[extropy-chat] Forbes Magazine on Robotics

[Keith Henson]

At 02:16 PM 8/20/2006 -0400, Martin wrote:

snip

>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.

The trouble is, human demand for energy is so high that small scale 
solutions just won't do it.  The potential for wind energy, for example, 
isn't large enough.  Fossil fuels won't last, and it would take on the 
order of ten thousand new nuclear plants to displace them.  Power sats 
could tap enough energy to displace all the coal and nuclear plants.

>That being said, I don't think alternative energy will make the
>greatest impact within the *10 years.*

You are probably right.  But without a massive start in the next ten years 
a substantial fraction of the current population is likely to die in the 
next 20 years from starvation or wars from the effects of a looming bleak 
future.

>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.

I just can't see a toaster able to burn an image of Jesus into bread having 
that much of an impact on my life.

Keith Henson