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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: i-node who wrote (695577)1/27/2013 2:08:39 PM
From: combjelly  Read Replies (1) of 1576916
 
The hallmark of the 20th century was communications. Widespread usage of the telephone, movies, radio, television. All culminating in networked computers. That is what is driving much of the development.

You are missing the big picture. We are on the cusp of becoming a Kardashev level 1 civilization. The US by itself can do it. And in a few decades. A Kardashev level 1 civilization is not a poor one unless it has a population much higher than the world will have even if population growth kicks into high gear. And that fundamentally changes the way the economy can operate. What an economy does is manage resource allocation. But when you can mine asteroids, the resource pile is suddenly huge. Many times what we have exploited to date. pB fusion lifts the restriction on energy. And SpaceX is solving the problem of access to space with Grasshopper.

Those 3 things should be commercialized within a decade. If the asteroid mining doesn't pan out, we can mine the Moon as a start. Now that they have realized than any body exposed to space with oxides on its surface with create water because hydrogen atoms from the sun in solar wind will provide hydrogen. SpaceX is very likely to succeed. So cheap access to space will be in place and facilitate mining the Moon. Not nearly the resources that are in the asteroids, but it still is a big boost.

This stuff isn't in the far future. It is happening now.

As far as the universities go, that is already happening. MIT recently started offering online courses for free. I don't know if you can get a degree that way yet, but it is planned. You still will have to keep the university system around. It is the best way we know of to train researchers. But that will likely be their main focus.

What we should be doing now is expanding the Job Corps. People need to realize they will constantly be retraining. And the tools to retrain have got to be made available. Make that an option when someone goes on unemployment. Mandatory when they are on unemployment after a certain amount of time. They say there is a shortage of welders and truck drivers. People can be trained to a useful level for those jobs in a few weeks.

One thing you miss about 3d printers. We will no longer be mass producing things. What we will do is have many things customized for us. Either the consumer can do it, or hire someone who specializes in doing it. That can soak up a lot of labor. The more money you make, the larger number of items you can have customized for you.
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