Global Ecological Concerns in the next century
We face a new age of nanotechnology. Many students are entering the fields of nanotechnology and
biology. Many scientists are now looking on these two fields as being very similar because they are
both engaged in nanoscopic self-assembling systems. Nanotech tends to be involved in inorganic
systems and biology tends to be involved in organic systems. But nanotechnologists are discovering
that the use of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen by organic systems makes a lot of sense for
inorganic nanotech fabrication as well. In time, organic and inorganic systems are likely to blend
together. One trend is to use small desktop factories to manufacture products out of readily
available materials. Since the most readily available source of molecules is the atmosphere, it is
very efficient to manufacture products from carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.
The use of desktop systems to manufacture organic and inorganic products out of these four
atmospheric elements is only at the experimental stages now. Technology, as we all know, takes a
concept such as making transistors on a chip and makes the idea grow exponentially. In the case of
transistors on a chip, the growth rate has followed Moore’s law and approximately doubled every 18
months. If you have shopped for hard disc drives lately, you have noticed that the capacity has
increased dramatically. The number of bytes of storage that you can purchase for one dollar has
doubled every 10.25 months. This amounts to a growth of 125% per year since 1990.
A second question came up about computer chips as they were put into personal computers and
manufactured in quantity. As of the middle of 2003, Dell Computer alone shipped more than 140,000
computers per day. This number of computers means that each one of them will be plugged in and
consume electrical power. Since that is quite a significant quantity of power used, computers have
now been designed to go into power saving modes in order to consume less power.
In the case of desktop manufacturing, the first question is how fast it might grow in capabilities.
Will it grow at the rate of Moore’s law, which is 59% per year, or at the rate of hard disc memory,
which is 125% per year or at the rate that DNA testing is dropping in cost, which is 384% per year?
The first such products are making their appearance as three-dimensional printers.
http://www.dimensionprinting.com/default.aspx
http://www.2objet.com/Company/CompanyOverview/tabid/92/Default.aspx
General Concept: http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Fab%40Home:Overview
The Sixth International Workshop on Microfactories was held at Northwestern University in
Evanston Illinois: http://www.iwmf2008.northwestern.edu/
Other manufacturers may be found by searching for "3D printers" or "microfactories".
Consider a few specific examples in order to get an idea of how fast this technology might catch on.
In the inorganic arena, diamonds can be manufactured with such desktop units. A two karat uncut
diamond now costs $100 to manufacture. Consider that carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger
than steel and will eventually be easily created using desktop manufacturing units. On the organic
side of things, consider that spider silk is both biodegradable and can be used like Kevlar to stop
bullets in a bulletproof jacket. Currently spider silk is manufactured by a Canadian biotech firm,
which has used gene splicing to create goats that deliver spider silk material in their milk. The
result, says Quebec-based Nexia Biotechnologies, is a synthetic version of spider silk that’s
biodegradable but also strong enough to stop bullets. It is anticipated that such materials will be
used to create sutures that dissolve rather than needing to be removed by the surgeon. Eventually
spider silk will be manufactured with the desktop manufacturing systems that we are discussing
here.
Whether it is diamonds, carbon nanotubes, or spider silk, a main constituent of these products will
be carbon extracted from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The second and more important question is how much atmosphere will be consumed by desktop
manufacturing. We have plenty of water and hence the consumption of hydrogen and oxygen is not of
concern. Air consists of 78% nitrogen so that is not a concern either. The real concern that will
develop in the next decades is the huge quantity of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide that will be
extracted by desktop manufacturing units. Carbon dioxide is only 0.038% of the atmosphere. The
reason for such a low concentration of carbon dioxide is that the earth’s biomass is so dominated by
the members of the plant kingdom. Since it is the plant kingdom which consumes carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere, it has become a trace element in the atmosphere over the ages.
It is anticipated that the quantity of carbon dioxide extracted by each machine will grow
exponentially as the technology improves and that the number of machines sold will grow
exponentially in a manner similar to the growth of personal computers. This means that the
consumption of carbon dioxide will grow at a doubly exponential rate. In addition, the manufacture of
desktop manufacturing system components are likely to be accomplished using desktop
manufacturing systems. This could lead to a triple exponential rate of growth.
Part Two
We face a new age of nanotechnology. Many students are entering the fields of nanotechnology and
biology. Many scientists are now looking on these two fields as being very similar because they are
both engaged in nanoscopic self-assembling systems. Nanotech tends to be involved in inorganic
systems and biology tends to be involved in organic systems. But nanotechnologists are discovering
that the use of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen by organic systems makes a lot of sense for
inorganic nanotech fabrication as well. In time, organic and inorganic systems are likely to blend
together. One trend is to use small desktop factories to manufacture products out of readily
available materials. Since the most readily available source of molecules is the atmosphere, it is
very efficient to manufacture products from carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.
The use of desktop systems to manufacture organic and inorganic products out of these four
atmospheric elements is only at the experimental stages now. Technology, as we all know, takes a
concept such as making transistors on a chip and makes the idea grow exponentially. In the case of
transistors on a chip, the growth rate has followed Moore’s law and approximately doubled every 18
months. If you have shopped for hard disc drives lately, you have noticed that the capacity has
increased dramatically. The number of bytes of storage that you can purchase for one dollar has
doubled every 10.25 months. This amounts to a growth of 125% per year since 1990.
A second question came up about computer chips as they were put into personal computers and
manufactured in quantity. As of the middle of 2003, Dell Computer alone shipped more than 140,000
computers per day. This number of computers means that each one of them will be plugged in and
consume electrical power. Since that is quite a significant quantity of power used, computers have
now been designed to go into power saving modes in order to consume less power.
In the case of desktop manufacturing, the first question is how fast it might grow in capabilities.
Will it grow at the rate of Moore’s law, which is 59% per year, or at the rate of hard disc memory,
which is 125% per year or at the rate that DNA testing is dropping in cost, which is 384% per year?
The first such products are making their appearance as three-dimensional printers.
http://www.dimensionprinting.com/default.aspx
http://www.2objet.com/Company/CompanyOverview/tabid/92/Default.aspx
General Concept: http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Fab%40Home:Overview
The Sixth International Workshop on Microfactories was held at Northwestern University in
Evanston Illinois: http://www.iwmf2008.northwestern.edu/
Other manufacturers may be found by searching for "3D printers" or "microfactories".
Consider a few specific examples in order to get an idea of how fast this technology might catch on.
In the inorganic arena, diamonds can be manufactured with such desktop units. A two karat uncut
diamond now costs $100 to manufacture. Consider that carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger
than steel and will eventually be easily created using desktop manufacturing units. On the organic
side of things, consider that spider silk is both biodegradable and can be used like Kevlar to stop
bullets in a bulletproof jacket. Currently spider silk is manufactured by a Canadian biotech firm,
which has used gene splicing to create goats that deliver spider silk material in their milk. The
result, says Quebec-based Nexia Biotechnologies, is a synthetic version of spider silk that’s
biodegradable but also strong enough to stop bullets. It is anticipated that such materials will be
used to create sutures that dissolve rather than needing to be removed by the surgeon. Eventually
spider silk will be manufactured with the desktop manufacturing systems that we are discussing
here.
Whether it is diamonds, carbon nanotubes, or spider silk, a main constituent of these products will
be carbon extracted from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The second and more important question is how much atmosphere will be consumed by desktop
manufacturing. We have plenty of water and hence the consumption of hydrogen and oxygen is not of
concern. Air consists of 78% nitrogen so that is not a concern either. The real concern that will
develop in the next decades is the huge quantity of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide that will be
extracted by desktop manufacturing units. Carbon dioxide is only 0.038% of the atmosphere. The
reason for such a low concentration of carbon dioxide is that the earth’s biomass is so dominated by
the members of the plant kingdom. Since it is the plant kingdom which consumes carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere, it has become a trace element in the atmosphere over the ages.
It is anticipated that the quantity of carbon dioxide extracted by each machine will grow
exponentially as the technology improves and that the number of machines sold will grow
exponentially in a manner similar to the growth of personal computers. This means that the
consumption of carbon dioxide will grow at a doubly exponential rate. In addition, the manufacture of
desktop manufacturing system components are likely to be accomplished using desktop
manufacturing systems. This could lead to a triple exponential rate of growth.
Part Two
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