Muscle Car

The following line of thought started with my observation of how efficient the human body is at converting food into energy. A marathon runner can eat a pork chop and run 26 miles. Your car can’t do that.

Then I thought about how scientists created a heart out of human cells grown in a lab. It’s a muscle that actually works. So how much of a leap is it to imagine vehicles powered by lab-grown muscles, with artificial digestion systems, powered by your leftovers from dinner? All it would take is a small electrical stimulation to make the muscle contract in time to pedal a generator attached to a motor.

We probably wouldn’t want to use human cells to create those muscle cars. Other creatures have more efficient muscles. Maybe a huge muscle made from an ant’s leg would be good. Those tiny bastards can lift many times their own weight. I want my car powered by giant ant muscles.

The great thing about a muscle car is that the more you use it, the stronger it gets from the exercise. The downside is that you’d have to keep the muscle warm enough so it didn’t freeze, and not so hot it died. But I think science could figure that out. Maybe the muscle would be part ant and part polar bear.

The artificial digestion system would be optimized for whatever food you have in your area. If you modeled it after a cow’s guts, it could run on anything from lawn clippings to licorice. You could stop at McDonalds and order a Big Mac for yourself and a milkshake for your car.

This feels somewhat inevitable to me.

Comments

[PoweredByPork]

While I think the idea is genius, I foresee some complications:

1. The "stronger" the car becomes, the smaller its muffler gets.

2. Imagine coming out of the garage to discover the car's hood is sagging over its front bumper. the TV in the garage is on. It sense you come in and says, "dude...get me another beer so I don't have to miss any of the game."

3. Regular maintenance would include doses of Advil and waxing with Aspercreme.

4. You'll often find your car parked in the playground, picking on the Mini Coopers and Hyundais.

[golfwidow]

Just in general, I'd like to see someone genetically alter a kid or a pet with gauges so I could know whether they need feeding or diaper (filter) changes or medical attention. I might not be so inclined to avoid having either in my life, were that the case.

[Billy Arvia]

Scott,

After seeing the comment by Bertram, it never ceases to amaze me that, no matter how ridiculous the posting, someone will give a serious answer.

http://triplebee.squarespace.com/

[Besides, ants can lift a multiple of their own weight not because of better muscles, but because of small size: with linear change of size, muscle cross section changes by the power of two, but body weight changes by the power of three. An ant of double the size has 4 times the muscle strength but 8 times the weight.

[Ozz]

Each time someone replies it's a horse, a poor kitten dies. Seriously, how many times do you fools need to mention it. Be creative, afterall this blog is supposed to attract geniuses.

[BobUK]

Even cooler if there was an implant that allowed you to control your biovehicle by thought alone.

Just be careful what you wish for when you're driving...

[Jeremy Hunt]

Well, our cars require substantial amounts of upkeep, and their 'food' (gas) is increasingly expensive.

Organic technology would be great. I think cars could be 'grown', given their own DNA and told how to produce a hard outer shell, muscle/propulsion systems, and so forth.

Good call. I'd like to order 2 of those please.

JH

[Timhogs]

It's a late night in the western desert. A car shows up at a convenience store without its driver. The town sheriff shows up to investigate, but the only clue is the driver's metal watch on the floorboards.

And as the scene fades out, a burping noise...

[Tom]

to kick up the efficiency a bit, make the car a hydrolic/muscle hybrid where the muscle twicthes at it's most efficient rate putting potential energy into a hydrolic accumulator that can power the wheels at any time and also recharge from regenerative breaking.

[Skyler]

The heat required to generate a few hundred horse power would burn any biological muscles.

[Bertram]

This exists. Its called "horse and carriage".

Besides, ants can lift a multiple of their own weight not because of better muscles, but because of small size: with linear change of size, muscle cross section changes by the power of two, but body weight changes by the power of three. An ant of double the size has 4 times the muscle strength but 8 times the weight.

[Doug]

Uh, we already have that. Its called a "horse".

[Gametheory]

I think someone invented a way of transforming food into kinetic energy, and it is in use since the middle ages. It is called horse (Ba da ba da bum!).
But I gotta admit riding a gigant ant looks much cooler than a horse. Imagine John Wayne riding one of those.

[matt]

maybe, instead of driving to maccy d's you could build a car that feeds on grass or other plant matter and just grazes while it's not in use so that it can feed its engine.
I say this because that car of yours sounds like a horse on wheels.
So teach a horse to pedal-power your car. A man can run at up to 20mph, and cycle in excess of 100mph. A horse can run at up to 50mph, the rest is maths.
You need to invent either a horse-powered car, or genetically modify the horse to have wheels and ample luggage space.

[Paul Hosler]

How about a cockroach car; go any where, eat anything, very fast, and nearly indestructible. Serious gross factor though!

[Oli]

This is actually quite a good idea, what would happen if your car got cramp on the motorway though?

[Fafnir]

Sci-fi got there first, I'm afraid! Machines that could refill their energy reserves the same way we do - or better, by metabolising things we couldn't eat, like sunlight or garbage - would solve a lot of our problems. It's a looong way out of our reach as yet, though.

Also, to everyone worried about the "output" - if we get to the stage where this sort of thing is a possibility, we could probably get to the stage where the output is odorless. It doesn't happen with humans because we've evolved to metabolise all the energy from our food, not produce nice-smelling dumps, but in a handmade organism it should be possible to sacrifice a little energy gain to remove the methane and stuff.

[Nathan]

would the car need a set of lungs? How would the car cope when mixed in traffic with normal cars, breathing in all those fumes? Would it get lung cancer? Could you be fined for treating your car inhumanely? If you had an accident and totalled your car would you have a funeral?

[Cornholio]

I see only one problem. How would you know when it needs fuel?
It needs some kind of brain to decide on it's own that it has to refuel.
Of course I don't need to tell you that they invented horses already.
I think they are already as efficient as possible in transforming matter into energy. Especially if you put a carriage behind them.

[AJ]

this is the sort of thing we need if we could convince someone to put money into this this sort of project then it would make the technology to clone individual organs fro transplants so much easier you might even be able to keep a spare liver in your car and vent out all the alcohol after a night drinking so you were safe to drive.
the problem we would have would be if the car breaks down apart from the obvious smell and how to gauge fuel (maybe give you car some speed if you need to get somewhere in a hurry)

go the the auto shop i need 2 new tires and a lung for my car

also of there was a crash you could well end up with no one being able to tell what bits are you n what is the car what a mess

[RUBBA]

You wouldn't need small electrical stimulation to make the muscle work. Why consume electricity. A certain muscle just needs a select picture to expand and run a motor (or contract and stop).

[Bob]

I think we had one of these... we called it a 'Horse'.

[mike]

They do this already in parts of the third world. I think it's called a "rickshaw".

[Mohrorless]

What's next? Steroids for your "Muscle" car?

[Dave]

As with all muscles, they will become atrophied if not used regularily.

- Dave

[Anfauglir]

Possibly my naughty mind, but I read Rodger's "...problems of hot rodding the car..." and got totally the wrong mental picture! You know it could happen though: a warm, organic exhaust pipe....

In some ways it does seem inevitable, but we would have to overcome the issues about what "life" actually is. Would a car that ingests, excretes, and moves, be counted as "alive" or not?