If you are reading this blog, you have probably already heard of Lego. They are little colored bricks made out of ABS plastic which snap together and can be used for building all sorts of things, from houses to robots to electric trains. ABS plastic is also used in hard hats and some pipes. It is extremely strong, but is non-toxic, which is why it was chosen to make Legos. Recently, on the Science Channel, Legos were featured on a show (I can't quite remember which one), probably because in 2008, Lego celebrates its 50th anniversary. The show mentioned that there are 62 Legos for each person on Earth, or about 400 billion in total, and that if everyone joined theirs, ten towers could be made, reaching from the Earth to the Moon. This was where I started thinking. Many people have said that a space elevator may be built someday out of carbon nanotubes, and will make entering space much easier, as the elevator shaft would be much slower than a space shuttle, which would mean that explorers would not have to face pain from huge G-forces. Unfortunately, such an invention would probably never be engineered, due to extreme expense and difficulty building it. However, as far-fetched as this sounds, it would probably be much, much easier to build such a tower out of Lego-like blocks. A space elevator built in the way usually described would be very difficult, as it would be hard to build the extremely huge nanotube belts. The belts could only be made of a few joined pieces, which would have to be joined at the cargo platforms, but could not be made out of many small sections, as they might break apart due to the properties of carbon nanotubes. Using Lego-shaped blocks would eliminate this hurdle, and make building a space elevator significantly easier. Of course, the material that these bricks would be composed of would have to be very strong. Also, the spaces between bricks would have to be vacuum-sealed and the outside covered with panels. However, it would be much easier, and probably cheaper, than building huge nanotube belts.
On a much smaller scale, I thought, bricks could be designed like Legos to make building much easier, while still allowing buildings to be beautiful and strong. For example, let use take the example of the office or workspace. For most people, these words are euphemisms for the dreaded cubicle. By using prefabricated bricks, users could move their blocks around to customize their cubicles and allow them to build convenient nooks for things. Since variety is the herb (rather than the spice) of live, users could move their bricks around in different ways to prevent them from getting bored of their arrangements. Also, if bricks had screens in them, users could make new wallpaper, put virtual Post-It™ notes on their walls, and even make their walls become a huge computer screen. Lego-shaped bricks could be used to build many things, from wind tunnels to skyscrapers. If courts ruled that the Lego company were to be paid royalties on these Lego-shaped bricks, stockholders of Lego would be giddy with glee, as Lego would make at least $100 billion every year if not more, were this idea to be adopted. But that would be acceptable under most circumstances, don't you think?
The image was by a US Department of Transportation employee, and like all federal works, is within the public domain. It was uploaded by the Wikimedia Commons user Howcheng. And I, unlike many other bloggers, don't violate copyright laws. Even if the image doesn't specifically say it is copyrighted, it still is by default. Its copyright isn't always registered, but it's still copyrighted. Get your facts straight people.
