Generations should not transfer their pain to other generations
Yeah. Throwing and entire generation into poverty sounds like a great solution!
I mean, it would only affect the adults...
Well yeah, if we have a stagnant economy, you have a point. But we won't. The 3d printers you want to use to print guns? Judging by the email I got yesterday,looks like The Motley Fool has discovered them. They still don't realize the full potential, but even so they predict they will be revolutionizing manufacturing. Which it will. And that will be done local, A lot less shipping things around the globe, just the feedstocks for the printers. Staples (IIRC) is going to start putting a neat 3d printer in their stores this year. The printer uses sheets of paper. It pulls a sheet, sprays ink on it for that layer of the pattern, puts it on the stack and cuts out that layer with a little knife. Spray some adhesive, rinse and repeat. Great for topo maps and architectural models. The heads look creepy, though.
Did you know there is not one but two companies that plan on mining asteroids? One has some big backers, don't know about the other.Both plan on using cubesats at the beginning. Those can be launched for under $10k today, even less when SpaceX gets Grasshopper working. Imagine being able to put 25 metric tons in orbit for $100k.
But I digress. One company plans on lunching a swarm of tiny space telescopes. They are going to try to sell time on those and the satellites themselves. Otherwise, they will use them to map the asteroids in the system. Once they do the mapping, they move into phase II.
The other one though, has more ambitious plans. Their cubesats will have what has to be ion motors and a bunch of solar cells.They plan on picking out known near Earth asteroids and sending their cubesats to check them out. Then a larger cubesat, basically a double-wide, to sample and return. And, this is where it gets really wacky, they plan on commercial operations in 2020. They are even working on a zero gee 3d printer that uses ground up asteroids for feedstock. Because they plan on capturing small asteroids and bringing to Earth orbit.
Did you know there is a company that plans on using 3d printers to print meat? Well, sort of. They plan on using the printers to print a tissue scaffold like is very commonly done now, and seeding the matrix with meat cells, letting them grow in a nutrient bath. Imagine the moral dilemma that will put vegans in. Imagine the one if the cells are human...
And that is just a handful of things for 3d printers. Now, there are several technologies that promise fusion power in the very near term. Yes, yes, I realize it has been just around the corner for decades. But now it looks as if it is real. When they finally pitched in the towel on tokamaks, some of the more fringe ideas started to get some funding. Now my favorite is Polywell. Primarily because that is Dr. Bussard's baby and I do love the idea of the Bussard ramjet. It has the promise of pB fusion. That is protium(hydrogen with just a proton) and Boron. The nice thing about that is very low level of fast neutrons and lots of energy in charged particles. Those can be harvested directly for electricity. Don't really know the status. It is being funded by a grant from the Navy and it is classified. But, the results they can release look good and the Navy keeps funding them. Wonder why the Navy would be interested in fusion reactor that is 10 meters in diameter?
Polywell is far from the only horse in the race. There are several others that are producing neutrons at a rate that equals or betters ITER. So it seems likely that at least on of them will make it.
And that is far from the only stuff in the pipe. The future, even the relatively near future is going to be a very different place. Hamstringing the country at this time, just to satisfy your moral rage seems to be a very bad idea. |
