Should Gyms be tied to Utility Systems?
Admit it. You go to "Gold's Gym" to get a workout. You want to look good, meet people, talk, kill time; after you are done, you are buzzed with adrenaline and other hormones. You look at yourself in the mirror and say "Not bad, not bad at all". Contemporary gyms are typically places where affluent consumers go to trim the fat and tone the muscle, a type of conspicuous consumption that enhances their social status un various ways. However, the great deal of energy expended in these exercises constitutes one more form of wasted energy in our modern society. Consumers go because they want to look good, not because they want to 'work'. Yet, wouldn't it be great if, unknowingly, these exercise machines were connected to instruments which served a useful purpose? Generate electricity, purify water, recharge batteries. The gym, as a a business activity, would generate two forms of income: from the consumer and from the secondary products generated from this "trapped" energy. All of this could also happen without much change in the visible layout of the gym per se. Loose fat, while actually doing something productive. Imagine that.