3 ms·

Very neat, but I'd be more worried that the next generation of materials manufacturing - carbon fiber and nanotube looms and autoclaves - will be completely Chi

by ak217 15y ago

Very neat, but I'd be more worried that the next generation of materials manufacturing - carbon fiber and nanotube looms and autoclaves - will be completely China based.

maxmcd 15y ago
Why worried? I understand it signifies less of an exciting engineering presence in the united states, but beyond being disappointing, why is that actually a problem?
- _delirium 15y ago
  One reason is that whole ecosystems and expertise grow up around manufacturing, so it means the U.S. would lack both the knowledge and secondary industry. Also we'd be basically screwed in any standoff with China! Especially since their economy is heavily state-controlled, they would have a de-facto veto over any U.S. equipment that they didn't want built.
SoftwareMaven 15y ago
The more interdependent the world gets, the harder it will be for any one nation to go rogue. That is a good thing. However, if, instead of a cyclical graph, we wind up with a tree, things could get very ugly (but don't have to). The US likes to think of itself as the root of the tree, and maybe it even was for part of the 20th century (the US was central to a lot of manufacturing and design), but those days seem to be over now. As a citizen of the US, I find that scary, but only because I think many people in the US will fight tooth and nail to try to keep being the root.
- patrickk 15y ago
  "The more interdependent the world gets, the harder it will be for any one nation to go rogue." The world pre-WWI was actually quite globalised[1], more so than most people today would imagine that it was. Yet that wasn't enough to prevent the horrors of WWI trench warfare. I think a similar fallacy exists today - that globalisation will prevent WWIII. Violence and combat has existed for all of human history and there's no reason to think it will ever disappear, sadly. In a few decades anyone that remembers being alive during WWII will be dead and the possibility of WWIII will become stronger, IMO. Just like the Glass-Steagall act was enacted after the 1929 crash[2], but repealed once the scars of the Great Depression had faded from the public's consciousness, the spectre of the outbreak of WWIII will loom ever larger as those who remember the horror of WWI & WWII pass on, and the lessons learned forgotten. [1] http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Globalization-First-era-of-modern-globalization-to-1914.html#b http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Globalization-Fi... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act
shareme 15y ago
Not China based, read up on the manufacturing of the Boeing Dreamliner..Japan yes, China no
- bilbo0s 15y ago
  Most likely Japan AND China... AND Germany... AND Brazil... etc... It's the nature of that particular tech.

by ak217 15y ago

Very neat, but I'd be more worried that the next generation of materials manufacturing - carbon fiber and nanotube looms and autoclaves - will be completely China based.

maxmcd 15y ago

Why worried? I understand it signifies less of an exciting engineering presence in the united states, but beyond being disappointing, why is that actually a problem?

_delirium 15y ago
One reason is that whole ecosystems and expertise grow up around manufacturing, so it means the U.S. would lack both the knowledge and secondary industry. Also we'd be basically screwed in any standoff with China! Especially since their economy is heavily state-controlled, they would have a de-facto veto over any U.S. equipment that they didn't want built.

SoftwareMaven 15y ago

The more interdependent the world gets, the harder it will be for any one nation to go rogue. That is a good thing. However, if, instead of a cyclical graph, we wind up with a tree, things could get very ugly (but don't have to). The US likes to think of itself as the root of the tree, and maybe it even was for part of the 20th century (the US was central to a lot of manufacturing and design), but those days seem to be over now. As a citizen of the US, I find that scary, but only because I think many people in the US will fight tooth and nail to try to keep being the root.

patrickk 15y ago
"The more interdependent the world gets, the harder it will be for any one nation to go rogue." The world pre-WWI was actually quite globalised[1], more so than most people today would imagine that it was. Yet that wasn't enough to prevent the horrors of WWI trench warfare. I think a similar fallacy exists today - that globalisation will prevent WWIII. Violence and combat has existed for all of human history and there's no reason to think it will ever disappear, sadly. In a few decades anyone that remembers being alive during WWII will be dead and the possibility of WWIII will become stronger, IMO. Just like the Glass-Steagall act was enacted after the 1929 crash[2], but repealed once the scars of the Great Depression had faded from the public's consciousness, the spectre of the outbreak of WWIII will loom ever larger as those who remember the horror of WWI & WWII pass on, and the lessons learned forgotten. [1] http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Globalization-First-era-of-modern-globalization-to-1914.html#b http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Globalization-Fi... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act

shareme 15y ago

Not China based, read up on the manufacturing of the Boeing Dreamliner..Japan yes, China no

bilbo0s 15y ago
Most likely Japan AND China... AND Germany... AND Brazil... etc... It's the nature of that particular tech.