6 ms·
Cement... Where is my space elevator?! When I first heard about graphene ~20 years ago, I was promised a space elevator, and I'm still waiting.
by Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
Cement... Where is my space elevator?! When I first heard about graphene ~20 years ago, I was promised a space elevator, and I'm still waiting.
- prox 4y agoEver since I watched Foundation, I am kinda not very keen on the idea.
- once_inc 4y agoDon't read the Red Mars trilogy. (do)
- prox 4y agoToo late, added to my want to read list :P
- LesZedCB 4y agoi don't know how a series can be both so good and so painfully boring at the same time. but KSR succeeded in both!
- leto_ii 4y agoI had the same feeling, but I'm curious which parts you found good and which painfully boring. Personally I enjoyed the politics and the society building and didn't care much for endless descriptions of rocky landscape.
- incompatible 4y agoLikewise, there aren't that many works of fiction that deal with anarchist societies and they are always fascinating to me. In hindsight, perhaps the endless descriptions of the landscape would be more entertaining if I'd tried to hand-draw a map from the descriptions. Well, I haven't read Blue Mars yet.
- LesZedCB 4y agoi found almost every part simultaneously both. absolutely agree about the politics, revolutions, the trans-nats politics, i even loved Ann's geology/rocks stuff as i'm a climber and enjoying looking at rocks myself. to me, the hilariously boring part was the convention where they deliberated over the constitution. too accurate. also the constant repetition of people getting lost in the wilderness and having a vision of Hiroko... it took me almost a year and a half of quitting blue mars before i finally finished. he just really needed a more judicious editor. hah, just noticed your username. i put off dune forever until finally watching the movie... half way through god emperor now. i think the politics and philosophy of dune are even more interesting than mars, though obviously different in scope/plausibility.
- leto_ii 4y ago> also the constant repetition of people getting lost in the wilderness and having a vision of Hiroko [...] really needed a more judicious editor Agreed. I also took some time to go through all the books and did it in the end partly out of a sense of duty. > hah, just noticed your username :D Initially it was meant to be a throwaway account, but I didn't want to go with the usual throwaway1234 pattern that is common on hn. > the politics and philosophy of dune are even more interesting than mars, though obviously different in scope/plausibility. Also agreed. It's not easy for me to say which of the two conveys more insight into the human condition and human societies. Dune is certainly grander and bolder in vision, with lots of surprising speculation. Otoh, Mars credibly captures the anarchic dynamics that would arise were we to ever actually colonize the planet. In the end they both have something to offer, though for me Dune remains the greater series.
- UI_at_80x24 4y agoI first tried to read this over a decade ago and at the time (first chapter or so) I had the overwhelming impression that the book was based on cold-war era fear mongering. I didn't continue. If that isn't the case I will gladly try again.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y agoJust don't let murderous bots anywhere near the government. The terror attack was organised by that filthy Demerzel robot. It should be decomissioned.
- jillesvangurp 4y agoI know it's popular to be a millennial on HN and demand instant gratification of our short attention spans. But 20 years really is nothing for developments like this. The article actually mentions a company called Levidian. Apparently, they produce thousands of tonnes of graphene per year already. I'm sure they are not the only one. Somebody is buying that stuff and using it for something. A core usecase for this company seems to be carbon capture. The founders of this company were involved with the ground breaking research that lead to discovering how to produce graphene. Also, that's less than 20 years ago. They were messing around with sticky tape and graphite in 2004. The people that did that got their Nobel price in 2010. From there to thousands of tonnes produced per year in the space of 18 years is actually kind of impressive.
- piaste 4y ago> I know it's popular to be a millennial on HN and demand instant gratification of our short attention spans. But 20 years really is nothing for developments like this. > Also, that's less than 20 years ago. They were messing around with sticky tape and graphite in 2004. The people that did that got their Nobel price in 2010. From there to thousands of tonnes produced per year in the space of 18 years is actually kind of impressive. If anything, it's a pre-millennial attitude - the 20th century was the era when people got used to astonishing advances every few years, and the space race was preeminent in this. 1957: Sputnik 1 1969: Moon landing 1981: Space shuttle 1986: Mir space station To a layman who has seen the above, 20 years to develop a space elevator sounds perfectly reasonable and even conservative.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", a 1968 book, was set in 1992, and featured sentient androids hardly distinguishable from humans and off-world colonies in (presumably) different star systems. So yeah, 20 years to build a space elevator is, indeed, a very conservative estimate by the standards of 1960-1990s.
- neals 4y agoInteresting. Anybody know what's being done with all that Graphene?
- DeathArrow 4y agoFire a tweet and mention @ElonMusk in it. :)