By Bill Knell

Growing up in suburbs of New York City in 1960s was a pleasurable experience. Venturing into New York City, especially Manhattan, was not. The smell of car, truck and bus exhaust combined with a number of other foul vapors to produce a pollution mix that almost seemed toxic. If you were used to it, city air was probably something that you were able to tolerate. However, to those who spent more time out of city then in it, air was filthy and made you sick.

By late 1970s, air quality in Manhattan and other Boroughs improved substantially. There were a number of reasons for this including clean air initiatives and vehicle emission reductions. The city was also a much cleaner place. Concerns about pollution and living in a better environment caused people to clean up their neighborhoods. Dumping of materials into waterways was more tightly regulated or stopped altogether. Antiquated garbage and environmental facilities operated by New York City were updated or completely rebuilt. Anti-littering campaigns made us all think twice before throwing garbage on street.

The cleaning up of New York City was not an isolated incident. Cities and towns throughout United States became aware that a large part of their image and identity depended on how clean they were. However, this is not a new phenomenon. Whenever public health has been threatened by a lack of good environmental practices, there have been clean ups. Most large cities throughout world have made sincere efforts to clean up their streets, waterways and neighborhoods. Municipal facilities that have to do with environment have been updated.

As we began to take a closer look at environment, it became obvious that good stewardship of our planet produced positive consequences. By replanting forests that were cut down, we insured a future supply of lumber and made sure that those areas were not impacted in a negative way. When limitations were placed on fishing in various areas, future catch and survival of creatures necessary to those eco systems were guaranteed. Artificial products were combined with natural materials to produce superior textiles that were less expensive and eco friendly. The government limited use of dangerous chemical pesticides which posed a threat to everything.

I’m going to build a machine. It will be extremely complex, more than a television, or a VCR, or even a computer. This machine will be so complex that it will contain volumes of complicated information locked in a special code. Oh, and it operates itself, that’s right! It doesn’t need someone to “run” it.

What if I told you that it that it will be so smart that it can even repair and replace itself so it will never wear out? Even complicated machines wear out and have to be fixed. Even these machines don’t operate themselves. But mine will! Wouldn’t you like to have a car like that? Did I mention that it will even reproduce and replace itself. I mean it will create exact functional replicas of itself.

Sounds extremely difficult, doesn’t it? Maybe impossible is a better word. I’m still not finished telling you about my machine. This machine can “fuel” itself so it won’t need gasoline or batteries. It doesn’t run on nuclear power either.

It will be in some ways like a small city complete with it’s own transportation, manufacturing, even it own power plant. And laboratory, since it operates by complex chemical reactions, much too complex to even begin to describe here. With all this activity it will have to a waste disposal system too -- it cleans itself.