elwoodblues

lol, walk before you run... Let's build a few presurized domes before we get to the Dyson spheres, okay?

And I mention the moon because it really has to come first. It's the stepping stone out of this blasted gravity well. The moon's gravity is 1/5 earth gravity. For the purposes we're talking about, that's much more than 5 times as good.

Unless bean-stalk elevators or catapults become extremely cheap compared to building a lunar base, the moon is a necessary step out into the rest of the solar system.

MadMordigan

Speaking from a professional persepective, the biggest use I see for nanatech is in the construction of materials.

Even if this techonology was limited to the production of ferrous metals, the results would be revolutionary. As it stands now, steel is made pretty much the same way it was made 1600 years ago. Heat up iron with coal, pour it out and smash it. The scale has changed, but the problems causes by impurities and inconsistancies are the same.

The ability to make a piece of 4140 with a purely uniform carbon structure would turn mechanical engineering on its ear. The applications for such a material in load bearing equipment and tooling would make it worth more than its weight in gold.

The Other Michael

Does the thought of Microsoft Windows-controlled nanobots concern anyone besides me?

cheers,
Michael

Corwin

Proprietary systems are out. ALL nanotech will have to be run on some form of open-source software. Otherwise nobody will trust it. (I know I SURE as all hell wouldn't.)

If they aren't open to peer review they don't get used. It's that simple.

Island3

*Space Colonies*

<a href="http://www.ssi.org/" target="_blank">Space Studies Institute</a>

<a href="http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/" target="_blank">Orbital Space Settlements</a>

<a href="http://www.permanent.com/" target="_blank">P.E.R.M.A.N.E.N.T.</a>

<a href="http://www.wood13.freeserve.co.uk/star.htm" target="_blank">Starships, Space Colonies and the like</a>

<a href="http://www.ssi.org/high-frontier.html" target="_blank">A real kickass book</a>

<a href="http://www.ssi.org/obit.html" target="_blank">The man with the plan</a>

<a href="http://www.space-frontier.org/Projects/ExternalTanks/" target="_blank">What we should be doing with the spent fuel tanks</a>

<a href="http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/70sArt/AC75-1883f.jpeg" target="_blank">The effing future</a>

*Dyson Spheres*

<a href="http://www.d.kth.se/~asa/dysonFAQ.html" target="_blank">Sphere FAQ</a>

<a href="http://users.rcn.com/jasp.javanet/dyson/" target="_blank">Another one</a>

<a href="http://www.rahul.net/rootbear/graphics/ringworld/index.html" target="_blank">Welcome to Ring World</a>

*FARK*
<a href="http://www.fark.com/" target="_blank">FARK</a>

SmashingIdols

Or, better yet, launch your nano-weapons, uhh ...I meant technologies, out into space seeking life!

When these self-replicating robots find life, they just gently nudge some asteroid or comet into a course of destruction toward the planet in question. It would only take a few thousand years, but who is counting right?

That way you prevent extraterrestrials (from your own perspective) from competing for glactic resources that you desire for your own.

Best of all, it looks entirely natural to the beings that get smooshed. Ouch.

Hey, what if this is happening out there in the Oort right this very minute? Sheesh. No wonder it's so quiet out there...

EDITED TO ADD FOOTNOTE:

This is one theory on why we may never read radio waves from other planet. I think it's called "Where is everybody?" by Enrico Fermi. Corrections are welcome...

[ May 03, 2002: Message edited by: SmashingIdols ]</p>

SmashingIdols

Island3:

I think the first step is building an orbital space elevator, as in Aurthur C. Clarke's book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446677949/qid=1020447713/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-9594052-6143011" target="_blank">The Fountains of Paradise</a>, the most immediately beneficial thing the human-race could currently conspire.

This elevator would give us access to all of the raw materials necessary to colonize space [as well as providing free power for the entire planet]. If we don't colonize space, we will eventually die. It is the next big step in evolution, and its greatest challenge.

BTW - Fantastic Post!

[ May 03, 2002: Message edited by: SmashingIdols ]</p>

Island3

<a href="http://www.ssi.org/energy.html" target="_blank">A proposed solution</a>

<a href="http://www.dp9.com/Worlds/jc.htm" target="_blank">Possible future...if you include the giant robots and stuff...or even if you don't...anyway the point is that it's a cool game</a>

BTW Thank you for the compliment.

elwoodblues

A beanstalk-type elevator... One word for it.

Target.

Believe me, I think it'd be a great thing. You could cut mass-to-orbit cost by several orders of magnitude and still recoup construction and maintenance. But it'd just be too big of a target. And every design I've seen, even though it's robust in it's thresholds, they don't take into account a short-range missile. Or a Cessna. Or an idiot in either terminal with some plastique (or worse than plastique; if we have materials technology to build a beanstalk, we've got damned good explosives too).

Security would be an enormous issue. You thought a skyscraper was a big, juicy target? This thing would be an enormous symbol of all things some people hate. Plenty of people don't think we should even be going into space. Kamikaze'ing a rigged Cessna into the damned thing would have a good chance of ensuring just that.

Morat

Not just that...*shudder*. Imagine it hitting the ground. It's not loss of money, or loss of life on the beanstalk.

It's the string of nuclear-sized explosions and earthquakes set off around the globe as this thing falls...and whips around the planet.