Comments on: Be Careful What You Wish For

By: The Exarche

The Exarche — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:00:34 +0000

there’s lots and lots of carbon floating around our solar system. I think we will figure out some efficient ways of getting a nice chunck of asteroid to be mined and delivered here to earth. Carbon will only be an issue until we get good space fairing abilities.

By: d

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:42:26 +0000

i deeply felt technology can never fulfill a man’s desire

By: Ian Goldwater

Ian Goldwater — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:42:58 +0000

Devices which extract pollutants and EXCESS concentrations of substances which aren’t directly harmful, such as carbon dioxide directly from the environment will be very important. These can then either be recycled (reprocessed to be used as inputs or feedstock) or processed and stored in locations where they will be harmless. This will mean the output for the system will mostly just be waste heat energy and we can solve the pollution problems left over from our pre — nanotech industrial phase.

By: Ian Goldwater

Ian Goldwater — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:14:54 +0000

"The first and most valuable product of a nanofactory will be another nanofactory. The second most valuable product will be a system that refills the nanofactory’s “inkjet cartridge” using inexpensive feedstock, and the third will be a machine that turns sand into photovoltaic solar cells (with which to power the nanofactory). It is not clear what would one would print next. Programmable material for a holodeck? Wearable supercomputers? A few pounds of medical nanobots?" I'll tell you what your fourth most valuable product is. It's the product that extracts, refines and produces your feedstock. The main one of which is Carbon. Where from? Not the air. You need dissassemblers / recyclers to go with your assemblers / factories. Then once you've built loads of products, most of your new products comes as replacement for your old. Then almost the whole of the input for the system is just energy - maybe free sunshine.