UST: News

An interview with Sergey Sibiryakov - a well-known Russian public figure, politician, economist.

The discussion focused on the issues of inadequate investments into infrastructure undertaken in the past decades. According to the opinion of several major economic experts, shared by our guest, this has led to the emergence of barriers to economic growth and reduced quality of life. Thus, according to estimates recently published by the McKinsey Global Institute, just to achieve the projected economic growth, the world needs to increase investments into infrastructure (primarily transport) from USD 2.5 trillion to USD 3.3 trillion per year and maintain this level until 2030. Sergey Sibiryakov told what prospects for SkyWay transport technology open in this situation.

The conversation was not only about the global processes, but also about how the life of an ordinary man will change with the arrival of the era of SkyWay and Transnet (and what it is). With a hint to the SkyWay technology of the 5th generation Sergey describes the future of the phone, wristwatch, personal vehicle, house, how and where people will work and relax.

Translation of the video:

Mikhail Kirichenko: Good day! Here is Mikhail Kirichenko. You are watching SkyWay news, where we tell you about the developments and implementation of breakthrough transport technologies. Lately Elon Mask and Mark Zuckerberg told about their vision of the future of the world in 10 years. We decided not to lag behind from this tendency. Today our guest is Sergey Sibiryakov, a Russian economist and politician, one of the first followers and supporters of Anatoly Yunitskiy's ideas.

Sergey Sibiryakov:

M.K.: Good afternoon, Sergey. For a start, how do you estimate the quality of futuristic forecasts from Zuckerberg and Mask?

Sergey Sibiryakov: I do forecasts and analyses for a long time. From the point of view of the classical futurology, it cannot be called a forecast. It may more likely be called analysis and development prospects of the technologies they are doing.

M.K.: Well, it is more a PR of their own projects.

S.S.: PR has now some negative meaning. This is just a description of capabilities of their technologies. I can give you one example confirming that Mark Zuckerberg is doing something serious. Victor Baburin has recently travelled to Tanzania. He noticed that if a person stopped paying for the Internet and was disconnected from it, Facebook would continue to work for him. Free Internet is provided via Facebook. You can send and receive messages. Mark Zuckerberg gave 10 directions to his employees to make Internet free for everybody and accessible in every place of the world. Based on this he describes what man's life will be like when free Wi-Fi and Internet will be everywhere, what possibilities it will give. From the point of view of futurology, it is already not interesting today. 25 years ago we heard for the first time about Internet, computer, Facebook, Microsoft, Steve Jobs and so on. It all boosted since then. Today everybody is sure that it will develop on at the same fast rate and new possibilities will appear. These are simply prospects of technology development. This is not futurology.

M.K.: OK. You are a well-known futurologist, please tell us what changes will happen in the field of transport infrastructure? The fact is that over the last decades all the countries of the world invested insufficiently into infrastructure projects that have such interesting features as creating additional working places at first and then raising efficiency. According to the research of McKinsey Global Institute, just to comply with the planned rate of economic growth, the whole world should increase annual investments into infrastructure from USD 2.5 trillion to USD 3.3 trillion. It is obvious that our project has brilliant prospects. How do you see the world with SkyWay in 10-15 years?

S.S.: We actively monitor publications from McKinsey Institute. When they released their first report in 2012, we analyzed it with Anatoly Yunitskiy and Victor Baburin here and saw that our project is in line with a very serious analytics. The Institute presented very important data on the ways of development, on the deposits to be developed, on the territories to be explored, on the technologies required for it. And we realized then that our project is completely in line with the world analytics, therefore, we started to treat them with respect. We communicate and correspond with them. We even participate in a number of projects, where they act as experts. It was the beginning. In 2016 they released the next report. I can say that there is no equal analytics in the world today. The main thing we saw in the last report was that they described in figures the progress in our project. They have presented a financial outline of SkyWay future and prospects for Transnet. This is dozens and hundreds trillion dollars. They have shown which territories would develop, where investments would go, why it is in demand today. They do not refer to SkyWay technology. They just describe the requirements to technologies, countries and companies today. Certain requirements to the developments of whole countries. From our point of view, we can say they described the things we are doing. I am confident that the next report in 4 years will be directly associated with SkyWay, because by that time we shall have passed demonstration and start first targeted projects. Moreover, I can say it is not a coincidence, but a trend. The projects we select now correspond to what McKinsey describes. The first thing they stated was the lack of iron ore and coal, particularly, caking coal needed for metallurgy. We do it in our first projects for Mongolia (Tavan Tolgoi), Bolivia (Mutun) and a number of deposits in Australia. It is for coal and ore. The next direction that they indicate are nonferrous and rare earth metals vital for the development of electronics and household appliances. They confirmed today that all these deposits are located in hard-to-reach areas, because easily accessible ones have been already extracted with the help of railways. Now huge investments are needed to access other deposits. Our SkyWay technology meets these problems. The main advantage of engineer Yunitskiy's SkyWay is that it is capable to solve the problems that cannot be solved by modern traditional transport.

M.K.: It means that the string-rail technology will be applied in all these new deposits.

S.S.: Right. There is no other technology with point supports and large spans available today. I often discuss it with Anatoly Yunitskiy and find out much from him. Just yesterday we had a meeting with major investors representing Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. I heard there is a new notion introduced by Anatoly Yunitskiy that he begins to use for the technology's promotion. In fact, SkyWay is the technology to explore territories with Transnet. Today nobody is interested in Mutun deposit located in the center of Latin America. As soon as SkyWay comes there, we shall include this deposit in the world transport system and it will work in the economic turnover. Here is an example. A telephone. If it is not connected to the network, it is simply a good toy - for photos and videos.

M.K.: It can be used as a hammer for nails.

S.S.: Sometimes for driving nails or playing cards. However, as soon as we connect it to the mobile network and Internet, it will be its new life and new quality. The same refers to Transnet. Any territory, deposit or company being connected to Transnet through SkyWay technologies will acquire new prospects. If they are not connected, they remain an interesting potential toy.

M.K.: Thank you very much. What do you think about the General Planetary Vehicle? Will it be created in some 10-15 years?

S.S.: As for the General Planetary Vehicle (GPV)...

M.K.: I am sure Dr. Yunitskiy will be developing it.

S.S.: I am completely certain that he is developing it already now.

M.K.: I mean some particular date.

S.S.: You know, I joined Yunitskiy's team 17 years ago. And 16 years ago we started to build first pilot samples that demonstrated the existing capabilities of string technologies. The track structure weighing less than 100 kg carried the famous Zil-131 truck running as a laboratory and showing the technologies' capabilities. It gave the SkyWay concept and brand. The photo of the truck on the background of clouds gave this name - SkyWay. At that time we were sure that after demonstrating this track section we would have a queue from the test site in Ozyory to the Kremlin. But to our great surprise, such agitated demand did not follow, though we had a great number of delegations and media coverage. Only now we understood that Internet has not been developed as a media by the year 2000. Therefore, Transnet as a network following Internet could not surpass it then. Now, 15 years after, we can say that Internet has been formed as a media. No one on Earth can live without it now. So many services provided by a smart-phone changes the whole quality of our life. Correspondingly, the formation of Transnet has started now.

M.K.: A transport network.

S.S.: Right. A transport network that will encircle the whole planet. In 10 years Transnet will be built in millions of kilometers annually. Millions. It is hard to estimate the total volume now. It is only an expert estimation. We can only compare it with about 68 million km of motor-roads and railways available at present on Earth. We can say definitely that Transnet routes based on engineer Yunitskiy's technologies will exceed this quantity. It will be more than 68 million km, perhaps, about 100 million km. Naturally, it will not be built within a year, 2 years and even 10 years. Anyway, in 10 years the countdown will start, every day we shall hear from the news, where the routes are developed and built. This network will be covering the Earth very quickly. Transnet will be formed when it locks in. That means, when the network will cover the whole planet and it would be possible to travel from any point to any point without a transfer in transport. Then one could say Transnet is formed.

M.K.: Then, as I understand, the borders between countries will be a mere formality. And the construction of GPV would be possible.

S.S.: Yes, absolutely. Sometimes people ask me what will happen to customs, countries, visas, etc. I ask my question in response. Dear friends, do you remember how difficult it was to make a phone call, say, to relatives in Israel in 1990? They could not allow to do it.

M.K.: Not everybody had relatives in Israel.

S.S.: OK, let it be Germany. Today it looks funny, because whom do I have to ask for it? I can easily phone, connect via Skype, etc. The same will be with Transnet. As nobody could fancy in 1990, what possibilities will be provided by the Internet, smart-phone, PC, GPS, equally few people understand today how Transnet will change our life. Why do I look at those futurologists with a smile?

M.K.: Do you mean Mask and Zuckerberg?

S.S.: Yes, and even Kurzweil, a most famous futurologist, one of the top 5. Google's Technical Director, who gives all-powerful forecasts for the future. However, his forecasts on artificial intellect, chips in the head just make me smile, because when Internet started in 1990 there were many horrible forecasts. Hollywood produced a movie about some Skynet. "Terminator". Everything has changed with the appearance of the smart-phone that provides many functions for our use today. I can buy a ticket for an airplane to any destination within 2 minutes. I can book a hotel room in any place of the world, etc. You know, it has 2 million applications. This is the function of a smart-phone. It becomes more and more convenient. That's what Internet gives.

M.K.: Thank you, Sergey. Now let's pass over from global prospects to the prospects of every particular person. I think all our viewers and supporters are interested to see the description of his/her day in 10-15 years when SkyWay spreads over the whole world, 2/3 of the jobs are performed by robots. To my mind, perhaps, we shall not have to work 8 hours per day. Maybe it would be enough to work for 2-3 hours a day and to spend the rest of the time to something pleasant or leisure. Then we should not need an annual leave. Why would you go on leave for a month, if you can have enough rest every day or work in your unibus or unibike. There are many various ideas. Please give a model of one day with SkyWay in 10-15 years.

S.S.: Let's not dream up. We have data from the UN. Researches, which show that in 10-15 years the average working week for an average person will be 3-4 days with maximum 6 working hours. It is already statistics with figures everybody uses now. They show all the tendencies. There will be 2 categories: people working with the informational field, no matter where they stay. And the second type - a shuttle method. For instance, you arrive to a deposit, work there for a week or two, and then you have a month for recreation and travels with your family. It is already not a forecast. It is a trend or a concept. Next, a real futurology starts. When I first met Anatoly Yunitskiy, I was shocked when he said that in 30 years all the industries would be brought out into space. All the metallurgy and petroleum chemistry will be produced in the orbit due to solar energy.

M.K.: Bezos recently supported his idea.

S.S.: It simply becomes obvious today. Earlier it was a forecast or some fantasy. I can compare it with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who was the first to describe the rocket technology. Only today it became obvious that there was no other way, therefore, he is acknowledged now and there is an Academy named after him. Nowadays he is considered as the leading futurologist and forecaster of the world scale. The same was 30 years ago, when Yunitskiy held the first conference on rocketless space exploration, it seemed almost rebellious. At that time our rockets and satellites successfully travelled in space. But today his idea becomes obvious. Later, when I found out from Yunitskiy about string technologies and SkyWay, I worked with the microeconomic forecasts, which are now more a futurology. In fact, we are speaking about the possibilities of the technology. To illustrate the analogue, knowing since 1990 how Internet develops, what a smart-phone and Google are, I explain everyday use of our technology.

M.K.: Right. Everyday use. Say, in 10-15 years a man woke up in the morning. What is he doing in regard to the SkyWay?

S.S.: To illustrate it, let's speak about a man today. He wakes up and, even before brushing his teeth and washing his face, he opens the notebook. I open my smart-phone.

M.K.: I open my eyes.

S.S.: OK, after opening the eyes or at the same time. What does the opening of a smart-phone? You enter the network, connected to the informational space. Then it depends on your choice. People may check up the shares rate, dollar rate, oil prices, mail in Facebook, etc. They begin to get info and news at once. This process goes on continuously. It is so today. In 10-15 years, after waking up, you sit down in your comfortable working chair standing at your working table. It is your working space. You work at home in your space. You have an unlimited Internet in excellent quality. You can communicate in online video signal sending unlimited info. In average, you will have 3-4 screens working online simultaneously. One is to receive info, another - to speak via Skype, the third one - to monitor something. Scientists claim that a person will hardly work with more than 4 screens. Now imagine your working place with 4 screens, a very comfortable chair doing a massage for you. Then you see the need to meet with your partner somewhere in Paris. Say, you are in Minsk at 9 a.m. Even without clicking a button you tell your e-assistant staying nearby that you have to be close to the Triumphal Arch in Paris at 4 p.m. You say "I have a meeting there. In a cafe." That's all. You go on with your business. The difference of Transnet from Internet is that at this moment your chair rises together with you and starts to move. At 4 p.m. sharp it stands at the Triumphal Arch in Paris near the cafe. You can go out and have a personal meeting if an Internet talk is not enough. Sometimes you need personal meetings. You solve all the problems and then you want to see your family, which is somewhere at the Black Sea coast. You say you want to go there to swim with your children in the evening. You sit down, go on working and your chair delivers you there at the said time. You go out and meet your children.

M.K.: I know designed unibuses and unibikes. Will there be a unichair in addition?

S.S.: No. This will be a component of a unibike. Here are the pictures that Alexey Sukhodoev, co-author of unibikes, likes to show at the webinars. Here is your individual chair.

M.K.: Perhaps, I will live in a unibike?

S.S.: This chair unfolds and you can sleep on it. You can also live in it. Living at the same time in the Internet. It becomes today an actual term. This unibike moves at 150 km/h speed. If you spin the pedals, you provide half the energy for it. The batteries provide the other half.

M.K.: So I can live in it doing fitness paying less for transportation. If I am tired doing fitness, I can load it all on the electric motor, but I will have to pay more then.

S.S.: You're absolutely right. When you arrive home, you will have your individual space in your personal office. These are your table and your chair. The space is perfectly separated by the media and audio systems. This is your personal space. This notion is already futurology. We introduce new notions that will become widely accepted in some time. This is MPS - Mobile Personal Space. Your mobile space, which is a unibike. Your individual chair, private office and space. However, you see, our unibike looks very much like a suitcase. Interesting logics: you travel not with a suitcase, but in a suitcase. This is your internal space. When it gets into a high-speed unibus, it becomes an individual compartment. Actually, a unibus is a set of unibikes. They pass over on small rails at a transfer station and the whole system starts to operate automatically. At first you travel in your unibike and then it enters a high-speed unibus as a component and in a thousand of kilometers gets out of it on a Paris track. It is all automated; you do not take any part in it.

M.K.: Fine. Suppose I would like to go to a forest for mushrooms. How do I do it using my personal space?

S.S.: It is one more interesting futurologist notion produced by engineer Yunitskiy's technological school. Our unibike arrives to a forest. Naturally, there is no track to every tree in it. Then the following so-called metamorphosis occurs. Your chair, your cabin is transferred into a jeep with 4 motor-wheels. You take a joystick and drive through the forest in a special vehicle. We called it a meta-mobile.

M.K.: Nice. I have picked up mushrooms and now I want to go fishing. I drove up to the riverside. What do I do?

S.S.: There should be a certain transfer station where your cabin is moved over into a twin-hull boat. You can sail in the same cabin around the river fishing. Moreover, I anticipate your next question about a swamp or snow. You move over either in a marsh buggy or a snowmobile. Thus, it is a meta-mobile with your space and all the other devices are the components. In such a way, you can transform into a jeep, a city car if there is no string there, a marsh buggy, a snowmobile or a twin-hull boat. Perhaps, you can even fly becoming a part of a helicopter.

M.K.: So, SkyWay does not deny all the other four modes of transport, but it somehow changes their type and accepts the features that can be used and combined in the future.

S.S.: Yes. We do it as a component, because, naturally, the most comfortable travel will be on the string track. While travelling on it, you are busy with your matters. You are in the Internet. You can work or do sports. When you drive a jeep or a speedboat, you cannot go in automatic duty. It is a manual control. This is the disadvantage of the whole today's transport system. It needs man's control. SkyWay does not need it. You do what you like and you move at the same time. As soon as you transfer to a conventional transport, control is needed from you. Or you need a driver to control and you become a passenger with your cabin. Travel cost becomes much higher. Therefore, it is a very good question about the difference between them. The more places are connected by the string, the less transformations or meta-mobiles will be needed.

M.K.: All right. Travelling. Now we have paper passports, visas, etc. You are speaking about a chip in the head. It's good it's not a bullet. Maybe there are some easier means of arranging these travels. Where will the data be kept? Perhaps, in a watch?

S.S.: Here is the example. The first smart-phones appeared. Sony Ericsson, then HTC with large screens were not smart-phones before Jobs. I knew the screens would be above 10 cm diagonally. Now they are 12 or 14 cm. It was obvious for me as a forecaster. Some people joked asking why I needed such a spade. Now many people have it and want even something larger. It is very convenient. It proves that technical logics of development is evident. Now I have a watch that is combined with a PC and Samsung.

M.K.: Futurologist's watch.

S.S.: Let's say, I am getting used to futurology. The logics is that everything will be combined in a wristwatch. It will be a passport, credit cards, telecom and the control of your personal unibike or MPS. We have introduced a new name for such watch - debizer. Maybe we shall call it Skydebizer. You cannot exist without this device. Your unibus will not run without it. You cannot pay anything without it. You cannot communicate without it. Your unibus will be a mobile station with a computer distributing Wi-Fi. It will take a signal from an optic fibre aligned on the rail. And you will always stay online with it at a distance of several kilometers. That's why there will be no chips. It is simply rubbish. There will be only a personal watch customized to you. It locks and unlocks by your fingerprint. It is your life. Without it, you lose the informational field, you become an idler without communication. You get out of the transport field, you cannot travel. In addition, certainly, you get out of the social field, because no one can identify you. This device will completely replace a chip. It will be perfectly technological. Therefore, I recommend forgetting all that rubbish about chips.

M.K.: I can also give a short-time forecast. A SkyWay smart-phone will be produced soon and it will be an investor's main device.

S.S.: Without disclosing certain secrets, I can say that we hope to do it even by the forum in October. Certainly, there should be a personal Sky-phone, a personal study, a personal payment system, a personal control of shares, etc. We are actively working in this direction.

M.K.: Thank you very much, Sergey. It was very interesting to talk to you. Sign up to our YouTube channel. Support our project. Stay tuned for the news update on the official website of the International SkyWay Group of Companies at rsw-systems.com. Then, you will not miss the interview that will take place in 10 years exactly when we meet with Sergey again in 2026 and check in what he was right and in what he was mistaken. For the moment: Build SkyWay - save the planet!