I'm in agreement about the radical changes that nanotech appear to promise. Changes that could spell doom or a complete redefinition of what it is to be human. It's about the only thing that makes me want to live longer than my allotted time. Just so that I can see what miracles come next.
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 9:40 PM, Ash <[email protected]> wrote: > Yeah, I was fear mongering Chuck, a political device. ;-) This is a > favorite topic of mine, it is at the axis of many fields. To accelerate > nanotech development I think we should implement rapid prototyping, > experimentation and analysis systems. When I envision man at the beginning > of this revolution I look for tools that would allow an explosion > (figuratively) of development, being able to catalog and operate a multitude > of experiments in parallel, while building a massive library of modeled > behavior for materials and systems interoperating in the real world to > improve the robustness and diversity of this technology is apparently the > way to go. To think that the behavior of biological systems can be > abstracted and used to formulate dynamic systems guided by expert algorithms > to solve material challenges in real time guided by people over vast > distances, it goes beyond genetics, I am in awe at the potential universe we > are venturing toward. We will also be able to make changes to ourselves and > our experience of this world at a similar rate.. > > > On 5/19/2011 1:41 AM, Chuck Bowling wrote: > > I think that with nanotechnology we will be able to synthesize pretty much > anything we want from raw materials in the future. Assuming that any alien > race capable of traveling the trillions of miles to get here would have at > least the same level of technology my guess is that they wouldn't need > anything we'd have to offer. > > On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 8:48 PM, Ash <[email protected]> wrote: > >> There is another good reason to develop our technologies as a species, >> think how we are looking at the planets and celestial bodies as vast >> resources. Imagine if something else came through and strip mined the >> resources we would need to develop into a spacefaring species, that would >> suck big time. Like a tribe of humans moving through and picking all the >> nuts we squirrels need, or worse, deciding we were in the way of those >> resources, think what we have done in those situations.. I know it's >> unlikely considering the vast resources out there, but something might have >> it's eye on our pale blue dot too, working faster than us at making the >> leap. >> >> >> On 5/18/2011 8:37 PM, Chuck Bowling wrote: >> >> I think right now the technology will only allow us to tell if a planet is >> rocky or a gas giant. And even then only if it is a relatively massive >> planet. The last time I read anything on the subject the smallest planet >> found was something like 3 times the size of the Earth. >> >> IMO, the analogy with Columbus doesn't hold. 17th century technology >> allowed humans to travel anywhere on the Earth - albeit slow and wrought >> with hazard. If the analogy is that a neighboring star is like a new >> continent then we are more like cavemen discovering that a log can float. At >> the rate we're going it might be a thousand years before we can actually >> mount an expedition to another star. >> >> I think the primary reason we are so far from actually exploring other >> stars is mainly political rather than technological. But, I think you are >> right. It is a project worth attaching too. Now if we could just make the >> damn politicians see it that way... ;) >> >> On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 4:58 PM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> I'm not sure how accurate they can be in revealing planets enough like >>> ours to offer possibilities of a new promised land. They claim there >>> is one 20 light years away, or 300,000 years at current space travel >>> speeds. One can feel that this at least puts us somewhere near the >>> position of 'Columbus'. Our current 'tin-foil' technology won't do, >>> but at this kind of distance we are talking about something other than >>> worm-holes, 'relativity flight' or the kind of physics in which >>> distance is an illusion. >>> >>> For someone like me who can't take god-stories seriously and quite >>> likes the idea of a human future (or at least the idea of evolution >>> not just ending through catastrophe), there is an opportunity to >>> believe in something distant in time and a need for us to direct >>> ourselves towards it. A time, perhaps in which a form of conscious >>> life can live very differently from now, and a project worth attaching >>> to - perhaps a reason for spirituality. Comments on this or the >>> technology welcome. >> >> >> >> > >
