Science & Technology

A key ingredient in the progress of human societies has been technology. Some technology innovations have been so significant that they have constituted a great leap forward. Examples of these uniquely influential technological changes are fire, stone spear heads, the wheel and writing.

Scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations (such as a non-polluting and cheap source of energy) are crucial to achieving the envisioned future set forth in Visions2200. For the current century, the National Academy of Engineering has identified Engineering's Grand Challenges, 14 areas awaiting engineering solutions in the 21st century.

To achieve the visions perceived two centuries from now, new technology and scientific breakthroughs will be necessary. Some visions will remain fantasies without this scientific foundation. Some visions will be feasible, but economically impractical without the underlying technology innovation.

Areas of technology innovation that would provide the necessary foundation for the future environment, cities, wilderness and life in space are described below:

Environment

Despite the views of the anti-technology wing of the environmental movement, the most realistic solutions to environmental problems are likely to arise from new technologies to (1) eliminate adverse environmental impacts or (2) protect the environment. An excellent source for technology advances that are environmentally friendly is ecotechdaily, offering the latest green technology, gadgets, and news.

Whether we are looking at pollution, deforestation or threats to wildlife, the worst environmental offenders are developing countries. Due to poverty, they have few options in exploiting their natural resources or lack the means or resolve to enforce environmental protection laws. In contrast, wealthier and technically advanced countries have cleaner air than 50 years ago. Northern Europe and the northeastern United States are more heavily forested than they were 100 years ago.

Environmental Restoration - Ways to breakdown toxic substances quicker and more thoroughly would facilitate the restoration of lands damaged by human industrial activities. Faster methods to grind up concrete and other construction materials to form soils in which natural flora might thrive.

Greenhouse Gas Reduction - Methods to economically separate greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to enable their precipitation and isolation in forms that would not be detrimental to the world's climate.

Energy - Find more efficient and less costly methods to generate energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Produce cheap energy from essentially inexhaustible and, hopefully, emission free sources such as fusion and antimatter that have an extremely high ratio of energy produced compared to 'fuel' consumed. Cheap and inexhaustible energy is key to achievement of the other technological achievements imagined here.

Cities

Sources specializing in advances in technology focused on cities are few. City Mayors reports on technological advances that benefit cities and other urban areas. The Journal of Urban Technology publishes articles that review and analyze developments in urban technologies as well as articles that study the history and the political, economic, environmental, social, esthetic, and ethical effects of those technologies.

Transportation Construction - Faster and less expensive ways to cut structurally sound tunnels beneath the earth's surface. Such a technological leap would enable the construction of subsurface mass transit that would not disrupt or create barriers to urban life and could compete with the automobile in terms of cost and convenience.

Building Construction - Structures would be more economical and efficient and the impact on the natural environment could be reduced (e.g.; cutting of trees for building materials) if we acquire technology and construction machinery that makes more effective use of on-site soil and rock resources as structurally sound building materials.

Building Design - Given the coming energy crisis, development of technology enabling the construction of more energy efficient structures is critical. Older techniques using thick adobe and pounded earth walls could be translated through newer techniques that are less labor intensive and lend themselves to more capital intensive construction.

Desalination - Much of humanity lives along the world's oceans. With looming water shortages, there is a great need for technology that turn this salt water inexpensively into fresh water for city residents and their industry. Cheap Energy is probably key to the acquisition of such technology.

Wilderness

Establishment and success of the wilderness lands would be facilitated by technological advancements in a number of areas:

Transportation Construction - Faster and less expensive ways to tunnel and bridge transportation corridors through and over sections of the wilderness lands so as to reduce barriers to the movement of wildlife and plants in an era likely characterized by climatic change.

Fencing - New methods to fence in or fence out animals and humans that are inexpensive to construct, easy to maintain and practically invisible. Such fencing would have two purposes: (1) eliminate any threat from the wilderness predators to people and their livestock and (2) assure that unauthorized persons that might threaten the integrity of the wilderness - such as poachers, tree cutters and "cut and burn" farmers - would not obtain access.

Electronics - An electronic sphere that will act as a protective armor for persons legitimately hiking through the wilderness and that can be turned on or off with a changeable password. Multiple electronic eyes in the wilderness that will enable scientists and preserve managers to observe activity within their boundaries.

Outer Space

Energy - The key to space is cheap energy. The major cost of space flight is energy cost. Once that problem is solved, space exploration and colonization becomes feasible on a large scale. Until cheap energy is available, it's expensive and tough. With successful fusion power for example, it becomes possible, as fusion releases, gram/gram about 40 times as much energy as fission.

Transport - A faster way of getting around the solar system is crucial to the future of space colonization. NASA is researching a method using antimatter. On a much larger scale, actual exploration of earthlike planets discovered around nearby stars will require the discovery of a means to travel at faster than light speeds.

Colonization - Settlement of the moon and other solar system bodies will require improved mining technologies to extract desirable elements from poor quality ores. Building of above and below surface structures would be more economical and efficient if we acquire technology that makes use of available local resources as building materials (glass-glass composites, alternative alloys, cast basalt, etc.). Development of hydroponic and geoponic (plant growth in soil) food production systems that are optimal for lunar and similar bodies in space is crucial to the economical establishment of human settlements. Mini-biosphere technologies for domed lunar craters and similar locations is crucial to sustaining safe earthlike environments. Inexpensive energy storage/transmission technologies will needed on the Moon to sustain a base through the lunar nights.

Imaginary Places

Energy - Achievement of a cheap and inexhaustible energy source that would enable the creation of cities, fresh water from the oceans, underground transportation networks, terraforming of other worlds and the maintainence and operation of the resultant infrastructure.