I almost predicted the iPod. I remember burning my first cd from music downloaded from the internet. It took like 2 days. I predicted a bold new future for the music industry where customers would go to music stores in the mall – like cd stores of the time – and instead of racks of cds there would be computers ... Read More »
Civilian use of aerial drone surveillance is a reality that is quickly approaching, and this is great news for litigious environmental groups. Currently, if an environmental group wants to surveil farmers or any other group that is utilizing natural resources, they have to go through a burdensome FOIA process, and hope that agencies like the EPA give them more information ... Read More »
From inception, the Post Scarcity Alliance has recognized that genetic engineering will play an increasingly vital role in preserving endangered species and ultimately causing an explosion of biodiversity. There have been several stories over the last few weeks about recent developments in genetic engineering of extinct species. Here is a sampling of some of these articles: Reviving the Wooly Mammoth ... Read More »
I recently read the book Regenesis, by George M. Church. This book provides a good preview of where the breakthroughs in genetic engineering are going to take us in the near future. We have written before about how genetic engineering will create a tectonic shift that will move us dramatically closer to a post-scarcity era of abundance. Just last week, MIT ... Read More »
Of all the authors at the Post Scarcity Alliance, I am probably the most optimistic. I see the technological advances that are occurring and can easily see a promising future of abundance. I marvel at the ability that humans display to solve their problems through applied science and engineering. It is unfortunate that the filed of alternative energy has become ... Read More »
In a previous post, “Biodiversity, Extinction, and Hacking the Code of Life,” I contemplated the effects that genetic engineering would have on modern environmentalism. The post suggested that open source hacking of the DNA of endangered species would pose an existential threat to the modern environmentalist movement. As technology opens new possibilities for anthropocentric manipulation of the environment, the application ... Read More »
I have been watching the nanoparticle industry closely for the last few years. I strongly suspect that this is an industry where we will see a Moore’s Law type explosion in technological advances. The result will be new approaches to solving old problems. In a paper published yesterday by several scholars from Rice University, a new breakthrough in photothermal nanoparticles ... Read More »
I recently read an article in Fortune magazine that keeps creeping back into my thoughts. It was a short profile on a farming business in Illinois, and how they are using data science to improve their crop yields. The article says, “ Jeff Hodel farms 6,000 acres of corn and soybeans near Roanoke, Ill. To feed a growing population — an ... Read More »
Russ George is a geoengineer who has received quite a bit of attention this week for recently dumping hundreds of tons of iron sulfate into the ocean in an effort to encourage plankton population growth. He has been painted as a criminal, despite the fact that he is largely acting outside of the law. His case provides an interesting glimpse ... Read More »
Extinction is one of the most extreme forms of scarcity. As such, environmental groups have been using the looming specter of species extinction and the subsequent loss of biodiveristy as a pathos-driven moral high ground to unleash a vicious cycle of scarcity. The formula is simple. Step 1. Identify a cute animal Step 2. Find evidence that suggests the ... Read More »
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