4 ms·
Half-transcript, half-paraphrasing of the key quotes: something is going to change within 40 years to change our lives as greatly as the changes since we came
by mdisraeli 13y ago
Half-transcript, half-paraphrasing of the key quotes:
something is going to change within 40 years to change our lives as greatly as the changes since we came from the caves to modern day.
The problem is that, as we try to solve privacy, feeding the world, etc we spend months of time discussing these short term problems in board rooms and parliament whilst labs around the world are working on nanotech
Richard Fynman said that there is "no physical law against creating a personal nanofactory", like a 3d printer, to print anything from basically air, dirt and some Acetylene gas (for added carbon).
Everyone will be able to make anything they need for practically nothing, and this will destroy current economic systems and government.
When nanofactories appear, they will address the problem of scarcity. All our years have been spent constructing organisations and systems to share everything. There will be no need for any social institutions, as they all exist to share things, to address scarsisty.
Why would we still live in massive cities, when we have no more factories, no more need for economies of scale? People will be able to then live by themselves on a mountain using solar panels for power and no need for utilities.
Physical contact between people will happen, but be rarer and and 3d holography will be used to allow this over great distance, to allow you to talk to someone as if they are there, no screen, but if you try to touch them you'll just go through them.
We are going to live through extraordinary times over the next twenty-thirty years!
Edit - Further good bits I missed on the first pass:
In response to "You seem as optimistic as you were in 1970":
* laughs * Well you know what they say about pessimists: They jump out of the window and they're no longer involved.
- slurry 13y agoBull market for acetylene gas and mountain wranglers.
- peterjancelis 13y agoOur grandchildren will run ski mountain making startups.
- lucb1e 13y agoYou forgot the last part: > You seem as optimistic as you were in 1970 > * laughs * Well you know what they say about pessimists: They jump out of the window and they're no longer involved.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoRichard Fynman said that there is "no physical law against creating a personal nanofactory", like a 3d printer, to print anything from basically air, dirt and some Acetylene gas (for added carbon). Just because there's no physical law explicitly prohibiting nanofactories in great mile-high letters of fire doesn't mean there actually exists a practical way to build nanofactories. Worse, just because there's a practical way to build nanofactories doesn't mean there's a practical way to make them safe for the general population. Be prepared for the biggest, baddest DRM regime the world has ever known, because an unrestricted matter compiler is almost but not quite at the top of my list for "Sci-Fi Doomsday Weapons". Physical contact between people will happen, but be rarer and and 3d holography will be used to allow this over great distance, to allow you to talk to someone as if they are there, no screen, but if you try to touch them you'll just go through them. Why would you do that? People like physical contact. Living in a Real Place is interesting to many people, living in Real Nature is interesting to many people, but the in-between of sub/ex-urbia has basically universally failed to please anyone in particular.
- MatthewPhillips 13y ago> Why would you do that? People like physical contact. Living in a Real Place is interesting to many people, living in Real Nature is interesting to many people, but the in-between of sub/ex-urbia has basically universally failed to please anyone in particular. There are only 57.5 million square miles on Earth and 7+ billion people so us all living in isolation seems physically difficult.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoSo it's impractical and undesirable. Welp, better get the town council to legislate it into existence, then! Population density is for people who read Asimov instead of Heinlein when they were little, the pig bastards! They're all going to end up in a stinking hivemind when the negentropy runs out, anyway, while we'll die proudly on our lunar dirt-farms! (Sorry, I'm just feeling snarky today.)
- narrator 13y agoNano-factories are interesting but I think safe biological enhancement, especially of intelligence, is going to be even more interesting. Anyone ever see the Limitless movie? Sure, that's not possible today but we are quickly unraveling the mysteries of the body.