Corwin

Thing is elwood... why WOULD someone do it?

With nanotech our problems with scarce resources largely disappear. No problems with hunger, disease, poverty, etc. Land? We don't need to use such huge tracts of land for farming or industry anymore, so everybody gets a place to live...

Most of the REASONS for war disappear.

Of course there would still be idealogy.... but it's tough to raise an army of rebels when people are fed, clothed, and housed.

MadMordigan

Most of the REASONS for war disappear.

Of course there would still be idealogy.... but it's tough to raise an army of rebels when people are fed, clothed, and housed.

Multi millionaires don't seem to have a problem generating hatred for their silly beliefs.

elwoodblues

There is that, yes. But if we're pushing the envelope, that may not be as true as you think. Or the encroaching Western science may be viewed as evil in some circles (no, that's _never_ happened!). Eventually, I think you're right, that impetus to do things like suicide bomb just won't be there, and the movements will die with a whimper. Or, the old hard-line leaders in those movements may see that death approaching, and decide to end things in a bang...

It's a danger. Definitely.

Oh, Morat...

Most designs for beanstalks are just into the upper stratosphere; some reach Low Earth Orbit. None of the realistic ones I've see would cause the kind of devestation you're thinking of. The actual elevator is relatively light-weight (it has to be, in almost all designs), usually constructed of carbon nano-tubes. The end 'terminal' would be the only real problem. Anyway, it'll be situated near the equator; not many population centers (except for the 'root' of the beanstalk, and the terminal, if it fell, would fall to the rotational lee of the root).

Mostly, it'd be the devestation to the investment, to the confidence and morale of space-travel in general, and a subsequent reluctance to build anything like that again. Remember 'Contact'? You can't hide a Beanstalk under construction.

Corwin

True mad... and who do they generate that hatred among?

The poor. The disaffected. The marginalized.

Look at it this way.... if reparations for WWI hadn't been as severe as they were, if things hadn't been so brutal in Germany at that time.... Hitler would have been just another nutcase in a bar somewhere.

jdawg2

you guys play too much Deus Ex

Christopher Lord

Never even saw it, let alone play, it has something to do with nanotech?

Island3

I'm quite surprised that there has yet to be an Anarchy Online reference by now.

daemon

Only to a small degree. Basic opening story: You are a nanotech modified agent of a UN anti-terrorist task force in the relatively near future (50-100 years). Nanotech "upgrades" are found throughout the game, which essentially enhance or improve your character. Other nanotech bits tossed into it were the idea of hardware hacking tools that operate via nanobots, and maybe the standard lockpics were nanotech.

Actually, overall, the game's got a solid story and well done plot, though the implications of nanotech aren't explored too much.

Corwin

Nanotech plays a critical role in this game and its predecessors, the System Shock games. (Same programmers, Eidos snagged them from Looking Glass when they went under.)

There's a very good reason for all of this, and it's something the nano-community has sort of seen a need for. Nanotech needs exposure. This is going to be a critically important technology that will change just about every aspect of human life eventually. People need to get used to the idea. Hence, exposure in popular media. (The former Looking Glass programmers that were responsible for System Shock 1 and 2 and were heavily involved in Deus Ex are all largely nanofreaks. )

Last_of_the_Firsts

I think you guys are missing something, or maybe I am. It seems to me that nanotech could do much more than that. We're talking immortality eventually. I think the ideal control for nano bots would be a brain/computer hybrid. Think about it, you get a computer that is programmable by thought and you can do anything, things like food or other things you'd make frequently would be auto programmed to be created with a word the nano machines would have to be give orders by some kind of radio wave it's just too impractical if they have to "plug-in" or something. If you can get them to fly you get even more possiblities. Plus think of the benifits to self-defense how many people would kill if after the victim dies you are attacked by a swarm of nanobots or something else that has been pre-programmed into the bots (kinda like a dead-man's switch or something) or perhaps some kind of explosion. With nanotech at this level it becomes very hard to kill someone without dying yourself, at least not at close range. Plus you never have to take a shit again, or pee either. That gets annoying sometimes. You need nothing if you control your own nanobots. There would be no money. What would you use that you couldn't just create? Intellectual property would be the only thing worth anything, especially non-fiction stuff because with nanotech you can do anything you just have to know how. This could be just a pipe dream though and I could be missing something very important.