The Ubiquitous Society, Viewed from an Imaginative and Scientific Perspective

“How convenient it would be if I could fly like a bird or run swiftly like a deer or a tiger.”

Those who travel often and far have probably had such a thought as they contemplated the long road ahead. In the real world in which we live, scientific technology has made transportation convenient in the form of airplanes, cars, boats, and the like. But even so, as humans, we are never quite satisfied. Instead, we continuously dream of bigger things, striving to make life even more convenient and comfortable.

Prodded and encouraged by this endless thirst of dreams, scientific technology moves forward to turn dreams into realities. Jet airliners, bullet trains and the like were invented through this process, with the result that transport speed, ability, comfort have all increased significantly over time.

The synergy between science and imagination is without doubt, wonderful. Yet in the dream science world, where imagination reigns supreme, vehicles are even more dynamic. Ryuseigo (from the anime Super Jetter) flew at mach 15. Yamato (from Space battleship Yamato) was able to make a roundtrip of 148,000 light years in one year. Then there was Mighty Jack (from Mighty Jack), who was able to fly undersea, oversea, and in air.

What would happen if such vehicles were created in real life? And even more interesting, what kind of dreams will we see as a result?

Ryuseigo’s top speed of mach 15 is approximately 18,000 km/h. You could go from Tokyo to Okinawa in 5 minutes. This is very fast, even in the dream science world. A fact that is more outstanding is that Ryuseigo doesn’t require any runaway, being able to take off and land anywhere at any time. Almost everybody would agree that it would be very convenient if such a vehicle could actually be created. But the reality is that if it were built, we would not be able to ride in it due to physical limitations.

The problem is that Ryuseigo accelerates to its top speed at a very high pace. Passenger flights in today’s world take off slower, and even with the limited acceleration, passengers feel their body being pushed into their seat during takeoff. In a mach 15 flight, the takeoff would feel far more overwhelming. Assuming that Ryuseigo could reach mach 15 in 30 seconds, the physical force on a passenger's body would be 17 times the force of gravity. Pilots of jet fighters are said to faint at around 10 times gravity, so at 17 times gravity, it's certain that all passengers would lose consciousness.

Also it's necessary to take into consideration the fact that Ryuseigo has a tendency to make a lot of sharp turns. Sharp turns are bad enough in real life. In cars they can cause whiplash and car sickness. With Ryuseigo and its mach 15 speed, the turns will feel like torture. If it were to turn at a radius of 100 meters, and if you weighed 70 kg, you would be squashed by the wall on the other side at 190 tons of force! Your whole body would be fractured and stuck to the wall. That's a pretty bad situation!

Then there is the heat factor. Heat is generated when an object moves through the atmosphere via friction with the air. At mach 15, the heat generated would be 13,000 degrees. At this temperature, all atoms would evaporate. Thus, regardless of whatever new material the Ryuseigo is made of, you would get vaporized as well. The Super Jetters who drove the Ryuseigo were apparently able to withstand the heat. I guess that’s just something you would expect from a hero living in the 30th century.

In other fictional stories, even faster vehicles have appeared. For instance, there is the “kintoun” (flying cloud), which Sūn Wùkōng (from the Chinese novel Journey to the West) used. It was able to travel 200 li (Chinese unit of length) in a blink of the eye. One Chinese li equals 560 meters and considering that a blink takes 0.1 seconds, in 1 second, the kintoun could travel 1120 kilometers during that short interval of time. That equates to a speed of 4,000,000 km/h, which is mach 3300!

This is amazingly — blindingly! — fast. You could get to Gandhara which is 3000 km away from Chang'an, China in a little more than 3 seconds. With this speed, Sūn Wùkōng may have been better off going to get the sutras by himself using the kintoun. However, with further thinking, that is not the case. First, there is the essence that the sutras can only be given to a monk who has rigorously trained and walked the hard road. Secondly, Sūn Wùkōng would not be able to return with the sutras safely, because they would get burned from the heat of 640 million degrees in centigrade (air friction) generated during the ride back on kintoun.

The special police car driven by Robot Detective K (from Robot Detective) had wings that enabled it to fly. The Zubacar used by Zubat (from Kaiketsu Zubat) and the vehicle used by Mighty Jack were similar. In fact, many of the vehicles in the dream science world could travel freely through the air, land, and sea.

What started this all-terrain, almighty vehicle trend was Atragon (from Atragon). The sole creation of Captain Jinguji, this vehicle looks like a submarine with a drill. The ship could travel at 80 knots oversea, 50 knots undersea, mach 2 in air, and 300 km/h on land. It could even travel underground at 20 km/h. With 50 knots and 80 knots corresponding to 93 km/h and 148 km/h, the ship definitely has a lot of speed.

What is most outstanding about Atragon is its underground speed. To compare in real life, for the excavation of the Dover tunnel, a Japanese tunnel-shielding boring machine was used that was able to dig 1500 meters in one month. This equates to 2 meters/h. The Atragon is 10,000 times faster than this.

However, I wonder what happens when Atragon moves from air to land and sea? I can’t imagine the ship landing on or drilling into the ground or diving into the sea at mach 2. Then again, Mighty Jack and GodPhoenix (from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) did not slow down when plunging into the sea from the air. I guess the force is not as bad in comparison to when going underground. But still, is it really okay?

The Atragon spans 150 meters in length, and weighs 10,000 tons. From the looks of it, the diameter of the ship appears to be around 20 meters. If it were to dive into the sea at mach 2, it would encounter 1,600,000 tons of water resistance, so the ship would (should) stop moving instantly. Even if Atragon could withstand this, the crewmembers inside it would not be able to. Moving at mach 2 and then suddenly stopping, the crewmembers would fall forward and crash into the ship’s wall at mach 2. We would need to send out some prayers.

Speaking of advanced vehicles, we cannot forget about Mach 5, Go Mifune’s car in Speed Racer. It was equipped with various functions that were deployed simply using eight buttons (labeled from A to H) on the steering wheel hub of the car. For example, Button A signaled the “Auto Jacks” function in which 4 legs would prop up from under the body, jacking-up the car. Button B was for the “Belt Tires” function which triggered a special belt to appear and wrap around the tires, making it possible for the vehicle to go off-road or drive over rough roads. Button C executed the “Cutter” function, in which a pair of powerful rotary saws would protrude from the front of the car.

Particularly notable among these functions is the “Auto Jacks” function. If the button is pressed while the car is moving, the Mach 5 jumps. It looks as if this function makes the car jump using the moving momentum of the car. However, on closer examination, it is not related, since no matter how fast the car moves, the vertical jumping motion is not affected. In other words, the “Auto Jacks” function alone can make Mach 5 jump up in the air. It is remarkable, but this kind of jacking mechanism seems a bit overboard for just repairing purposes. Perhaps the intention of this function is more for making the car simply jump up.

Then there is the “Cutter” function. Mach 5 can use this function to cut down trees and travel wildly through a forest. If it traveled at 100 km/h, the car would have to be able to trim a 30-cm diameter tree in 0.01 seconds. Also, notable is the fact that the cutter can cut down trees that are clearly thicker than the radius of the rotary saws. In normal circumstances, after cutting through the equivalent of the saw radius length, the mandrill would hit the tree, causing the car to explode into flames. For this reason, I assume that rotary saws of the Mach 5 are equipped with powerful lasers or water jets.

What is most impressive is how Mach 5 continues to win every race it enters, despite carrying all these functions. The car's engine must be extremely powerful, yet still within race regulations. It is definitely a marvel of science and technology — and imagination, especially imagination! — that transcends everything in real life.