Friday, September 02, 2005
Who will save you now? (or: Technologies that I think are cool)
So, have my last two posts and the destruction of New Orleans got you down? (and I promise we'll talk about that soon enough.) Never fear, because I'm here with another installment of brilliance. You have to admit, we've been on fire here, and we have you, the readers, to thank! Wait, no, that's public radio. Anyway, as marmar might say, we have 'soiled our garden of friendship" with the Earth, and it might be time for payback.
But let's not operate under the assumption that we're totally screwed- just sort of screwed. I mean, if we're totally screwed, then there's nothing to do but watch it happen. So I bring to you, a list of the the technologies that might save humanity's ass, or at least help it along.
Nuclear Fusion:
So there's a grand experiment underway in France, called ITER (Latin for "the way") but originally the 'International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor'. I think. Basically this is attempting to make nuclear power with less (maybe none?) of the nuclear waste. Think of it as a miniature sun. They're not trying to harness the actual power (which isn't tremendous), but rather see if it is feasible on a larger scale. Seeing as many of our problems lie with energy, this could be a very good thing for us. Less dependence on natural resources is almost certainly a good thing. Runaway use of ANY energy source is dangerous, especially when coupled with global warming, but I still think this one to look out for.
Growing Meat:
One thing that we have to realize is that there is a limit to our food production. It may not grow strictly geometrically, but the limit is there. We're not bumping against it just yet, but it's never good to be inefficient with our energy. And one thing we've known for a while but not given a damn about in the US is our energy efficiency of food. It takes something like 900 pounds of feed to make 1 pound of beef, 400 pounds of feed to make 1 pound of pork, and like 100 to 1 for chicken. Not very efficient; but if we can somehow create the meat directly, that would save us a lot of energy. Scientists have managed to grow chicken (and maybe fish, I don't remember) straight from culture using chicken muscle cells. They even managed to make a functioning muscle, and like any good experiment, they ate the results. And it tasted like chicken! Now, I'm not sure that they broke the 100:1 barrier for energy (I'm sure they didn't actually) but theoretically it could be much more efficient than having the chicken digest the feed, waste energy on breathing and pumping blood, etc. Oh yeah, and it would have us stop killing animals.
Brains and Robots:
This is another one that could be key. In the same vein as the growing meat, too! What really makes us human? It's our brains; and if we could somehow get our brains into robotic consciousness or isolate them so that we could more directly use higher quality energy like electricity, we would save a ridiculous amount of energy- there'd be no more breathing or pumping blood- our brains have but a fraction of the energy costs of our entire body. And, we'd be less dependent on our natural resources if we didn't need all sorts of weird chemicals like protein, water, fat and vitamins. In fact we wouldn't be dependent on the Earth in any significant sense. We're not that close, obviously, on this one, but researchers are getting closer on bridging the gap between the mind and computers. Soon we'll all be wearing electrodes!
Airships:
File this one under 'probably not going to happen' but I think airships (zeppelins, blimps) should make a comeback. Sure, they're slow, but they're vastly more efficient than airplanes, much safer and failure-tolerant, and they can lift much more weight than airplanes can. The problem is, like I said, speed. But really, we all intuitively know the airline industry isn't run right. Anyone who's booked a reservation and gotten 8 different prices for the same flight, then gotten delayed, and then cancelled know what I'm talking about. The goal should be for the airline industry to run similarly to the bus and train industry. Delays should be the exception, not the norm, and weather should have minimal impacts on scheduling. Airships could alleviate many of these problems. Of course, now that we're used to getting from coast to coast in 6 hours, who would be willing to put up with a 48 hour journey? Nobody. But perhaps with a few small technological innovations (like streamlining them and adding bigger engines) they could cruise a little faster. Probably a pipe dream, but the common thread here is energy efficiency, right?
Well that's all for today; if you can think of any more interesting technologies, please feel free to comment.
But let's not operate under the assumption that we're totally screwed- just sort of screwed. I mean, if we're totally screwed, then there's nothing to do but watch it happen. So I bring to you, a list of the the technologies that might save humanity's ass, or at least help it along.
Nuclear Fusion:
So there's a grand experiment underway in France, called ITER (Latin for "the way") but originally the 'International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor'. I think. Basically this is attempting to make nuclear power with less (maybe none?) of the nuclear waste. Think of it as a miniature sun. They're not trying to harness the actual power (which isn't tremendous), but rather see if it is feasible on a larger scale. Seeing as many of our problems lie with energy, this could be a very good thing for us. Less dependence on natural resources is almost certainly a good thing. Runaway use of ANY energy source is dangerous, especially when coupled with global warming, but I still think this one to look out for.
Growing Meat:
One thing that we have to realize is that there is a limit to our food production. It may not grow strictly geometrically, but the limit is there. We're not bumping against it just yet, but it's never good to be inefficient with our energy. And one thing we've known for a while but not given a damn about in the US is our energy efficiency of food. It takes something like 900 pounds of feed to make 1 pound of beef, 400 pounds of feed to make 1 pound of pork, and like 100 to 1 for chicken. Not very efficient; but if we can somehow create the meat directly, that would save us a lot of energy. Scientists have managed to grow chicken (and maybe fish, I don't remember) straight from culture using chicken muscle cells. They even managed to make a functioning muscle, and like any good experiment, they ate the results. And it tasted like chicken! Now, I'm not sure that they broke the 100:1 barrier for energy (I'm sure they didn't actually) but theoretically it could be much more efficient than having the chicken digest the feed, waste energy on breathing and pumping blood, etc. Oh yeah, and it would have us stop killing animals.
Brains and Robots:
This is another one that could be key. In the same vein as the growing meat, too! What really makes us human? It's our brains; and if we could somehow get our brains into robotic consciousness or isolate them so that we could more directly use higher quality energy like electricity, we would save a ridiculous amount of energy- there'd be no more breathing or pumping blood- our brains have but a fraction of the energy costs of our entire body. And, we'd be less dependent on our natural resources if we didn't need all sorts of weird chemicals like protein, water, fat and vitamins. In fact we wouldn't be dependent on the Earth in any significant sense. We're not that close, obviously, on this one, but researchers are getting closer on bridging the gap between the mind and computers. Soon we'll all be wearing electrodes!
Airships:
File this one under 'probably not going to happen' but I think airships (zeppelins, blimps) should make a comeback. Sure, they're slow, but they're vastly more efficient than airplanes, much safer and failure-tolerant, and they can lift much more weight than airplanes can. The problem is, like I said, speed. But really, we all intuitively know the airline industry isn't run right. Anyone who's booked a reservation and gotten 8 different prices for the same flight, then gotten delayed, and then cancelled know what I'm talking about. The goal should be for the airline industry to run similarly to the bus and train industry. Delays should be the exception, not the norm, and weather should have minimal impacts on scheduling. Airships could alleviate many of these problems. Of course, now that we're used to getting from coast to coast in 6 hours, who would be willing to put up with a 48 hour journey? Nobody. But perhaps with a few small technological innovations (like streamlining them and adding bigger engines) they could cruise a little faster. Probably a pipe dream, but the common thread here is energy efficiency, right?
Well that's all for today; if you can think of any more interesting technologies, please feel free to comment.
# posted by Stuart @ 10:39 AM 
