A guest article by Joseph Friedlander What if thermonuclear power was as easy to build as a plasma torch, or rocket engine– some simple electromechanical assembly (with precise electronic controls) that could be built in a home workshop and unleash a horrific fusion plasma with the power output of a rocket engine not in vacuum …
The Black Swan theory (in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s version) refers to a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations. Taleb regards many scientific discoveries as “black swans” — undirected and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, World War I, and the September 11, 2001 attacks as …
Futurismic has some of Karl Schroeder twittered short predictions of likely surprises for 2009. eBook Readers become as common as iPods. So ebook sales to track which part of the iPod quarterly sales jumps ? 240,000 kindle sales first half of 2008 Estimated 2008 Kindle sales are 500,000 So iPod like sales tracking would be …
The McKinsey plan (107 page report) for lowering climate change gases in the United States1. Energy efficiency in buildings and appliances (710-870 megatons of carbon)2. More fuel efficient vehicles (340-660 megatons of carbon)3. Industrial efficiency (620-770 megatons)4. Bigger carbon sinks (like more forest) (440-580 megatons)5. Less carbon intensive power generation (800-1570 megatons)This last one is …
I am not convinced that we are at peak oil/liquids and if it does occur I believe that it will not do severe damage to the economies of the developed countries or China. In the event of a peak in oil, the most vulnerable countries have a lot of oil imports. Oil producing countries would …
Tri Alpha, which licenses intellectual property from the University of California, Irvine, is developing what’s called “hot,” or plasma, fusion, in which atomic nuclei are fused, releasing huge amounts of energy, according to Ray Rothrock of Venrock, one of the company’s backers. I have dug up the details on this privately well funded fusion project …
Science Fiction author Charlie Stross talks about “Shaping the Future” He wrote Accelerando and Singularity Sky among other books. He notes how progress used to measured by top speed, but how that stopped between 1950-1970. I believe that speed will become a useful measure of progress again. I believe that we can and will burst …
