[extropy-chat] GM Food [was: World map of human ES cellandnucleartransfer policies]

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
...
> 
> Growing energy crops is a *terrible* nonsolution to our energy
> needs, as we have often discussed on this list, in quite
> recent past, actually...

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.

> ... 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.

> ... I'm rather attached to my Laphroaig...

Laphroaig:  world's favorite Islay malt liquor, term 
derived from Gaelic, meaning "the beautiful hollow by 
the broad bay."  Islay: an island of western Scotland 
at the southern end of the Inner Hebrides.

What did we do before Google?  How did our species
manage without it?  Did we just go around with
blank stares and question marks floating about
our heads?

spike










> 
> > compensate for energy crops by eating less meat.
> 
> It's never going to work. It either has to become terribly expensive,
> or terribly unsafe.
> 
> --
> Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
> ______________________________________________________________
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