Sept 25, 2024–In the 1980s I brainstormed the idea of harnessing the energy of “people walking around” by installing turnstyles on the sidewalks of New York. My theory was that the small bursts of energy generated by people pushing through narrow openings would create enough power to run traffic lights or street lights, for example. It would be equivalent to a human waterfall.
I just read where the Japanese have accomplished this, by burying piezoelectric devices under sidewalks and streets, so that every person or car passing over them combined generates power. One project’s goal was to harvest 333 watts per square foot. One experimental system at a Paris marathon generated nearly 5 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to power a light bulb for 40 days.
The cumulative effect could have large repercussions for power generation someday. More important, this example reinforces my bigger thesis that life, or our perception of it, makes more sense when you put everything in terms of energy. More specifically, our bodies are nothing if not converters of the states of energy. We take in solar energy and put out mechanical energy.
There are complex intermediate steps of course.
Sunlight converts to grass, which cows eat, then we eat.
Or plants produce fruits and vegetables, which we eat.
Our bodies and the billions of bacteria riding around in our bellies convert those big chunks of food into smaller and smaller chunks, eventually turning everything into sugars which our cells consume to fuel our muscles and organs. We then use those muscles to create energy, singing, dancing, thinking, writing, lifting, running, playing rugby, eventually releasing that pent-up sunlight back into the universe. When we no longer can process energy, we die.
This is not meant to be a science lesson, but rather to distill what we are as physical beings down to the basics. How would we live our lives differently if we saw our existence as simply a conduit for converting various forms of energy into other forms of energy?
How would it affect what we put into our bodies, how we process the energy, how we allow our bodies to most efficiently use that energy? Then, how do we best expend that hard-won energy?
The obvious take-away is that maybe we would be cognizant of what forms of energy we put into our machine. In other words, would we eat more healthily? Or, like Buddy the Elf, would we just ingest sugar in its raw forms of cane sugar, maple syrup, and Froot Loops?
How would we approach re-energizing, aka sleep? Would we all sleep eight hours? Would napping become required, at home, at school, and at work? Or would we perceive sleep as a waste of time and net loss of energy?
What about exercise? Is running laps, lifting weights, and tossing tractor tires a net loss or gain of energy? Have couch potatoes cracked the secret of harboring energy? Or are ninja warriors leading the way, making bodies more efficient in processing power?
Finally, how does this affect our approach to creativity? Are creative thoughts and actions all about putting positive energy out into the world?
I don’t have an answer. I just ask you to think about it next time you are out walking around.
Next week: Entropy.
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Phil Houseal uses his energy writing and owning Full House PR. Contact him at phil@fullhouseproductions.net, www.FullHousePR.com.