminal, and we’ll transport them here. Then the truck can distribute within Atlanta. Why spend those two thousand kilometers on highways? We can deliver the same cargo cheaper. Therefore, the trailer will remain. The truck will remain. The jobs will stay. We’re not hindering them. On the contrary, they might even raise their prices. They could say, ‘Hey, we’re delivering within the city, and it’s a bit too cheap.
Let’s try to earn more.’ Ultimately, it will be cheaper for the user, because we’ll cover that long distance very cheaply. The long distance is large, while the short distance can be more expensive. So, on the contrary, they will be interested in this. We calculated that to address the freight traffic, we need to build about 20,000 miles of such roads in the USA. 20,000 miles! Of course. How much do you think? Well…. I have no idea how much, but… Wait. Over the past 100 years, thanks to Ford,
either six million kilometers of roads according to some data, or four million according to others were built. Is that just in the USA? In the USA. Is that just in the USA? Just in the USA And why, again, does the USA need this project? The USA is truly a great country, especially in the transportation sector. It has set records. I will talk about some of these records. In the 19th century, they began building railroads in the USA at a rapid pace. In a relatively short time, they constructed the largest network of roads in the world.
And this was on the territory of the USA. I can compare it, for example, with Russia, Tsarist Russia. There were only a few branches there. Look, here in the USA they were actively building roads. Meanwhile, some prominent individuals in Russia suggested constructing the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok. The government and the Ministry of Transport rejected this proposal 18 times. What was the rationale? They needed to develop horse-drawn transport. That was the reason for the rejections.
I get it. Yes, 18 times. Meanwhile, while they were rejecting proposals, in the USA, from 1880 to 1895, they built 175,000 kilometers of railroads in just 15 years! They connected the coasts, as far as I know… It doesn’t matter. That’s 12 Trans-Siberian railways, even 15. In Russia they say we need to develop horse-drawn transport, while here they say, ‘We’ll do it.’ And they built 15 Trans-Siberian railways in 15 years! Can you imagine that? Well, here they didn’t ask anyone for permission. These were all private enterprises.
That doesn’t matter. What matters is that it was done here. Yes, it was. And what did this give America? New cities emerged, along with industry and manufacturing. The economy rose to a new level. That’s right.
It became a powerful industrial nation thanks to railroad. And all of this happened in a very... very short time. Yes, in a relatively short time. The 20th century. When Ford appeared. Don’t think that there were no cars before Ford. The first car accident happened at the end of the 18th century. The only two cars in the city collided. I’ve heard about that.
It was later — almost 100 years after that. This was at the end of either 1795 or so... There was a steam engine. Well, it doesn’t matter. It was still a vehicle. Somehow, the driver lost control — there was very primitive steering — and crashed into a powder magazine. The boiler exploded and flew away. That was the first accident at the end of the 18th century. Ford started producing his cars over a hundred years later. But he scaled it up and demonstrated that it was needed. It was necessary! When people asked him where his cars were needed, he would say: ‘Close your eyes, go to a world map, and point.’
Wherever you point, that’s where a car is needed. And he was right, but not entirely. What if you pointed to the ocean? And I’m saying the same now. Where is a string road needed? I say: ‘Close your eyes, go to a map, and point.’ Wherever you point, that’s where it’s needed. And even if you end up in the ocean. I see. The surface of the ocean covers about three-quarters of the planet. A road is needed there too. And I can show, for example, a project for a string road.
This is after the space ring; I started developing it even further. An underwater ring? This is a vacuum tunnel. It was drawn over 40 years ago, probably 50 years ago. No offense to Elon Musk but he wasn’t the first to come up with these vacuum tubes. Moreover, here’s a tube from London to New York, running through the ocean at a depth of 50 meters with neutral buoyancy. The travel time was 5 hours. So, this direction is also in our work. But it’s complex. And again, it requires significant funding. Therefore, I’m naturally working on it as an optional project. However, we have solved all the engineering problems here, by the way.
They have been resolved here as well, unlike with the Hyperloop. They haven’t solved the problems, and now this direction is essentially closed. It’s regrettable. We have a solution for how to continue developing this direction. Therefore, we can also traverse the ocean. String roads can run in tunnels, including underwater with neutral buoyancy.
Moreover, they will be inexpensive. All of this has been calculated. We know how much material is needed. All these engineering problems, as I mentioned, have been solved. I have paid great attention to the aerodynamics of high-speed transport, and I hold dozens of patents specifically for this. I have designed the most aerodynamically efficient shapes, where the coefficient of aerodynamic drag approaches the theoretically possible limit. This has been tested in an aerodynamic tunnel. So, this is not just some theoretical ideas. Yes. This super high-speed vehicle I showed showed is designed with these engineering considerations in mind.
And, by the way, I have patented this in the USA. I received patents in the USA for this. Well, I can’t help but notice that all these projects sound like something out of science fiction. Could you please tell me… Well, it’s not a science fiction. It’s 8th-grade physics.
Either way, at the beginning of our conversation, you mentioned that you were fascinated by science fiction as a child. Who influenced you so much that such thoughts became visualized? Because I transitioned from fantasy to action. I thought, ‘Oh, a rocket, that’s cool. Why don’t I try to make one myself?’ I didn’t continue just to fantasize.
Otherwise, I would have become a futurologist or a philosopher. I get it. Just like Tsiolkovsky. And Korolev, for example, was a Soviet scientist and a practitioner. Korolev was a practioner… Or like von Braun, who later led NASA. So, these are practitioners. Practice is based on theory.
Because without theory, without knowledge of physics and other laws — mathematics, exact sciences — you can’t make something fly or work the way you want it to work. That’s why I enjoy fantasizing, but then I ground those ideas. I’ve managed to realize several qualities in myself. I’m a critic; I immediately start to criticize my decisions. I say, ‘This is nonsense.’ Like Münchhausen: ‘This is foolish!’ But I also have another side — I’m an optimist. I think, ‘Why not? Let’s consider it.’ And this internal debate goes on within me, though it’s not visible.
Thanks to this, solutions eventually emerge... If I had just fantasized, nothing would have happened. Or if I had only criticized, I would have accomplished nothing. It’s essential to maintain all these qualities within oneself.
So, regarding America — it didn’t just appear. This country needs it. As some politicians — I’ll refrain from naming them — have said, we need to Make America Great Again. Making it great shouldn’t be just a slogan. It needs to be done in practice. There should be a powerful technological program, just like the railroad in the 19th century, and the automotive and aviation industries in the 20th century. In the 21st century, it could be string roads, super high-speed roads that can be built in thousands, even hundreds of thousands of kilometers. They would solve all logistical challenges, restore nature to its pristine state, and leave no carbon footprint.
This is the greenest technology, in fact. It’s five times more economical than a Tesla. It’s also an electric vehicle, you know? I do. Therefore, all these transportation problems facing the country and the economy can be easily solved in order to become great again. They are solvable.
But without what we did in high-speed and freight transport in Belarus and the Emirates, we wouldn’t be able to propose anything. Without building test tracks, including a research center and an innovation center. It was easier for Ford, and for Boeing, and for Sikorsky. Why? They were making a means of transportation. A car is a means of transportation. An airplane is a means of transportation. A helicopter is too. Did Ford think about what to make the roads from? Asphalt? Concrete? How to build bridges? Or maybe he thought about how to build garages? Or perhaps he considered oil refining? He only made the means of transportation; everything else was done by others.
But for us, we have to do everything! How can we do it without string roads, without second-level infrastructure, without an automatic control system? Without solving this huge number of tasks we’ve addressed... If we don’t solve at least some of them, then nobody will need it. It won’t work! Yes, here you can only come up with complexes, of course... Therefore, our tasks are more complicated. And that’s why we need significant funding.We are not making a vehicle,
we already have it. It doesn’t require that much money. Here, we need to create the entire infrastructure, even showing residential and industrial areas. How it differs when there’s second-level transport: I mean linear cities. By the way, I received a UN grant specifically for this — linear pedestrian cities. When transport is above, and the city is pedestrian-friendly. It’s string transport. I received UN grants for that more than 20 years ago. In America, people understand well what business is. In America, people understand what business is.
Examples like Elon Musk, for instance. There are plenty of such examples here. Or you can look back in history: Ford or Sikorsky. He was Russian, by the way. And that’s fine. Or Nikola Tesla. As far as I remember, he was from Croatia From Croatia. A Croat. So, he still came to America. He wasn’t a native American. In fact, there are hardly any native Americans here.
Right, everything is definitely set up for business here. And that nationality... So I’m... I am, in this case, a citizen of the world. That’s exactly where I wanted to pause before concluding our conversation. Your business card says you are an The World Engineer. Could you tell me a bit more about what that means?
I’ve never encountered that before... When I came up with all this, including the space system for moving industry into space, I started thinking about other things. What is humanity? What is this planet? Not just a country or a separate people, but the planet, civilization, humanity. Where did life come from? How did civilization arise? And why am I doing this? Not for my personal interests, not for the interests of a specific group of people, but for all of humanity And so, I’ve also become a Doctor of Philosophy in Transport, and I started to reflect more like a philosopher.
What is our civilization? I realized that, in fact, it is an engineering civilization. Our civilization was created by engineers. And the first engineer was the one who figured out how to light a fire. And then by the fire... ‘Let’s roast some meat on the fire! Let’s warm ourselves! Let’s put on some animal skins. And since there’s light from the fire, let’s draw something on the wall.’ And then, ‘if we’re sitting and warming up, let’s talk about something.’ Language arose from there — communication, and so on. All of this was invented and created by engineers.
Then came the wheel, arrows, bows, steamships, airplanes, rockets, and iPhones. So many other things. All of this was created by engineers, and there are millions of inventions, if not tens of millions of technologies. There are several tens of millions of patents on technologies worldwide. And not all engineering technologies are patented.
So, these engineers — thousands of generations of them — are mostly nameless. Who invented the wheel? Only an engineer could have done that. And being an engineer doesn’t necessarily mean having an engineering education; it’s a way of thinking and a search for solutions. The solutions are of engineering nature, grounded in engineering principles and based on physics.
So, do I understand correctly that ‘The World Engineer’ is how you formulated your credo? Yes. I’m not saying I’m The Chief World Engineer or a Super Engineer of the World or anything like that. I’m simply an Engineer. But of the World, because I think about the World. That’s why ‘Engineer’ is capitalized, and ‘World’ is capitalized. I get the point. I sincerely appreciate your approach as well. Thank you for this conversation.
2024-11-28 05:58
