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Comment by devrandomguy | Hacker News Reader

Ants walk. They live near their necessities, and they move the entire colony/city, as a single unit, when the local economy goes bad. They only own what they can carry: their larvae and their next meal. Their payload ratio is legendary, but within the range of a bicycle + trailer. When there is a big problem, they physically band together to solve it.

We have so much to learn from the ants, but 2 ton personal vehicles, four lane city roads and a 1-2 hour daily commute, are not a part of that picture.

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"They only own what they can carry"

Individual households in tightly packed neighborhoods EACH have garages full of items they only use a few times a year. Some may share, but communal living is hardly there.

Then we need more jobs and more factories to replicate more of those same random items (ladders, wasp spray, yard tools, etc) so that they be stored away and not shared. Then there is more traffic for people to get to work where they participate in production that goes largely unused.

The system has enabled far too much excess, and it's a collective educational issue.

>random items (ladders, wasp spray, yard tools, etc) so that they be stored away and not shared.

Are there any community sharing apps? So that I could loan out my ladder, etc.?

Make a facebook group for your neighborhood if you want, I suppose.

There's no way I'm loaning out my tools, equipment, or anything else I own except to people I trust very highly. I like my possessions to A) be readily available and B) in good working condition when I need them.

A reputation system might help alleviate those concerns; it might even result in your tools being better maintained. I've never tried a car-share, but the general idea seems legit.

The primary motive for you to join, would be the opportunity to use the best specialized tool for every job, every time. If not even that would convince you, then you must have a truly awesome lab/workshop, and therefore you are out of our league, so to speak. Congratulations on your success, I hope to see your work on Youtube.

There's a difference between belonging to a sort of tool club, and paying with both time and money to keep things going well, and loaning out my personal possessions. I've been thinking about joining a local makerspace specifically to get access to large tools I don't have space for right now, and I have no problem with that idea. That's no different from joining a gym, in principle. (That doesn't mean I prefer using communal tools. I means right now, that's what's best for my situation. Once I have space, I absolutely will be buying a lathe, mill, etc.)

However, there's a clear difference between that and loaning out my personal equipment. I would never belong to a car share because my car is an intensely personal possession. It doesn't sit bare and empty when I'm not driving it--I keep things in my car--and I never want it to be unavailable to me. And the same goes for my tools. Even something as simple as a ladder or a socket set is personal, when it's something you selected and bought yourself.

I wonder how many mechanics you know? Machinists? Other skilled tool-using professionals? Ask some of them how they feel about loaning tools sometime.

Yes, I wouldn't be loaning out my Bergeon lathe, but maybe the 99% of people who aren't machinists might be willing to contemplate loaning out their $30 aluminum step ladder to their neighbor for an afternoon? Or maybe not, but I'd be interested in trying it out.

http://www.ofrei.com/page_205.html

I'm not speaking hypothetically. I have loaned many tools, and many other possessions, to people in the past. Other people rarely treat my possessions with care, and sometimes they can't be bothered to return them unless I badger them. If I loan you a tool, and you not only don't return it in good shape and in a timely manner but make me come get it from you, I'm certainly not loaning you anything else.

There are certain things I just won't loan. Books? Hell no, unless they're textbooks. If I think someone would enjoy/benefit from reading a book, I'll buy them a copy. Tools? Probably not, unless it's about my third spare and I don't care if I lose it--and I'd probably just give it to them then. Vehicle? Maybe, depending who they are, but I'm more likely to just give them a ride. And of course, that's the thing, isn't it... I'd rather help someone myself than just hand them my gear and wish them luck. And I have done so many times in the past, though I am becoming more selective about who gets my time.

Liability is not to be ignored either. Loan someone a ladder they're too clueless to use properly and you might find yourself getting sued. Besides the fact that I don't want someone else wandering off with my $300 Werner multiposition ladder--sorry, I don't have a crappy ladder I keep around just to loan out--the thing is not exactly foolproof to use. 16 feet off the ground is not the best time to realize you didn't lock the pivot correctly. I wouldn't let someone whose competence I was not sure of just borrow a chainsaw, motorcycle, or firearm either.

FWIW I don't like borrowing things myself either. I've broken friends' possessions before and even though I fixed/replaced them, it's still an awful feeling breaking someone else's stuff.

Here are some opinions and experiences related to loaning tools, if you're interested:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37765

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=355714

It's interesting that the 2009 thread had a lot more people who were happy to loan tools, and who had good experiences doing so, than the 2017 thread. That mirrors my experience with loaning things to and generally helping people over the last decade.

Yeah, this is all academic. What I am thinking of is basically a clean-room redesign of human civilization with little or no large vehicles, permanent structures or large population centers.

But, our bikes will need parts, and I am not willing to give up my laptop...

One option is to use the infinite garage of https://craigslist.com

It also helps if you're light enough to be able to collide without injury.

So maybe we should have bumper cars that only move 25 miles per hour, and never stop except at their destination?

I could actually see that working in big cities.

Let's also reduce the mass of the vehicle, to a fraction of its payload. Then, let's have the user supply the energy from their own food supply. These improvements will also improve health, safety and space/cost/energy efficiency.

https://imgur.com/gallery/DAijq#qcfLWFs

Plastic safety bumper plates around the front seems like a good idea for this build. It might save a dog's life.

>They only own what they can carry

Aphids?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.h...

Dogs and chickens, I forgot about them, but with safe slow traffic, your dog can tag along. With a special purpose compartment on the bike trailer, you could bring ~4 chickens, and have a couple fresh eggs every morning, wherever you happen to be. Home is wherever you can inflate your bed; your party only moves forward, never returns.

Perhaps someone should specialize to handle sheep and goats. If you want deer or bison, then form a hunting party, and then trade 100s of kilos of sausages for your kid's first bike-trailer-home.

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