[mikema63]

I simply dislike the unqualified term post scarcity society, it's inaccurate and extremely misleading (which is worse for you than it is for me) post neccesity society is a better term.

Computing power doesn't face the same physical hurdles that something like spacecraft does.

[Figlio di Moros]

In 1492, three ships saild across the Atlantic, herethen unkown, to find the otherside of the world. If man is so reckless in adventure to discover a new continent, we certainly have the technology to colonize pluto.

[Smertios]

Kolzene, Fig has a point there.

We already have the technology to build ships like the Nautilus-X, or space habitats like the Bernal Sphere, the Stanford Torus and the O'Neill Cyllinder.

The only thing preventing those projects from happening is economics. The Nautilus-X project was put on hold, mainly due to the crisis. Heck, they even shut the Space Shuttle program.

The Nautilus-X Extended Duration Explorer can easily get astronauts to the outer Solar System:


There is some info here.

[Kolzene]

Getting it back down should be the easy pat, why not railguns that slow the rate of descent?

We can build giant landing rail guns now.

Wow, in all my years of hearing about rail guns and space travel, I've never run into that idea, nor can I imagine how that'd even work! I tried Google but didn't come up with anything. Can you show me some information on this?

Space elevators are a better bet,

Space elevators are definitely a ways off for our purposes.

[Figlio di Moros]

Getting it back down should be the easy pat, why not railguns that slow the rate of descent?

[mikema63]

We can build giant landing rail guns now.

Space elevators are a better bet, but I see no reason you wouldn't be ale to procure necessary resources on earth unless we work out fusion power and need helium-3.

[Figlio di Moros]

There might not be any information on it, but we have built railguns already. The principle would be the same, use the magnetism to propel the goods towards space; just use a weak pulse so it only slows it down, rather than forces it back into space.

It made much more sense last night when I was drunk.

[mikema63]

I've heard the idea for launchers but never landings.

[Figlio di Moros]

It makes sense, though- one way of slowing them down. Though the logistics might get a bit weird.

[Kolzene]

This Technocopia thing has some nice ideals in it (I like the open-source collaboration aspect), but it is neglecting one of the most important principles in engineering, especially when one's goal is abundance: efficiency! Doing things in a decentralized way like this is just inefficient, which means you are wasting resources in order to get a certain level of result, which means for any amount of resources, you are producing less, which results in a lower standard of living. They are thinking too small-scale, myopically, when basic engineering principles need to be applied to the economic system as a whole. It seems like over-engineering, a common problem when a person or group is too narrowly focused on their own area of expertise and try to solve large-scale social problems using only what they know. It's like the old saying: "When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as though it were a nail." Even their plan for stacking farms "stories high" demonstrates how they give little regard to efficiency.

Technocracy does better than all this, and while it would certainly be using many similar aspects (like open-source, robotic manufacturing, etc.), it doesn't need them to accomplish abundance, which we could have done since the 1920s. We need to focus on the bigger picture, the overall problems first, before working our way down to specific, technical details like the ones these people propose.

[Ergosphere]

On the topic of 3D printing and abundance, you guys might be interested in the Technocopia plan. The idea is to create an automated, decentralized system of abundance that can fulfill needs and most wants (food, medicine, shelter, electronics, etc.) with the only inputs being sunlight and atmospheric gasses such as CO2, N2, and H2O. I imagine this kind of technology would be quite useful in the creation of Technocracies in (relatively) resource-scarce continents.

[Travesty]

Trust me we will have 3D printable guns in the near future.

[Figlio di Moros]

Actually, I think we could print guns now; we just need the right, non-patented designs for them. They're really just several bits of plastic and metal, I'm not aware of their tolerances being too tight but it doesn't prevent smoothing a peice the machine left too rough. It would certainly be a good addition to a gunsmith's workshop.

[Figlio di Moros]

It's like the old saying: "When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as though it were a nail."

Never heard it before, but I like it.

[mum]

So does that mean we have post-scarcity now, relative to the 1900's ?

If it simply means we have far greater access to resources than ever before, and our standards of living are significantly better (which is all true)

Yay, we made it !

[TechnocracyTNAT]

"Special Sequences

There are five other Sequences in this organization which are not in the class with the ordinary Functional Sequences that we have described. Among these is the Continental Research. The staffs described heretofore are primarily operating and maintenance staffs, whose jobs are primarily the maintaining of operation in the currently approved manner. In every separate Sequence, however, Service Sequences as well as Industrial Sequences, it is necessary, in order that stagnation may not develop, to maintain an alert and active research for the development of new processes, equipment and products. Also there must be continuous research in the fundamental sciences—physics, chemistry, geology, biology, etc. There must likewise be continuous analysis of data and resources pertaining to the Continent as a whole, both for the purposes of coordinating current activity, and of determining longtime policies as regards probable growth curves in conjunction with resource limitation and the like.

The requirements of this job render it necessary that all research in whatever field be under the jurisdiction of a single research body, so that all research data are at all times available to all research investigators wishing to use them. This special relationship is shown graphically in the organization chart. The chief executive of this body, the Director of Research, is at the same time a member of the Continental Control, and also a member of the staff of the Continental Director.

On the other hand, branches of the Continental Research parallel laterally every Functional Sequence in the social mechanism. These bodies have the unique privilege of determining when and where any innovation in current methods shall be used. They have also the authority to cut in on any operating flow line for experimental purposes when necessary. In case new developments originate in the operating division, they still have to receive the approval of the Continental Research before they can be installed. In any Sequence a man with research capabilities may at any time be transferred from the operating staff to the research staff and vice versa."

http://archive.org/details/TechnocracyS ... Unabridged