Human potential

[Entsuropi]

No, this isn't a mage style ascension of the human race thing.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/983899.asp?0cv=CB20&cp1=1

I disagree myself - what about quantum computers? Those are not a consolidation of technology, and are something like a decade away from completion.
And the space program will never get off the ground until the US Government pays companies to do it for them - offer $30 billion to the first company to build a moon base for example. Once you have lots of commercial stuff going into orbit, you can expect the technology to become better, able to actually do that sort of thing regularly.
With a single type of craft, manned by a government agency, its no surprise nothing ever happens.

What do you think?

[EUOL]

The pragmatic side of me argues with the sci-fi side of me on this issue all the time.  On one side, I believe in practicality--what good is space to us, really?  We don't need its resources or to expand into it, not yet.  Yet, I believe in progress, and in (forgive the pun) reaching for the stars.

It's a difficult topic.  I really don't see any big changes until we find some new or dramatic technology that makes space travel more economically sound.  

Nice thread, by the way, Entropy.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I have to go practical on this one. I don't think we'll really go into space until we need to. Though I think we'll eventually need to. Let's consolidate and clean our own house first, to me that just seems so much more important than doing these amazing things.

[Fellfrosch]

I see our future in much more cyberpunkian terms (that's a very substancive word, by the way): we probably won't go to space any time soon, but we'll keep advancing at an almost dangerous rate here on Earth.

[House of Mustard]

This is a sidenote, but I was reading an article the other day that explained that the extreme expansion of technology will slow down soon (in some ways).  It is estimated that we will reach the smallest microchip we can get in 2017, simply because our current methods don't work that small.  (I don't understand the physics of it, so I won't even try to explain it).  So we may just plateau for a while, instead of our frantic technological advance.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

See, my thing about that is, yeah, our current tech standards will reach their physical caps, but there's nothing saying that we won't adopt a new type of tech by then. <shrug>. I guess a plateau may actually be a good thing, allowing people to all catch up to a certain point, before we move on.

Or not.

I just want my cybernetic implants.

[JP Dogberry]

I'll be first in line to get a wetware. I'm really looking forward to the possibility of being literally always online.

Until then, I plan to create a wearable computer, for use in Brisbane Queen Street Mall, since WiFi technology is already installed there.  A laptop will strap onto my lower back, under my clothes. A keyboard will be strapped to the top of my left arm, while a trackball type thing, will be held in my right hand, but strapped so I can let go. The monitor will be a headsup display projected onto my sunglasses, or alternitavely, a single lens headsup display.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Do you know what made manned flight possible once the pioneers actually got the first plane off the ground? Money.
Prize money to be exact.
Huge sums of cash at the time were given for, fastest flight, longest flight, most efficent seaplane and so on.

The problem is that the price of spaceflight is high because there is no private investment in flight. At least in America. But the focus of the guys article overlooked key pieces of technology that are being developed, and glorify old dinosaurs like the concorde. (although admittedly she was a graceful and fast ship. Economics have forced strange new changes on air travel, but just look at the new jets being made... the concorde could seat 128 passengers while the new airbus being built will hold 555 passengers... thats a triple decker Aircraft with Piano Bars and a casino mind you....
Sure you dont have the luxury of flying to london in two hours, but honestly at over a thousand dollars a ticket who could afford it anyways.
What I get all giggly about are new superconductors and microcarbon fibers, which are about 1000 times stronger than steel and easy to weave into long cables that can take about 4 times as much data as fiberoptic cable, oh and you can build skyscrapers out of it too.

The science fiction side of me says that mankind wont venture out to the stars without and orbital elevator or beanstalk to help us out.

[Fellfrosch]

This whole discussion reminds me of the guy who wanted to close the patent office in the 1800s, because he thought everything had already been invented.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

You mean it HASN'T?!

[stacer]

Jam, have you ever read Feed by M.T. Anderson? It's an SF novel about what could go wrong with people having wetware. I think you'd enjoy it. The people in the book even had the laptop version you're talking about as a precursor to the "feed," which is what they call the wetware. It's published by Candlewick here in the States, but I think you'd be able to find it down under published by Walker Australia. I think. I don't know if it's gotten there yet, but being one of the best books (and most highly acclaimed--it won the Printz award here last year) that Candlewick has had out recently, I'm sure you could find it.

Personally, I'm okay with not being online all the time. I spend too much time online as it is.

[House of Mustard]

Well, all the really good stuff has been invented:  Egg slicers.  Ziploc bags.  Paper clips.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

"i'm looking at porn right now!"

no, i mean. to add to the list, Po... er... Duct tape and comic books. I can't think of anything else we need.

[Entsuropi]

Our current computer methods will not matter when (if?) quantum computers (PCs with water in em i think) get finished. They are all faster than supercomputers and the same size as a desktop one. Hows that then?

And i keep on getting anti technology thoughts of how we keep on messing up nice countryside with electricity pylons and crap. We need to start working on cleaning up technology i guess, or ways to revitalise ecosystems.

[Fellfrosch]

You know, Entropy, you can have a quantum computer right now: pour water into the CPU. Just remember to always keep another glass of water handy in case the first glass leaks out and your performance drops back to non-quantum levels.