--This bit of optimism from Ray Kurzweil, author of "The Age of Spiritual Machines" and "The Singularity is Near."
Optimism exists on a continuum in-between confidence and hope. I am confident that the acceleration and expanding purview of information technology will solve the problems with which we are now preoccupied within twenty years.
Consider energy. We are awash in energy (10,000 times more than we need to meet all of our needs falls on the Earth) but we are not very good at capturing it, but that will change with full nanotechnology based assembly of macro objects at the nano scale controlled by massively parallel information processes, which will be feasible within twenty years. Even though our energy needs are projected to triple within 20 years, we'll capture that .0003 of the sunlight needed to meet all of our energy needs with no use of fossil fuels using extremely inexpensive, highly efficient, lightweight, nano engineered solar panels, and store the energy in highly distributed (and, therefore, safe) nanotechnology-based fuel cells. Solar power is now providing one part in a thousand of our energy needs but that percentage is doubling every two years, which means multiplying by a thousand in 20 years. Almost all of the discussions I've seen about energy and its consequences such as global warming fail to consider the ability of future nanotechnology based solutions to solve this problem. This development will be motivated not just by concern for the environment, but by the $2 trillion we spend annually on energy. This is already a major area of venture funding.
P.S. to get The Daily Reckoning direct to your inbox sign up to our free e-mail newsletter or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the Daily Reckoning RSS feed.
Related Articles:
- None Found
About the Author
Dan Denning is the author of 2005's best-selling The Bull Hunter (John Wiley & Sons). He began his financial publishing career in 1997 and has covered financial markets form Baltimore, Paris, London and, beginning in 2005 Melbourne. He’s the editor of The Daily Reckoning Australia and the Publisher of Port Phillip Publishing.
Comment by jim andrakin on 4 January 2007:
This could be true.
good literature searching.
nano tech has the potential to create economical solution for both solar and fuel cells.
Maybe our product could be a help/piece of the substainable solutions we must create.
Check us out.
Comment by Christina Macpherson on 4 January 2007:
I'm puzzling over this ste. BUT - It is a bit of a boost - to the sometimes flagging optimism of those of us who care about our children's future - to read of the nanotechnology possibilities for renewable energy.
Surely the time is coming when the health of our environment and of ourselves is seen as financially the best option.
Comment by William Simons on 10 July 2008:
I would like to know who,today, is selling these nano-engieered solar panels and at what price? I do not want to wait 20 years to obtain them!