[extropy-chat] Forbes Magazine on Robotics

[Keith Henson]

At 12:58 AM 8/20/2006 -0400, you wrote:

>Forbes Magazine, always eager to put our money where their mouth is, 
>devotes this latest issue to Robotics (including cyborgs):
>
><http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/17/06egang_Robots_land.html?partner=globalnews_newsletter>http://www.forbes.com/2006/08/17/06egang_Robots_land.html?partner=globalnews_newsletter
>
>Put in your order for your exo-suit and vote on which techonology will 
>impact our world the most over the next decade.  The front runner in the 
>poll so far, by a huge margin, is alternative energy.

Amazing, cryonics is on the list.

As big an impact as alternative energy could have, not getting an 
alternative energy source will have a bigger one--mass starvation and 
wars.  Few people realize it, but there are many calories of fossil energy 
in every calory of food.  Between running out of easy to get energy and the 
greenhouse gas problem, something really has to be done.

Nanotechnology can solve the problems in a dozen different ways, but that 
may come too late.

This is a group that is not into heavy engineering, but I was still 
surprised nobody commented on the mechanically powered space elevator I 
posted about.  Massive investment, the cable is borderline nanotechnology, 
but it would solve the energy problem.

It really needs to go up on a wiki page to accumulate details.  Any 
suggestions?

Keith Henson