Potential Energy – XKCD

There is a concept in life that I find to be utterly underutilized and whenever it is represented in fiction (or XKCD) I am always inordinately excited.

Mechanical systems can rely on many systems for power, but as this comic alludes, we generally use electricity or combustion-generated torque to make something move. Our whole modern world is built around this, making us dependent on continuous energy generation.

But it doesn’t have to be this way!

What we think of as “solar power” usually means photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity that then must be used or stored. Likewise, our modern concept of “wind power” are just turbines that capture the air’s movement and turn it into electricity. Hydroelectric dams are the same.

What if I told you there was a better way?

Before we ever had electricity-generating turbines, we used the same natural energy sources more directly. Waterwheels and windmills that drove gears, sunlight that was focused for drying, heat, and greenhouses.

Bicycles, without electric motors.

Nowadays, we’re so convinced that electricity is the way to meet our needs, we rarely ever explore alternatives.

A pull-back car is a fun silly idea, but what if you had a wind-up motor that you could “charge” as needed. In the comic’s alt-text, the factory says they pull back the cars really far, but I could imagine a world where we substitute winding stations for gasoline stations, and you hook your device up to the windmill or watermill that is turning the crank… winding you up for the next ride.

There’s gotta be a good joke about this being a crazy crank’s idea, or how I’m just winding you up… but there is something to it.