Five frontier technologies

Chris Eldridge, Harrisburg PA — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:22:55 GMT

So I guess the big question is how are we going to afford all the latest gadgets, rooftop solar panels, wind generators, flying cars, and terabyte computers? To me, the most economical and ecological way to get more out of life while actually using less is through a modernized form of communal living, which (when done properly) is a technology all its own. Instead of always being forced to buy the cheapest products, families can simply split their cost and share the latest state-of-the-art appliances and recreational items that come along. People fail to realize that apart from their bedrooms, the six main areas of the home are used less than 10% of the time for the purpose they were intended. If we can simply share such areas, we’d have the vital extra room we need in the home for libraries, game room/sports bars, craft and homeschooling classrooms, and even things like a multipurpose racquetball court that can be converted into a theater/conference center or gymnastics training facility. Rooftop landing pads and greenhouses come standard!

To hold up to such an intensified living arrangement, such homes would have corporate telephone and server computer systems, segregated living areas to lower noise levels, and master bedroom suites with full entertainment centers, personal computers, and ample storage space. There’d be wider hallways, soundproof materials within the walls and floors, and top-quality appliances to meet expected demands. Such homes would also have professionally-equipped offices and shops that allow residents to establish comprehensive home-based businesses! Working right at home reduces daycare, vehicle, and fuel costs, our impact on the environment, and would give us about FIVE more hours of free time per week. It is a 'cut-to-the-chase' solution that makes so much more of the good stuff in life finally possible... for ALL of us!

Five frontier technologies

Richard P. Speck, Denver, Colorado — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:52:49 GMT

Private space efforts are primed to explode beyond suborbital “Tourist” flights, and quickly reach new milestones far beyond the Moon. Space X and even Lockheed Martin are working on man rated vehicles to reach Low Earth Orbit, without NASA or the Russians. Hardware and supplies for a deep space mission can already be delivered to orbit by commercial services. Recognizing that it is far easier to reach Mars’ surface than our Moon’s, and only modestly more difficult to make a round trip, ultralight efforts are possible for the cost of an “America’s Cup” racing sailboat. The necessary spacecraft and life support systems for flights beyond LEO are modest sized, not particularly difficult and can use largely proven technology. Experienced adventurers are already preparing for these historic efforts.

Five frontier technologies

Bob Moffitt — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:09:51 GMT

The flex fuel era has already arrived in some places. Take a look at this website from the American Lung Association of the Upper Midwest, a strong supporter of E85, to see what I mean:

www.CleanAirChoice.org

Five frontier technologies

Derek Meche — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:10:33 GMT

My only regret about manned spaceflight is that I may not be around to see it all. I watched the Apollo program and waited, and waited, and waited for a moon base. Now when we are predicted to go to Mars around 2030, I'll be 66. Given the delay these programs usually take, I may miss it. GO PRIVATE INDUSTRY!! Let's get there sooner than later. NASA has dropped the ball for 30 years, lets pick it up and RUN!!

Five frontier technologies

Bill — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:12:41 GMT

4. How about everybody being able to get a checkup?

Five frontier technologies

Don Smith — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:56:14 GMT

I'd like to add one...

We're at the point where we may finally understand gravity. If we can solve this puzzle of antigravity, it will change the world in ways that nothing else ever will. Floating cities. Mooncars. Individual people flying like they're walking in the park.

Everything else will make profound changes upon us, but this would certainly be the most visual.

Five frontier technologies

Joseph Felcon, Chandler, AZ — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:59:56 GMT

The one thing that you failed to include under the "personalized medicine" topic is the coming cure for cancer. Scientists are now creating a library of the genetic defects that lead to specific cancers (see March, 2007 issue of Scientific American). This will allow doctors precisely to target chemo and gene therapies at proteins and enzymes to attack and destroy each (and every) individual cancer cell while leaving healthy cells virtually unaffected.

Five frontier technologies

Steve Quanrud — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:40:49 GMT

Energy independence hands down has the most potential for early and long-term payoff.

This sounds like a perfect match -- biofuels and genetically engineered plants "designed" not for food but for maximum conversion into biofuels.

I haven't read anything about genetic engineering of plants to maximize biofuel generation. Is this happening now? If not in the US, where?

Thanks.

Five frontier technologies

DJB Rizalist — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:36:15 GMT

In places like the Philippines, politicians are already running election campaigns around the supposed benefits of feeding all or most of our sugar cane to the cars instead of the hungry human beings. But I've done some admittedly simple arithmetic involving land area and production efficiency of bioethanol production. Know what? I think bioethanol could be the new snake oil. Just coz an idea is "green" doesn't mean it's ripe!

Five frontier technologies

Diana Harris,Scottsdale,AZ — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:45:38 GMT

I began a list in the early '90's when taking a college level 'Future Studies' course, my choices then were biotech (genetics, proteomics etc.), nanotech (Engines of Creation), robotics, Fermilab/CERN particle accelerators(atomsmasher - as in finding the GOD particle)& at that time the SETI project(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) but next year that will be supplanted by the low frequency telescope in Australia which unlike SETI will be able to pick up signals that aren't necessarily beamed into space. The 1st three I list essentially have applications only as limited as our imaginations. The last 2 may not have the practical applications but in my opinion have the potential to cause a seismic shift in our consciousness & impact how we live as much or more than all the others put together.

Five frontier technologies

Aaron Oesterle — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:10:56 GMT

I have to admit, Alan, I was disappointed in the IBM when it didn't mentioned Space commericalization and space colonization, although to be brutally honest, I wasn't too surprized, since space colonization doesn't do much for there business.

Five frontier technologies

Des Emery,The Carborundun Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:44:27 GMT

Alan -- tch, tch, tch, the five-year forecasts are all underway right now and progressing nicely behind the scenes to be ready for consumption soon enough. But I hope you aren't ignoring our most pressing problem and its solution, upon which the other technologies depend so greatly for relevance in the long run. Yes, I'm thinking of Global Warming as mankind's pre-eminent problem to be solved in five years -- or else! We really don't have the luxury of solving that problem 100 years or 50 years or even 20 years from now.

Five frontier technologies

Michael Hubbard, Santa Fe, TX — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:59:41 GMT

Ethanol is only part of the solution. It'll be a better part of the solution if a ultra-efficient flexfuel vehicle (100+ mpg) comes along, along with far more efficient sources than corn (switchgrass).

Five frontier technologies

MCH, Santa Fe, TX — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:05:04 GMT

Global Warming, IF it really exists, can't and won't be solved until we get another energy source. The only way to do it is to fund innovative technology that prevents emissions from getting to the atmosphere or extracts it from the atmosphere while also looking for effective and efficient new energy sources. High taxation, carbon caps, etc aren't the answer. And neither is the Kyoto Treaty, that, you, document that is entirely anti-American?

Five frontier technologies

JS, Lufkin, Tx. — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:51:44 GMT

Technologies that will enhance interpersonal relations will be the next wave. As we strive to advance we will soon realize that it is the interactions of human with human that matter most. Machinations will only drive us to ponder and yearn for the unpredictable which can only be found in the human psyche. When technology can achieve such results, we will find ourselves back where we started...conversing with each other. Of course, this is where we are going already. Whether it be on the moon or some other place, we travel to find others. What would be the sense of discovery if we have no one to share the discovery with?

Five frontier technologies

James Stepp, Orlando, Florida — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:37:18 GMT

For the plant that produces the most ethanol look at hemp. www.jackherer.com

To see the company that is going to make Microsoft look like a kid selling lemonade look at www.permanent.com

Five frontier technologies

Andy Rakaczky, Sun Valley, NV — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:05:47 GMT

And don't forget the Mayan calendar says that it will all end on December 21, 2012! There may be less time than we think.

Five frontier technologies

ASG, Columbus Ohio — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:09:54 GMT

Alan, I have to say that Im with you on #6 but do we really want to scare everbody so soon. Lets wait till 2013 and see who left to keep progressing foward the Human Race.

Five frontier technologies

Chad Robert — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:29:06 GMT

2012......Enjoy the next 5 years. In 2012 there will, without a doubt, a near extiction of the human race. This is going to be caused by a violent shift in the poles on the sun which will result in a change in the suns magnetic field. This will then cause a pole shift here on earth. The results will be total destruction. Land masses will change locations on the earth by thousands of miles in a matter of hours and the earth will actually change it's rotation dirtection. The sun will rise in the west and set in the east. This has happened before, and will happen again at 11:00am on Dec 21st, 2012. Do some investigating for yourself, it might save your life. Many people can be saved, but we have to start planning now.

Five frontier technologies

Guy S. Newell — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:34:06 GMT

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but can someone explain to me how ethanol solves any real environmental problem? Doesn't it all depend on where you get it from? Doesn't burning enthanol produce carbon dioxide? If you're trying to solve a political problem of buying oil from people who hate us, I'm not sure that ethanol from corn even helps with that, unless the farm machinery is powered by ethanol, or liquified coal.

Roof-top solar panels have been around for decades. I designed a house that used them back in the 70's . Guess what: it's still not enconomically viable to build it today. Electricity is roughly the same price now as it was then. about 7 cents a kilowatt-hour.

None of these ideas for alternative fuels are new. We still don't have a viable battery technology unless you consider hydrogen fuel cells viable. I don't.

Five frontier technologies

BH, Fairbanks, Alaska — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:23:46 GMT

What about the fact that it takes 6 units of oil to produce 1 unit of ethanol? Why do people tend to ignore that issue?

Five frontier technologies

CM, Modesto Ca — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 21:51:56 GMT

1. Ethanol is not the only "biofuel", there is also biodiesel made from oils and fats, and butanol made by bacterial fermentation. Butanol has more energy per gallon and can be used in regular gasoline engines - no "flex fuel" required.

Production is a problem, not enough farmland, so biofuels cannot replace petroleum by themselves. A dramatic reduction in fuel consumption is needed, that means extensive use of electricity for "pluggable" hybrids, battery electric vehicles, electric transit, and even "electric car guideways".

2. There may be many simple tasks that can be handled by robots, but "self driving" cars are going to be much more difficult than DARPA expects. Navagation, steering, speed control, and coordinating automated vehicles is easy, but dealing with pedestrians, animals, random obstacles, and human drivers will prove to be impossible. Putting vehicles on "guideways", isolated from traffic and pedestrians, is the best solution.

3. We don't know nearly enough to get any sort of direct machine/brain connection to work well - the proposed "innernet" is a very long ways away. For now, we'll use net connected cellphones/PDAs for all that quick internet reference stuff.

4. Genetically personalized medicine will eventually be a huge benefit - but an enormous amount of research is still needed, and there will be more than a few genetic surprises yet to be discovered.

5. The "space tourism" industry has wildly overestimated the size of their market, and with way too many companies crowding the field competing for the same tiny pool of billionaire clients, the probability of all of them eventually going bankrupt is extremely high. The only "commercial spaceflight" that makes economic sense is the rather mundane launching of communication sattelites. As for government sponsored non-commercial space flights, I suspect they will eventually have to be cut due to economic reality, especially since national debts are large and growing.

Five frontier technologies

Ralph Homan, Everett WA — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:32:40 GMT

What also needs to be funded by the Feds is a very large award (or bounty) for the inventor who can come up with solar panels that can, very inexpensively, create a lot of electricity as well as battery technology to store large amounts for longer times in smaller spaces. Our space program has already laid the foundation. Today, it costs some $90,000 to run an entire household from photovoltaic panels. Cut that cost by 90% and it will make sense. Smaller and more efficient battery storage will also be a complementary technology.

Why a very large Federal award? The invisible hands, that's why! Put a carrot out there for inventors to reach for and more will. And you can bet your bottom dollar that a small company or individual will be the ones to come up with it, not GE et al. Just think of the industries this will also germinate!

Five frontier technologies

john smith woodburn or — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:22:59 GMT

Whos idea was it to turn our food source into a energy source.We used to feed untold millions of starving people.Now we are creating a system for corprate farms to recive either tax breaks or subsities to over produce and contiune to lessen the produtivaity of our farm land.

Five frontier technologies

Aaron Oesterle — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 03:45:28 GMT

CM,
I'm curious - why don't you think that the companies can bring the price to orbit down?

Five frontier technologies

Des Emery,The CarborundumChronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:19:01 GMT

MCH of Santa Fe is hesitant about accepting the reality of Global Warming. I want to assure him that it is real and it is knocking at our door right now. The diversionary debate concerning its genesis, whether it is predetermined or a natural event or is caused by us and our profligate habits, is moot; it is measurably happening. I don't blame the measurers for extending the time we have left, but they are looking through rose-coloured glasses in accepting hopeful estimates.

The Kyoto Protocol is a political document, acceptable to some politicos but not to others, including Bush who likes to go it alone. It was conceived many years ago and is still not being put into practice, allowing many politicos, including the neocon Steven Harper of Canada, to make it into a political football. It is irrelevant at this late date.

Nuclear power plants (no CO2) are the first requirement in order to distribute electricity across the continent. While these are being brought on-line, the new technology of nanobatteries can be expanded rapidly; these batteries are small enough and can be up-loaded with electricity almost instantaneously when re-charging is needed. Existing service stations can be converted from dispensing gasoline (lots of CO2) to selling 'volts' (no CO2) instead, from the new power grid. We, the people, can take charge of our lives again and tell the automakers, here and abroad, manufacture electric vehicles, or else. And they can of course, if we want them to.

2012, in Mayan Calendars or not, is just another year, but makes a good target to shoot for in our present predicament. Global Warming is real - check out the pictures and maps and hope that your home is well above sea-level.

Five frontier technologies

adam norman, Fort Knox, KY — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:11:01 GMT

What kind of impact will this innernet have on the military and people in the military that want to have this procedure done? Because if you're looking for test subjects, I'll be the first for the military to take on this innernet.

Five frontier technologies

Ray Bilodeau — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:16:00 GMT

Economics still rules. Few of these ideas will get too far because of the expense of changing things to make them work.

The noosphere was proposed way back by Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin, though not as a mind-internet link as such. Who's going to afford the operations and the training to get the interlink to work? Not to mention dealing with all the failures who will have to be institutionalized.

Global warming and its consequences will be the most immediate development, but no suggestions for how to survive economically and as a species. Ignoring the gorilla in the room is a strange kind of prognostication.

While it is not likely that strange matter and negative energy will be resolved in the next 5 years, there will probably be some new developments in these areas, and they will have consequences.

Five frontier technologies

MCH, Santa Fe, TX — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:32:09 GMT

There is actually research going on how to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the Valley.

Five frontier technologies

MCH, Santa Fe, TX — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:35:00 GMT

Des, Gore's movie is full of false numbers. Don't believe it. I'm not saying we shouldn't develop technologies and capabilities to counter it, but I'm not convinced it is as big or as immediate a problem Gore or the Europeans make it. Kind of odd that most of the major planets in the solar system are warming...

Five frontier technologies

Des Emery,The Carborundum Chronicles,St.Thomas,ON,Canada — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:16:33 GMT

MCH of Santa Fe (one of the beautiful cities I'd like to visit) -- I'm not getting my information on Global Warming from Al Gore, whose movie, though Oscar-winning, I've not seen. The Europeans are understandably more involved in Global Warming since most of them are further north than most of us. They get their warmer winters from the Gulf Stream, which will be one of the early victims of GW. I'm going by an accumulation of things that have happened over several years - the slow disappearance of frogs, the earlier and earlier mating of northern squirrels, the progressive weight loss and decreasing number of polar bears and the recent cross-breeding between Kodiak and Polar bears. Many more such events point to GW, check the pictures to see the limited extent of polar ice now compared to just a few years ago. I have to believe it is happening now and its course will only accelerate in the coming years. If indeed the sun is the warming factor (all planets showing temperature increase?) it is irrelevant - we must do something rather than nothing and start doing it now.

Five frontier technologies

Adrasteia — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 05:53:49 GMT

US carbon emissions could be halved in a decade and a half by replacing inefficient coal plants with nuclear facilities. In many parts of the US it would be more economic than existing coal.

The problem isn't that we don't have the technology to combat global warming, it's that certain parts of our society won't let us deploy it.

Five frontier technologies

Brian Laks — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 05:56:59 GMT

I agree that cellulosic ethanol is the best way to satisfy our ethanol demand. The corn we grow cannot be diverted from the food supply! It's already been shown that we cannot grow enough, and the impact on food prices would be unacceptable.

Five frontier technologies

dennis emerine new riegel, ohio — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:25:37 GMT

How about the pyramid that was found off the coast of florida in 1971. It had a large quartz crystal on top of it!!! This was the power that was used on the so called lost continent of alantis. Edgar cayce.org read POLE SHIFT by JOHN WHITE. The book has been revised 17 times since 1980 so get the new edition!!!

Five frontier technologies

Frank Grove, Tulsa, OK — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:57:37 GMT

1. Coal isn't going away. We just don't have a cost effective means to replace it as of now. As far as I am concerned, any stop-gap measures will destroy the economy and few are viable. Fusion appears to be the only true answer to our energy problems, and it is decades away from commercialization. The privileged will have to begin making sacrifices in their lives soon, or face consequences of the coming energy wars. Ethanol will help, but unfortunately it isn't the fix-all we need either.

2. yes, androids will become more sophisticated and cheaper in the coming years. They will permeate our society, and as some enter the uncanny valley, there will be major ethical issues we must determine. The time to talk about these things is now.

3. Cybernetic research is really taking off, and I love it. Although, you are a bit optimistic about the "innternet" being available in 5 years, we will see advances in the accuracy and speed of Brain-Computer Interfaces. However, output is much easier than input, and as of yet no one knows how to "implant" thoughts into our brains. However, this obstacle is easily solved by a simple HUD on your glasses. However, as cybernetics grow more advanced, and cyborgs become commonplace more ethical questions will be raised. How far should one be allowed to modify themselves? In a perfect libertarian world, people should be allowed to modify themselves as much as they would like, but in our current climate I can see a large backlash towards the cybernetic revolution. This is quite scary, as nations such as China would have no problems augmenting their population, and could easily surpass the prowess if the US turns luddite.

A scary and uncertain future we have to look forward to. The decisions and ideas we have today will shape tomorrow. To avoid future conflict we must act now!

Five frontier technologies

Bob from American Lung Association of MInnesota — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:27:20 GMT

Responding to some comments on ethanol:

1) "...cellulosic ethanol is the best way to satisfy our ethanol demand."

A: There are no cellulose feedstock farms, no means of transporting the huge amount of biomass needed to make cellulosic ethanol, no cellulsic ethanol plants in the United States, and if they did exist, it would cost 2-10 times as much to make exactly the same fuel made with corn today. Other than that, it's perfect!

2) Six gallons of gas to make one ethanol? That's not true. Ethanol has net energy gain, not loss.

3) Food vs. Fuel? No one is starving because of ethanol. Can we say no one has ever suffered because of oil?

4) Ethanol isn't the answer to our energy woes. Correct. It is not THE answer, nor can it EVER replace all gasoline. It IS cleaner burning than gas, and buys us a little time until researchers find something cleaner and better.

Researchers, get busy! In the meanwhile, E85 and biodiesel can help us take the first "baby steps" away from oil.

Five frontier technologies

gene,superior,wi — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:40:15 GMT

its not globel warming, its solar system warming, our magnetic field is breaking down(12/16/08,nasa.gov) this is either caused by our planet getting ready to do a pole shift or we are starting to pass thru the galatic plane or both, our co2 output is not helping our air quality any, but it is not whats causing the temp differantial.get ready for all hell to break loose in the next three years. our whole solar sytem is heating up not just earth, dont fall for the cover story fed to you on the gov. propaganda machine ere is a link to nasa trying to cover up the truth about global warming .http://www.livescience.com/environment/070531_gw_griffin.html