Oops, I've awakened the *"Mog"* of mankind.
Just to show you all how/why he/it is the *"Mog"* of mankind, I'll give you an example:
mankind envisions someday the idea of sending self-supporting colony ships from Earth to distant star systems and planets ...
voyages that can take even a hundred years out into the emptyness of outer-space, yet the *"Mog"* of mankind thinks a similar existence of mankind cannot be supported on or around our good Earth where energy is neither created nor destroyed.

The oceans can be desalinated for fresh water and I'm sure we will find a place for the salt, but a few of these machines at only $500. each can replace any water hole in any *"Mog"* like community:
" www.odditycentral.com/news/texas-inventor-makes-water-out-of-thin-air-beats-drought.html "

Domed cities can be built to allow food growth year around while dealing with any climate change ...

" dsc.discovery.com/videos/mega-engineering-saving-houston-with-a-dome.html "

already mentioned that deserts can be terraformed, but one day I'm sure that seafood farms will be big business breeding any variety of fish to please the palates of seafood lovers:

"www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCl2k4bPT3U"

PS:
There are answers to every problem of mankind including the energy crisis:
algae, natural gas and hydrogen ... wind power and solar power are still in the luxury class as long as mankind can still be hooked onto gasoline powered SUVs while Big Oil manipulates our strings.

As much as I would also like to see nuclear power trashed, I've come to the realisation that we still need it to be able to produce nuclear weapons which might be needed someday to blast a meteor off course from annihilating Earth and all of us with it.

rex

Last Edited : Tuesday, 25 October 2011 - 01:31

It won't be necessary to colonize other planets in order to expand our population (though we will eventually spread out throughout the universe).

The idea of limited resources doesn't take into account the vast potential of nanotechnology to create virtually anything on an atomic level. We're NOT in short supply of any of the basic building block atoms.

Once we are able to assemble on an atomic scale, we'll be able to effectively duplicate photosynthesis (since solar power will likely be one of our main power sources, along with fusion power) with our machines. Our body's food, glucose, is a simple arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (C6H12O6).

We'll be able to carry out this process in our own bodies, effectively producing all the "food" we need!

As for water, TR already pointed out that desalination equipment is already affordable and will only get cheaper in years to come. Even with that aside, there's no reason we can't assemble water, atom by atom, in the same method we'll be synthesizing our food.

The best part is that all of our "mess" in terms of pollution is, for the most part, also made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (think all the CO2 in the atmosphere...) We can clean up the environment, effectively by eating the pollution. The truly toxic stuff (like nuclear waste) can still be broken down into relatively harmless parts.

This technology won't remain in the hands of the elite for very long. It will follow the same trend that all technology does...radio, automobile, the internet, iPods, LASIK surgery, personal computers, etc...

(1. At the technology's inception, it is prohibitively expensive and works rather poorly. The first computers cost millions (in 1930's $$$), weighed 50 tons, and were about as powerful as pocket calculator. Similarly, LASIK surgery was invented in the 1950's, but costs tens of thousands of dollars and cross-your-fingers results.

(2. The technology becomes less expensive and works a little better, but is still priced out of the common folk's budget. By the 60's, computers worked a lot better and you could find them on college campuses, where you could "rent time" on them. Similarly, when LASIK made it to the U.S.A. it still cost thousands per eye.

(3. The technology finally gets the kinks worked out, works rather well, and is affordable for the common folk. The internet was more or less for the elite in the 80's, but made its way into people's homes in the 90's. LASIK costs have dropped to hundreds per eye instead of thousands.

(4. The technology is perfected, becoming ubiquitous and practically free. The internet is quickly approaching this stage, with larger and larger %'s of the population having access to free broadband and wi-fi. Telephone usage is all but free (late night infomercial flashing in my head: GET MAGICJACK, your own landline for only $9.99 a YEAR).

All technology follows this trend, but you'll notice that the more recent inventions go through the stages faster. It took telephones 130 years to reach the last stage, computers took 70, the internet about 50...but smartphones have achieved it in less than 15 years.

That's the exponential growth of technology. Speech recognition software made it's first significant debut in 1985 with a vocabulary of 1000 words with an accuracy of 10%. Two years later the vocabulary was 20,000 words with accuracy over 50%. By 1997 the software was capable of dealing with regular human speech patterns, needing only a couple hours of training on a user's voice. And now we have iPhone's Siri, which has a word recognition error rate of under 1% and requires NO training to a particular user.

The trend will continue, and new technologies will make the transition from "expensive and working poorly" to "affordable and accessible" in less and less time. The free market will drive it! As soon as one company offers "human photosynthe

As soon as one company offers "human photosynthesis" for $10,000, another company will find a way to undercut their prices and do it cheaper.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSkfspliSrk&feature=player_embedded

Check out: Open source robots with high-definition computer vision (can interpret visual information!), a high degree on body coordination (it can play soccer) and an expressive face for the affordable price of $8.500-$15,000!

I say affordable in contrast to a stage one technology, which is what robotics was ten years ago. $10,000 is obviously still outside the price range of you and I, but it's cheap enough to be within the budget of most universities and even some wealthy high schools! I'd be shocked if it took another ten years for something like this to make it into stage three and be affordable to the average family.

Last Edited : Monday, 24 October 2011 - 18:03

Folks,
this is a really interesting video on building a dome over Houston, but I just realised it wasn't working in my post above;
So please try it now:

" dsc.discovery.com/videos/mega-engineering-saving-houston-with-a-dome.html "

Same problem with this video about the water making machine:

" www.odditycentral.com/news/texas-inventor-makes-water-out-of-thin-air-beats-drought.html "

rex

Last Edited : Tuesday, 25 October 2011 - 01:34

DANCING ROBOT!

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QTWA5tLNJ3c

I am a futurist. this seems to be a futurist thread, but I see no TED links. here's some of my favorites:

www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html

www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html

www.ted.com/themes/might_you_live_a_great_deal_longer.html

www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/magnus_larsson_turning_dunes_into_architecture.html

www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/willie_smits_restores_a_rainforest.html


its a tricky thing, futurism... you can get too optimistic and stop seeing the specific problems, believing they'll all get fixed. Maybe most of them will, but they'll also bring along new problems, likely more terrifying and complex and magnificent than anything we've seen yet.

What brought YOU back here?

Speaking of dancing robots. as Sage did a couple of posts back, here is my new cartoon: The Workbot Dance. I did everything you'll see in it, music, voices, animation, and it is my own cartoon character as well. I hopes you enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbqrb20f5Yw&index=4&list=PLg9CHhNulYX1O6p7M1morDvY5Jyg2um5s