[extropy-chat] peak oil schmeak oil

[Adrian Tymes]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> As
> envisioned by the nanotech advocates, the eventual result 
> is the relative prices of manufactured goods drop steadily
> as the relative price of a place to actually park the
> stuff increases steadily.  Major appliances, cars,
> things that take a lot of room eventually become
> cheaper than the piece of real estate it sits upon.  In
> some parts of the world, we have effectively reached 
> that point before the nanotech era.

There are certain parts of my life, specifically my material resources,
which frankly sound very reminiscent of that.  Small example: a farmer
would be loathe to give away product, but between all the food my
household is given and can cheaply obtain, we literally can't make use
of all the fruit that grows on the trees in our backyard.  (Seriously:
anyone on this list in the Bay Area who wants to swing by - by
appointment only, please - is welcome to help themselves to a bagful of
lemons and/or peaches from my trees, while they last.  You'll have to
pick 'em yourself.)  We're also looking to get rid of certain
non-trivial equipment (like gene sequencers, and an industrial robot
arm) we picked up as salvage from various ventures; the stuff came to
us practically for free (nothing to do with the equipment itself, but
with the previous owner), but finding someone to buy it (for a fair
price: this stuff, when it sells, goes for several thousand $, so we
won't sell it for only $100) is proving to be a major challenge.

One of the main uses for molecular manufacturing may simply be to scan
and disassemble one's own stuff, for more efficient storage.  Don't
leave your car out in the rain to rust: disassemble it when you're not
using it.  Got a lot of books you've been meaning to read?  Let the
nanites read them into your AI, and then either give 'em to bookstores
or libraries, or if there are none that will take your books, you might
have other uses for those carbon atoms.  If you go to trade shows a
lot, once you're done showing off the schwag you got, toss anything you
won't soon use into the recycler for feedstock.  (And on that note, say
goodbye to garbage dumps, most kinds of toxic waste, and the associated
environmental hazards.  See "thermal depolymerization" for preview of
that kind of thing, in use today.)