On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 1:29 AM, Eugen Leitl <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, Feb 07, 2011 at 05:13:20PM -0800, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > > > The industrial revolution is dying, I give it 150 years... I don't know what > > Not necessarily true. There is some interesting technology > in the pipeline which could allow means of production to > assist with providing means of production, at a price point > cheap enough to be owned by individuals and small groups.
Yes, I think 3D printing and similar technologies [0] are tempting, but unless we answer the carbon footprint, hydrologic cycle, climate change, food availability and population explosion questions (to list the most obvious) conclusively we won't have the runway left to execute on the post-industrial revolution phase. Ideally we would discover on top of answers to the above questions a carbon-neutral raw material that could be the input for 3D printing and would be easily mined / grown / gathered in situ. Unfortunately the odds are about the same for discovering aliens [1] [2] [3] [4]. Human history is full of lost civilizations, in the global age we are all a single civilization - why shouldn't we be the next in line to be affected by environmental factors a la Indus valley or the Maya. I'll end this post with this set of photos: http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/02/07/captured-the-ruins-of-detroit/2672/#more-2672 Cheeni [0] Nanotechnology is more hopeful to me frankly though we are farther off than 3D printing to executing on it - anything can happen in 50 years. [1] Not pure hyperbole, arsenic based life forms: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html [2] Seven billion of us soon, nine billion in 2045. Let’s hope that Malthus was right about our ingenuity. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/seven-billion/kunzig-text/1 [3] Water from Alaska for the middle east: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/08/the-race-to-buy-up-the-world-s-water.html {The oil tankers turning into water tankers is surprising but we don't even blink at the thought of bottled water which has been commonplace for decades now} [4] Food production must be increased 70 percent to provide for the extra 2.4 billion people expected to come aboard planet Earth by 2050. http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2009/10/food-for-nine-billion-people.html [4]
