[extropy-chat] Re: GM Food

[Lifespan Pharma/Morris Johnson CTO]

spike wrote:

>
>It's a terrible nonsolution only if we assume current methods
>of producing ethanol, I agree.  I have in mind a number of
>energy saving solutions that take advantage of microchips
>and software in small devices that would eliminate or greatly
>reduce the need to run a tractor around a field.  
>
>Imagine a number of completely autonomous toaster sized 
>devices that wander the fields 24/7, looking around at 
>stems, deciding if it is a weed or otherwise.  If
>weed, snip off at the base, if otherwise decide
>if the stalk has an ear ready for harvest, cut it off and
>place it in the middle of the row for a larger harvest-
>gathering machine to come along later.  The device could 
>carry a small reservoir of fertilizer to place right at 
>the root of the desirable plants and nowhere else.  The 
>notion is to downsize farm equipment, since we enormous
>apes need not be part of the process.
>
>Of course something like that would be expensive, but
>imagine a market of a billion units.  Anyone here who
>has ever been involved in production engineering salivates
>at the notion.  We have world markets for sophisticated devices
>that can go into the billions, such as televisions, but
>there are so many different tastes.  If we invented a
>device like I am describing, there is no need to have
>twenty or fifty different models.  We could build a 
>super-automated factory so advanced one need only dump
>beer cans in one end and get finished devices out the
>other.  
>
>This calls on technology we don't currently have of
>course, but if we compare to those two Mars rovers, which
>are *still* wandering about on the red planet all these
>months, over four times the specified mission life, built
>by Lockeeed Martin, 
>
>http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0512/06marsrovers/
>
>then it looks like we could make autonomous farming
>devices in the near term future and set up a highly
>automated fab that could make them in staggering 
>quantities.
>
>  
>
We are now in a farm system with harvesters that cut 40 foot strips at 
4-8 miles per hour.
Herbicides go on at about the 100 ft strip.
Seeding is at 45-70 ft strips.

Most guys like fields of 160-1000 acres.
My  neighbour has a 1000 acre field just next door to me.

However I agree we'll see small autonomous equipment driven remotely by 
people in net connected mini call centers distributed around the globe , 
GPS tracking and guidance, with the new wrinkle
that energy is beamed from the same wind generator towers that route 
excess power back out to the grid
and drive motors are to be  not diesel but  mostly electric.  There may 
be some onboard engine for hydraulics but with
very few people near for  the maintenace of pumps and lines, that  might 
be just too prone to failure to be sustainable.

Equipment reliability will be a prime concern.

It will take expert systems though to handle the various mechanical/crop 
interactions.  A good operator is hard to replace.
For large scale monoculture I see automation as quite easy.  For my form 
of multicrop agriculture it is still going to take
some human touch.

For managment of perennial crops automation is the way to go.  The 
system travels 24/7 monitoring and applying the
right growth factors and optimizes nutrients as well as zapping insects, 
testing for bacteria and fungus parasites.

For long term planning this is going to be challenge.
I am trying to develop and implement an expanded agroforestry plan and 
have to plan with 15-40 year managment
plans.  I will have to guess at what agriculture will be like and need 
to produce 10, 25 and 40 years from now
to be successful.

I've just come back from our first scale-up from manufacturing our hemp 
horse meds by the lab-scale batch to one that
processes  several tonne truck size batches.  Every time you scaleup or 
down it is a big learning experience, regardless
of what you think you know at the start.

With our hemp I am getting to really get into this.
The creation of several fold market value and re-investment of that into 
production and manufacturing needs to be justified
by more than simple food for nutrition.  Food for medicine and life-long 
health custom produced takes the whole
farming system full circle from a micromanagement standpoint.  It 
however is the only stream of revenue that can
sustain and revitalize agriculture, in my view.

So agriculture will diversify , truly if we go from fungal/algae life 
cycle micro-scale to mega scaleup.
Animals fitted with chips to override their nerve impulses and come home 
to be "milked" of rumen
bioreactor products.
High intensity annuals like we mostly grow now combined with perennial 
herbaceous and woody agroforestry.

We are recreating a wilderness ecosystem populated by machines and a few 
people.
Of course the true organic, eco-santuaries of wildlife habitat will have 
to co-exist with all this.

If activity really intensifies there might also be more people around 
but many times on a seasonal basis.







>>... But long-term, we're in a glut of energy, and our (local)
>>limit is how much you can radiate through the atmosphere without
>>elevating temperatures overmuch (extraterrestrial solar)...
>>    
>>
>
>As we improve water handling, the planet becomes greener,
>which decreases albedo resulting in planetary warming.  I
>can imagine a number of ways to compensate however, such
>as creating what amounts to a solar radiator blanketing
>areas that will be difficult to convert to agriculture,
>such as the Gobi and Sahara deserts.  If we do this right,
>we can simultaneously extract solar energy and radiate
>heat into space.
> 
>  
>
>>Already mid-term (less than 50 linear years) we can expect solar to
>>dominate the energetic landscape...
>>    
>>
>
>Actually I agree with that, however I can imagine that
>internal combustion will continue to be popular with
>a segment of the population for the foreseeable.  Electric
>cars for the masses, super high performance IC engines
>much like today's cars for those who can afford to run 
>them.
>
>  
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>
>
>  
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20051210/30230aee/attachment.html>