<\/p>\n
On Edge.org, 160 brilliant scientists and thinkers were asked, \u201cwhat are you optimistic about?\u201d Gregory Cochran, a professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, chose to speak about self-replicating manufacturing:<\/p>\n
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread\u201d\u2014it has always been that way.<\/p>\n
Most men have been slaves of necessity, while the few who were not lived by exploiting others who were. Although mechanization has eased that burden in the advanced countries, it is still the case for the majority of the human race. Limited resources (mainly fossil fuels), as well as negative consequences of industrialization such as global warming, have made some people question whether American living standards can ever be extended to most of the human race. They\u2019re pessimists, and they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n
Hardly anyone seems to realize it, but we\u2019re on the threshold of an era of unbelievable abundance. Within a generation\u2014sooner if we want it enough\u2014we will be able to make a self-replicating machine, first seriously suggested by John von Neumann.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read the rest here<\/a>. What Cochran slightly misses is that making unlimited weapons is just as easy as making unlimited products using exponential manufacturing. Read my essay on first-stage nanoproducts and nanoweaponry<\/a>, the type we\u2019d start to see in less than a year if von Neumann\u2019s machines started working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Edge.org, 160 brilliant scientists and thinkers were asked, \u201cwhat are you optimistic about?\u201d Gregory Cochran, a professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, chose to speak about self-replicating manufacturing: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread\u201d\u2014it has always been that way. Most men have been slaves of necessity, while the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nanotechnology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57380,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/57380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}