So I’m reading this book ‘The Human-Powered Home‘, cause I thought it would be fun to run some motors off pedal power.

The book begins with a brief history of human-powered devices, moving from hand-cranked water spirals to human powered cranes (think coupla guys in mondo hamster wheels!)

And I got to thinking how we used to exercise our muscles to get things done: move water, work materials to make food, clothing, shelter. Now we sit back and let electricity do most of those things for us.

And so we get fat and sick. To combat this, some of us go the gym where we again use electricity, but this time to help us exercise our muscles. People even drive cars and take elevators and then go to the gym where they simulate things like riding bicycles and walking up stairs! It’s beyond ridiculous! And it can be pretty inefficient, especially when you consider the amount of time you must stand with machines while they do work for you, and then later you must travel to a gym and spend more time with yet other machines that then work you.

Post-script: The linked video for this human-powered treadmill epitomizes ‘Beyond Ridiculous’. Thanks to E-MC for the heads-up!