"Find some way to make fresh water and you'll simultaneously stop multiple water based conflicts going on right now (Darfur) and become wealthy beyond belief."
I know of two ways. But both are too expensive for Darfur and other poor countries. Which is the real problem- not the lack of resources, nor the lack of knowledge, nor the lack of technology, but the lack of willingness of the rich to share with the poor.
The only thing currently happening is a small number of people using 40x the resources of the poorest people to survive, and greed.
Technically, you could turn 95% of the Earth's surface into a garden using robotic labor, give 80 billion people ranch style houses on quarter acre lots in Texas, and feed them all. But we won't do that, because a few people think that it's better to have differing income levels.
As a species we are NOT capable of fixing massive ecological shifts, that's true. But we ARE capable of adapting to the new world *after* the shift without losing 100% of the population. We just have to be smart about it. Increased carbon in the atmosphere is a great chance for using solar powered refrigeration units to collect water out of the air and plant food forests.
But the real question is, will we be smart? Or just greedy?
Not necessarily. Thanks to having technology, we are able to adapt much faster than other forms that must depend upon evolution. Our current way of life may be gone, but it will just be replaced with another.
And in the mean time, watch facebook customer service get worse than it already was as the company refocuses on the 3 month bottom line instead of customers.
This would require management moving beyond the mindset that any software project that is in R&D for more than four months is a failure (because three months is the SEC reporting cycle, and therefore, any project that isn't turning a profit by the next reporting cycle is a failure).
There's an old joke about a theoretical physicist who solved the problem of the chicken and the egg. Problem was though it only worked with cubical eggs and spherical chickens.
Because you're not that old, you're not familiar with the Debug.Print command, which has been implemented in every language I'm familiar with in some way. Think of it as a IDE variable watch that outputs to a scrolling list.
Who said anything about people? That troublesome bear invading your neighborhood is also a likely target, especially if the animal control officer knows he won't have ANY collateral damage because every bullet hits every time.
Given the complexity of modern civilization, 500 years is just about the statistical limit on your life, because every day you face a 1:182500 chance of being run over by a bus. In 500 years you WILL suffer an injury, from something, that will kill you.
I heard on the news this morning that Facebook has finally filed papers with the SEC to go public. If it happens like every other Software IPO EVER the mass craptitude of the project will go to infinity soon after, as shareholders take profit at the expense of R&D.
Actually, that was the END of my contracting there- when Danaher bought them out, cut the employment in Beaverton from 20,000 to 500, and started renting out 3/4ths of the campus.
I once worked for Tektronix, back in the 1990s when they were pioneering this technology. As a demonstration, one door on main headquarters had a reader that could read from 12 feet away- the light would go green as you approached that door.
I have *NO* doubt that with a suitable antenna, line of sight, and enough power, you could read an RFID chip from a mile or two away.
From the article- more like about $500 worth of equipment. Still, a $500 investment for several million worth of the money of idiots, might be worth it.
In cities this may not be a problem (though who runs an unencrypted Wifi AP in the city?!!?!?) but in rural areas I suspect WIFI may be hard to come by. It needs a better backup.
Slashdot Mirror
"Find some way to make fresh water and you'll simultaneously stop multiple water based conflicts going on right now (Darfur) and become wealthy beyond belief."
I know of two ways. But both are too expensive for Darfur and other poor countries. Which is the real problem- not the lack of resources, nor the lack of knowledge, nor the lack of technology, but the lack of willingness of the rich to share with the poor.
The only thing currently happening is a small number of people using 40x the resources of the poorest people to survive, and greed.
Technically, you could turn 95% of the Earth's surface into a garden using robotic labor, give 80 billion people ranch style houses on quarter acre lots in Texas, and feed them all. But we won't do that, because a few people think that it's better to have differing income levels.
As a species we are NOT capable of fixing massive ecological shifts, that's true. But we ARE capable of adapting to the new world *after* the shift without losing 100% of the population. We just have to be smart about it. Increased carbon in the atmosphere is a great chance for using solar powered refrigeration units to collect water out of the air and plant food forests.
But the real question is, will we be smart? Or just greedy?
Burning limestone to release CO2. Isn't that how we make Portland Cement?
Not necessarily. Thanks to having technology, we are able to adapt much faster than other forms that must depend upon evolution. Our current way of life may be gone, but it will just be replaced with another.
Better yet, plant Food Forests!
http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/Permaculture-Food-Forest/
Then the carbon not only gets locked up in the trees, but in the bodies of animals and people!
And in the mean time, watch facebook customer service get worse than it already was as the company refocuses on the 3 month bottom line instead of customers.
Depends *HOW* you misrepresent yourself as an engineer- and how many people are killed when that bridge you designed falls into the gorge.
My god, having a kid turned me into an engineer!
This would require management moving beyond the mindset that any software project that is in R&D for more than four months is a failure (because three months is the SEC reporting cycle, and therefore, any project that isn't turning a profit by the next reporting cycle is a failure).
There's an old joke about a theoretical physicist who solved the problem of the chicken and the egg. Problem was though it only worked with cubical eggs and spherical chickens.
Because you're not that old, you're not familiar with the Debug.Print command, which has been implemented in every language I'm familiar with in some way. Think of it as a IDE variable watch that outputs to a scrolling list.
Who said anything about people? That troublesome bear invading your neighborhood is also a likely target, especially if the animal control officer knows he won't have ANY collateral damage because every bullet hits every time.
Hunting.
Given the complexity of modern civilization, 500 years is just about the statistical limit on your life, because every day you face a 1:182500 chance of being run over by a bus. In 500 years you WILL suffer an injury, from something, that will kill you.
Vatican City, thanks to "The Green Pope", is carbon neutral and now runs mostly on solar. Plus, it's smaller than Crook County.
I heard on the news this morning that Facebook has finally filed papers with the SEC to go public. If it happens like every other Software IPO EVER the mass craptitude of the project will go to infinity soon after, as shareholders take profit at the expense of R&D.
Lest We forget- The environmental damage caused 70 years ago changed the economy of 8 states- a trading network that had been in place for 10,000 years.
Actually, that was the END of my contracting there- when Danaher bought them out, cut the employment in Beaverton from 20,000 to 500, and started renting out 3/4ths of the campus.
I once worked for Tektronix, back in the 1990s when they were pioneering this technology. As a demonstration, one door on main headquarters had a reader that could read from 12 feet away- the light would go green as you approached that door.
I have *NO* doubt that with a suitable antenna, line of sight, and enough power, you could read an RFID chip from a mile or two away.
From the article- more like about $500 worth of equipment. Still, a $500 investment for several million worth of the money of idiots, might be worth it.
Alumawallet has been advertising the fact that it is possible for a couple of years now.
Pretty easy on my brother's farm- there are loads of places where we have NO cell signals at all.
"over any available Wi-Fi network."
In cities this may not be a problem (though who runs an unencrypted Wifi AP in the city?!!?!?) but in rural areas I suspect WIFI may be hard to come by. It needs a better backup.
I hope all three of them arrive, and that we will be able to pick our favorite as easily as moving between towns. If I had mod points, +10 insightful.
And is built in China!
And as soon as you win, you'll be forced to find a manufacturer in China to make it, no matter how much you want to make it in the United States.