Driving back home along the 400, I realized we could solve pollution and traffic problems at once by adding a tow-line for the left-hand lane in both directions – an electrified rail, which would hook up to automobiles through harnesses, and fire them off at high speeds to major destinations such as Barrie.

Toronto and Barrie would both have terminals where some mechanism connects cars to the rail. The rail drags them, engines off,  to the next terminal.

Think of an automatic car wash, but at high speeds.

If the rail gets its electricity from both wind and solar energy, it eliminates smog and traffic congestion too.

Even those of us living in relatively-warm southern Ontario have a problem with winter. Temperatures vary as much as 60 degrees between summer and winter. To address these sorts of local problems, a wing-type roof could be placed above the rail, minimizing the snowfall on both the rail and the roof.

On the roof, or canopy, I would embed solar panels to gather energy for the rail. Along both sides of the highway, I would place a long series of wind turbines dedicated to the propulsion system, but having the secondary purpose of deflecting some of the snow from the road.

I propose this as a test site, a pay-as-you-go type of thing. I don’t think it would make much difference to current traffic flow levels, since the stretch of road I propose to use is usually under some form of construction and almost always congested – except for off-hours late at night.

Obviously, if one test track works, build more. In fact, build a parallel industry to rival the automotive industry. Ontario has the infrastructure, the empty automotive factories and the know-how to build this sort of thing. The economic off-shoots of this sort of enterprise are enormous.

OK, enough with the conviction trip. It just takes a little thought to see that we could have the best of both worlds: our precious status-enhancing vehicles, along with greener pastures and jobs.

Here are some other ideas around the “Auto-Rail.” Why not try to launch and land airplanes via similar systems? It takes huge amounts of energy to lift a jet off the ground. This slingshot effect has been used on aircraft carriers for 60 years. With some research into magnetic levitation technologies it should be possible to launch huge payloads into the air – perhaps even space – all the while saving fuel. The planes could land on the rails and regain some of the energy lost during take-off.

Last but not least: use the moon for something. Put a rail-launch system on the moon, thereby opening up a cheap gateway to the solar system.

Are those enough economic spin-offs?

Transform -

1. v.tr. To make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of:

When I bought the gallery space at 1081 Bathurst it was full of junk. Old used books (it used to be a bookstore), pieces of wood and other detritus clogged the space from top to bottom. I’m not kidding. Something had to be done.

But instead of calling in people to get rid of the junk, we – Ton and I – decided to use it to renovate the gallery and make art with it. We have spent about eight months converting a pyramid of debris into what you see before you.

During this process we explored modern ways of making art. We copied my own paintings, for example, changing and then presenting them in a completely different context. In a sense, this is much the same process we used with the junk. By using previously-cut pieces, the forms that followed were inevitably dictated by the original. Yet the end results turned out radically different.

This mindset inspires me. Our consumerist culture creates so much junk; but by looking at this junk as a commodity to be redesigned we enrich ourselves while we clean up.

Maybe after the next asteroid hits Earth and everything turns to wasteland, maybe all the species will come back. And maybe there’ll be new species.

Maybe the earth will get bigger every time an asteroid hits and there will be a giant species. Maybe robots and lava monsters will rule the Earth. Earth will eventually get too old and start cracking for about 90 years. So they make a weapon to clear up the cracks in the Earth and it hits the Earth and a big wind sweeps the Earth and the cracks are cleared up. So the Earth lasts for another few years until the next asteroid comes along.

Like a thousand billion googolplexes.

And people turned into clams and monsters. Why didn’t they die? Because eventually an air bubble cracked and filled their mouths with dirt.

Then even the asteroids are gone and the universe is just a black, peaceful place.

Now, all this is a long way away, like saying “googolplex” until you’re a Grandpa.

And then space just fades away and it isn’t even black anymore. And then fingers appear, and it’s a big, big, big giant of outer space. And that giant falls and stays on the ground, laying there until all his parts turned into rocks.

And then everything starts over again and there are dinosaurs again.

- special to Ideas Incorporated by Mitch Witt, 7.

Think about it – the world has all these large deserts, of which mankind is not making good use. Yet, the deserts have some interesting qualities which could make them very useful in the future.

For one thing, they are quite brightly lit almost all year long. Except at night, obviously. So they’d make excellent places to put solar panels. Imagine covering a whole desert with solar panels. Sound wacky? But that’s something like what Europe has planned for the Sahara. Europe’s Institute for Energy wants to cover an area of the Sahara about the size of Wales with solar panels. It’ll be enough to supply all of Europe’s current electricity needs.

Why stop there? Why not cover more of the desert, to supply the world’s energy needs and more? Use the excess to produce hydrogen, and to desalinate ocean water, and to use the fresh water to create lush farms in the desert, and to supply Africa with fresh water and food?

If that seems daunting, why not get self-replicating robots to do the deed. These robots would make themselves using solar power, air, and desert sand.

It’s better to think big. Really big.