Slashdot Mirror
The Century's Top Engineering Challenges
coondoggie writes "The National Science Foundation announced today 14 grand engineering challenges for the 21st century that, if met, would greatly improve how we live. The final choices fall into four themes that are essential for humanity to flourish — sustainability, health, reducing vulnerability, and joy of living. The committee did not attempt to include every important challenge, nor did it endorse particular approaches to meeting those selected. Rather than focusing on predictions or gee-whiz gadgets, the goal was to identify what needs to be done to help people and the planet thrive, the group said. A diverse committee of engineers and scientists — including Larry Page, Robert Langer, and Robert Socolow — came up with the list but did not rank the challenges. Rather, the National Academy of Engineering is offering the public an opportunity to vote on which one they think is most important."
What? World peace is not on the list?
* Make solar energy affordable
- Just wait till oil goes to 120/barrel
* Provide energy from fusion
- isn't that solar energy?
* Develop carbon sequestration methods
- I thought the atmosphere of Earth was doing a good job already?
* Manage the nitrogen cycle
- Fat chance with corn farmers working over time
* Provide access to clean water
- That would just ruin the coke/pepsi wars... not happening
* Restore and improve urban infrastructure
- Isn't this program already underway? I understand NYC has had some renovations. (yeah, that's low)
* Advance health informatics
- subcutaneous ID chips?
* Engineer better medicines
- Yeah, big pharma has been doing good at this one lately - check Chantix
* Reverse-engineer the brain
- Ok, this is a new idea, lets get behind this one guys, what do you say?
* Prevent nuclear terror
- GW has this one covered, right, he's the decider guy.
* Secure cyberspace
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA here's your sign
* Enhance virtual reality
- Why not worry about first life a bit more for a while?
* Advance personalized learning
- Yes, All those free or lowered tuition costs, online resources, open course materials... those are great ideas, hope someone does that soon.
* Engineer the tools for scientific discovery
- This will obviously become reality and really simple once the brain has been reverse engineered??? WTF
Ok, seriously, is it just me or does everyone else think perhaps not smoke so much weed should be on the list?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
1. Socks that don't have to be paired every time they're washed.
2. A device to selectively block out the sound of an episode of "The Golden Girls" my wife insists on putting on to fall asleep to
3. A device that detects reality tv and automatically adds a warning "This show is for morons. Watching by non-morons may lead to brain damage" across the screen
4. A filter for slashdot trolls.
5. A robot capable of doing all your arguing for you in a flame war.
6. An irrationality meter that warns you how irrational a person you're talking to is being at the time.
7. A superstition meter
8. Something to prevent assholes on public transport from touching my personal property (especially people bumping my laptop with oversized baggage and not even realizing it)
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
+1 Inciteful.
To summarize, what we need is a better way to dig cheap holes.
Think of it: with a cheap way to drill a hole we can drill down close to the mantle of the earth for cheap geothermal. With a cheap way to dig a tunnel we can expand our freeway infrastructure by placing new roads below ground. Infrastructure can be run underground more cheaply--if we have a cheap hole to run them through.
Holes are the future."
I'd like to submit a proposal for genetically engineering gophers the size of a bus. They'd be a cheap source for tunneling and could be bred instead of expensive manufacturing. So long as they don't start digging up lawns or develop a taste for human flesh they could be a major resource and not use any fossil fuels.
Well, it wouldn't be such a challenge if, you know, all the goals weren't so incredibly LAME. "Health informatics"? Bo-ring! Here's *my* list of challenges:
(1) Flying car.
(2) Cure for the hangover.
(3) Sex robot. As kinky as Madonna with the flexibility of a contortionist.
(4) Plug-in memory expansions so you can learn useful skills, equations, etc. without sitting through boring lectures and tests.
(5) Baldness cure.
(6) Beer that makes you skinnier instead of fatter.
(7) Dog-cat hybrid. Like a cat, it doesn't need your attention constantly, but it pays attention when you want it to, like a dog. It's comes when you call it like a dog, but it's clean like a cat. Plus, it barks AND purrs.
(8) Teleporter. I'm sick of commuting.
(9) Perpetual youth.
(10) Ballpoint pen that doesn't run out of ink just when you need it most.
(11) Formulas that make you grow bigger or smaller, just like Alice in Wonderland.
(12) Television remote with built in homing device and tiny little robot legs. So even if you misplace it, it always finds its way back to where it should be.
(13) A version of Microsoft Office that doesn't, you know, suck so much.
(14) Slashdot editors who are genetically engineered so that they can actually spell and are familiar with basic punctuation and grammar.
Sure, nuclear terror is plenty frightening and cheap solar power would be great.
But what about the zombies?
Developing an effective plan to stave off a massive zombie invasion is the transcendent challenge of our time. We need to do this sooner rather than later, and we need to be prepared when it happens. Cyberspace, virtual reality, fusion power, even clean water - all of this will be for naught if we're all undead.
You're probably thinking by now (if you're still reading, that is), "Simple. Shoot them in the head." Well, if zombie movies and books are at all accurate - and I've seen nothing to lead me to believe otherwise - things will quickly spiral out of control and there will be more of them than we can handle before we know it.
Maybe if we could domesticate them... (this always works well in the movies)
According to my SPAM folder, yes.
The most important thing to do, to maximize everyone's standard of living, is to make sure there aren't so many people that no amount of engineering can support them. So, what we REALLY need, is affordable android children, so that most people would rather have them than real children. Remember, babies keep parents awake most of the night, need to have diapers changed, and so on. Older kids break almost anything susceptible, including themselves, scrawl on the walls, stick keys in electric outlets, throw temper tantrums, and so on. And many do even worse things when they get older still.
If android children were available, they'd always be well-behaved. Only those adults who desperately want to pass their genes on would want ordinary children.
Based upon your list, I'd conclude that you're
;-)
1) a nerd
2) a drunk
3) virginal
4) ignorant
5) bald
6) overweight
7) lonely
8) lazy
9) middle-aged
10) a stained-shirt wearer
11) have an inferiority complex
12) TV obsessed
13) a nerd (did I say that already?)
14) somewhat OCD
but hey! it's just a list
(ps. I'm just taking the piss - please take this in the spirit in which it is intended.)
"Hmmmm... I've got all these diamonds; now who can I hire that has experience in precision cutting work where any mistake has grave consequences...
"I've got it!"
Neither of these are impossible. If people get hold of any nuclear material If people have *any* access to cyberspace Spot the commonality here? Guess the solution.
Sure, some people might object to ending the entire species merely to remove security threats, but it's definitely achievable.