[extropy-chat] Forbes Magazine on Robotics

[Martin Striz]

On 8/20/06, Keith Henson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
> 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.

I've been trying to promote alternative energy as a transhumanist
issue for a while now.  Hopefully people are starting to connect the
dots.  All our magic technologies have to run on something, so a
transhumanist future is necessarily a Green future.

That being said, I don't think alternative energy will make the
greatest impact within the *10 years.*  Out of that list, my vote
would be wireless networking.  There's no reason why Bill Gates'
conception of networked home appliances couldn't happen within the
next 10 years.

Martin