Jed wrote: "I do not think that sort of industrial scale transmutation will happen in the 'not so distant future.' More like hundreds or thousands of years from now."
I couldn't disagree more. seriously, hundreds or thousands of years? Once the scientific community (both academic and corporate) realizes that a whole new field of science is being born, they will dive in to understand it and engineer it in ways we can't even imagine; the scientists and engineers will optimize the reaction process to *FAVOR* transmutation! I can see LENR reactors being used NOT only for energy production, but for the sole purpose of transmuting all kinds of cheap, abundant elements into those used for manufacturing and energy production, so in addition to cheap energy, most all metals that we use in manufacturing are also readily available, and all about the same cost - little or no scarcity; vary stable prices not prone to manipulation by monopolies or scarcity/interruption of supply due to natural disasters! CANT: Chemically Assisted Nuclear Transmutation YATR: Yet Another Transmutation Reactor If the transmutation aspect results in even modest amounts of reaction products, and that were to become widely know (how could it not), then what is left that has any value? Just the possibility that you could transmute Ni to gold or platinum would cause the precious metals markets to collapse. About the only thing of value would be the raw materials that go into making LENR reactors. We haven't even seriously considered the ramifications of transmutation on society... add that to the disruption caused by cheap energy and its going to be one bumpy rollercoaster ride. and I agree with whoever said that it has the potential to significantly raise the std of living for the masses. -Mark From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 7:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Vo]:Migrant Workers in China Face Competition from Robots Axil Axil <[email protected]> wrote: In the not so distant future, water will enters a robotic custom product production plant as feedstock via a pipe and a purpose build custom product will roll off the production line of the local plant as a finalized manufactured article without ever needing or seeing a human. I do not think that sort of industrial scale transmutation will happen in the "not so distant future." More like hundreds or thousands of years from now. Two comments: 1. Arthur C. Clarke predicted this in "Profiles of the Future." 2. If water is the feedstock, I hope they keep track of the approximate mass, and they convert garbage back into water. The mass of manufactured goods, food an other materials consumed by people is large enough that a few thousand years of consuming water might lower the sea level measurably. It might make more sense to convert garbage and trash into what we need, rather than water. Clarke suggested that the machines might need to store ash (unused output material) or extra feedstock in some convenient, non-toxic, dense material. He recommended gold. It would be ironic if factories had large piles of slag in the form of gold. - Jed
