Sustaining our Future

            Overall, I feel the developments talked about in these videos can positively affect our society by forcing us to expand our thinking and research in order to build a more sustainable community. In the past we have been relying too heavily on several key resources to produce energy and effectively support our lifestyle, and it would be best to find new ways to do so or even be able to counteract any damage that we may have done. These videos suggest a more abstract way of thinking in order to be more efficient and effective. In today’s world many of these suggested techniques may seem expensive or difficult to create, but that may be because we have never seen anything like them. If researchers can focus their attention and resources into creating several new developments such as the ones in the videos, then it may change the way people view them. Right now they are viewed as futuristic and idealistic, but once people experience the positive effects they have on society they may become accepted and hopefully become the norm.

            The effort to increase our sustainability will also lead to greater consumerism. Due to the natural tendency for firms to seek to maximize profits, as more sustainable inventions are created and put on the market, businesses will try to find ways to make them more appealing to the public. Consumers will soon see many new innovative products, such as utilities and electronics which conserve energy and are more eco-friendly. Once several new products are on the market, most producers will try to supply sustainability minded products to compete with the ones already present. Sustainability is very much connected to consumerism and may lead to many changes in the way we buy and shop for goods.

            An invention for a sustainable object that I believe would be very beneficial to society would be an engine that runs on salt water. Since salt water makes up over seventy percent of the earth, there is plenty of it, so being able to harness it as energy to power our cars and other vehicles would be a great addition to society. The world’s oil reserve is such a small proportion of the world’s total natural resources, and we have been fueling our cars with it for decades. Being able to power vehicles using the world’s’ most abundant resource would eliminate one of the main problems our society has today in terms of sustainability, and would greatly improve our world.