A discussion from today on Slashdot on asteroid mining.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/22/1327224&mode=thread&threshold=1
It was prompted by this article from Feed Magazine:
http://www.feedmag.com/essay/es425_master.html
I've been nudging these space things a bit lately because we to an
extent have lost a bit of the second part of the UnRevII focus. The
issue is what are the global problems of humanity and how should we go
about resolving them? (Of course, using Augmenting systems to help us.)
My perspective on this is that there are issues and challenges facing
us, but they are not what may be expected. Many are related primarily to
the implications of Moore's law applied over the next four decades (i.e.
computers a million to a trillion times faster than today's desktop for
the same price). Others are related to similar exponential growth curves
in biotechnology, nanotechnology, communications technology,
manufacturing technology, power technology, materials technology,
robotics, and collaborative technology (IT and/or social). Compared to
those challenges, running out of oil in a century or two is a
non-problem.
Of course, obviously there are current issues as well (millions of
starving people due to not distributing existing food supplies for
political reasons,
http://www.thehungersite.com/ the continuance of ignorance and extreme
poverty for similar reasons, the proliferation of weapons of
mass-destruction, etc.). Once can hope that more for everyone will mean
more for the disadvantaged and less strife. Whether that would be true
is itself a question to examine.
-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com
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