3 ms·

I came here to post about Sadoway's grid-scale liquid metal batteries. These, or others like it, have the potential to be absolutely world-changing, IMO.

lifeisstillgood 14y ago
I am fascinated by the number of "disruptive technologies" That are appearing on my limited radar - if you know of any others dump them here - we can tidy them up and may e start a thread - it would be fascinating to see what HN thinks are disruptive within the next five years Me: Military: - directed energy weapons. Real life trials of 25kw weapons Have shown ability to instantly deliver plastic explosive levels of energy (1g PETN ~ 1kj). Link this to optical targeting and you have ability to cut the wings off an entire airforce, stop any human walking a Ross miles of ground and plain old assassination from a drone. The US has more aircraft carriers than most of the res of the world. What now? Transport: - driverless car - natch - electric cars - storage batteries could supply off line grid level storage too Energy - solar power from desert to city - grid level storage from LmBC Medical Err - need to dig out my notebook but its a start Thoughts?
- sbirchall 14y ago
  I think one of the most important disruptive technologies I've noticed over the years is the production of electrostatically controlled nano-valves. This (in my limited opinion) is on par with the "trick" life got involved with many billions of years ago when it chanced on lipid bi-layers with embedded protein gates. It promises a level of material science that is ultimately a phase transition in complexity for life. With the Nokia/Graphene news recently I am confidently hopeful that this technology will produce huge advances.
  - lifeisstillgood 14y ago
    I was thinking of disruptive in 5 years and disruptive in 50. This I assume is a 50year scale technology? However, with apologies to Drexler, hasn't nano-technology just failed to deliver over past twenty years? What makes this trick so different?
    - sbirchall 14y ago
      yeah I can dig that, there's a hell of a lead-in for any nano-tech. I guess this trick is different because it's a process or function - similar in vein to those used in the nano-tech drug delivery systems. Which, if you think about it, are very similar (in kind) to viruses in the way they work. Whereas the nano-valve allows the (directed/conscious/intelligent) production of controlled environments - which are similar to cellular structures. When I first read about it I figured it would be jumped on straight away by the big material science players like Intel or IBM for the production of VERY highly controlled doping for instance. Which is why I think it could be accelerated in it's development in comparison to other nano-tech. But I'm no expert in this area. I'm just interested in the intersection between technological solutions and biological solutions and nano-tech is a big ping on my radar in that respect. To me it represents a phase-transition in the development of life. First we had utilisation of latent energy, self replication, environmental stabilisation (cellular), multi-cellular structure, agent based systems, environmental stabilisation (social), meta-agency ("knowledge" and "culture") and now meta-matter. But as I say, this is not the considered analysis of an expert, just something I find intriguing. In my wildest dreams this new phase will attain stability and the descendents will look back on our current phase like we now do with mitochondria. (Suffice to say I'm a fan of "Deep Time").

lifeisstillgood 14y ago

I am fascinated by the number of "disruptive technologies" That are appearing on my limited radar - if you know of any others dump them here - we can tidy them up and may e start a thread - it would be fascinating to see what HN thinks are disruptive within the next five years Me: Military: - directed energy weapons. Real life trials of 25kw weapons Have shown ability to instantly deliver plastic explosive levels of energy (1g PETN ~ 1kj). Link this to optical targeting and you have ability to cut the wings off an entire airforce, stop any human walking a Ross miles of ground and plain old assassination from a drone. The US has more aircraft carriers than most of the res of the world. What now? Transport: - driverless car - natch - electric cars - storage batteries could supply off line grid level storage too Energy - solar power from desert to city - grid level storage from LmBC Medical Err - need to dig out my notebook but its a start Thoughts?

sbirchall 14y ago
I think one of the most important disruptive technologies I've noticed over the years is the production of electrostatically controlled nano-valves. This (in my limited opinion) is on par with the "trick" life got involved with many billions of years ago when it chanced on lipid bi-layers with embedded protein gates. It promises a level of material science that is ultimately a phase transition in complexity for life. With the Nokia/Graphene news recently I am confidently hopeful that this technology will produce huge advances.
- lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  I was thinking of disruptive in 5 years and disruptive in 50. This I assume is a 50year scale technology? However, with apologies to Drexler, hasn't nano-technology just failed to deliver over past twenty years? What makes this trick so different?
  - sbirchall 14y ago
    yeah I can dig that, there's a hell of a lead-in for any nano-tech. I guess this trick is different because it's a process or function - similar in vein to those used in the nano-tech drug delivery systems. Which, if you think about it, are very similar (in kind) to viruses in the way they work. Whereas the nano-valve allows the (directed/conscious/intelligent) production of controlled environments - which are similar to cellular structures. When I first read about it I figured it would be jumped on straight away by the big material science players like Intel or IBM for the production of VERY highly controlled doping for instance. Which is why I think it could be accelerated in it's development in comparison to other nano-tech. But I'm no expert in this area. I'm just interested in the intersection between technological solutions and biological solutions and nano-tech is a big ping on my radar in that respect. To me it represents a phase-transition in the development of life. First we had utilisation of latent energy, self replication, environmental stabilisation (cellular), multi-cellular structure, agent based systems, environmental stabilisation (social), meta-agency ("knowledge" and "culture") and now meta-matter. But as I say, this is not the considered analysis of an expert, just something I find intriguing. In my wildest dreams this new phase will attain stability and the descendents will look back on our current phase like we now do with mitochondria. (Suffice to say I'm a fan of "Deep Time").