(iverson's) currentbuzz: MIT duo see people-powered "Crowd Farm"

The so-called "Crowd Farm," as envisioned by James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, both M.Arch candidates, would turn the mechanical energy of people walking or jumping into a source of electricity.

Source: web.mit.edu

Crowd sourcing in the material world? What a good idea. If you have ever noticed marble stairs in old buildings and how feet have worn them down like a river wears down stones, you might have considered the power.

In a book about unobtrusive measurement in the social sciences by Webb, Campbell, Schwartz and Sechrest, they recounted the tale of the Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry exhibit that shows chicks hatching. The tiles had to be replaced there much more often than anywhere else in the museum. A sure sign of energy, at least in the form of visitors.

In the 70s Time magazine ran a series of letters to the editor that went on for weeks and delighted everyone I knew, wherein scientists debated whether Mao could launch an atomic bomb by putting it on a springboard and having lots of Chinese people land on the springboard. The discussion involved all the physical facts of number of people, size of springboard, whether they could all land at once. Again, a testament to the power of crowds.