How Much Larger Can Our Cities Grow?

Many cities were begun in constrained environments, and the cost of continued expansion in their areas is rising. Many of the cities I have visited were started in places that naturally attracted humans – bays and estuaries, confluences of rivers, and other places where water and food sources were relatively more abundant and the climate was relatively favorable. I notice, however, that now that the human population has reached more than six billion these places are increasingly challenged for space, infrastructure, or resources of some important sort. At the same time, however, some are actually in a population decline, and some even have a declining “rate of sprawl.” The picture is complex, and differs significantly between developed and developing countries. So how are things likely to change from here, and how can we affect the situation positively?

How to Kill Nanobots

“Don’t tase me, bro! I’ll have to get all new nanobots!” Electromechanical nanobots, the type that many think of when they hear “nanobot”, would have vulnerabilities. At first it seems it would be difficult to kill such a tiny machine, but wouldn’t a sufficiently strong electromagnetic pulse (EMP) disrupt the operation of the tiny device and possibly “kill” it?

Nanotechnology Has Amazing Implications for Surveillance Industry

Could there soon be spy devices too small to easily detect? Imagine microscopic (or nanoscopic?) “bugs” that could be planted on a person through their food, inhaled, or sprayed on their clothes, and which would travel in their blood stream or hide in their hair or pores, transmitting audio or vital signs to nearby data collectors, themselves microscopic, which could forward the information farther along wirelessly. An intelligence agency could achieve greatly expanded capacity to observe and intervene, all without anyone being able to detect the devices with the human eye. Nanotechnology could certainly make the professional spy’s job easier.

Transportation Off-Earth Could Become Less Prevalent in the Next Few Decades

If rising fossil fuel costs were all that mattered they would eventually make space travel prohibitively expensive, but such decisions are more political than economic. Still, as fossil fuels become increasingly scarce and expensive, traveling off-earth will become accordingly more costly, especially for human beings, whose need for as bulky life support equipment greatly increases the energy requirements for space transportation systems. As a result, cost will become an increasing concern in space-related projects, and take on an increasingly high profile in the political and scientific debates that govern space programs. Recent cutbacks in funding to NASA shows evidence of this. Increasing costs and decreased funding may result in an increasing proportion of robotically-manned space expeditions, and could even reduce the human presence on the space station in the future and see it refitted for increasingly automated operation.  Eventually a new, cheap, and powerful energy source (fusion?) will be developed and a new era of space travel will come about.  How soon that happens, however, depends on us.

Can Population Drive Current Highway Infrastructure Beyond Our Capacity to Maintain it?

My pursuit of information about this topic has yielded less information than I would like. It seems intuitive, though – if our population continues to grow there must be a point where sufficient infrastructure either can’t be produced, or existing infrastructure can’t be sufficiently maintained. I will update this item as I find more information.

Will our ability to sustain our highways will reveal our status with regard to sustainability and overpopulation? Many in North America believe our current population is sustainable, as the birthrate is low compared with that of many other countries, but the highways we travel daily could reveal our true status. If sheer population doesn’t exceed our capacity to maintain our highways, fossil fuel shortages will make it so. Is there somewhere an intersection of the curves where the cost of maintaining existing infrastructure exceeds the tax revenues that support it?

Nano-scale Devices Can Be Designed to Self-Assemble or Can Be Assembled by Genetically Engineered Viruses

Scientists at MIT have used viruses to assemble part of nano-sized batteries. (link) In the past I have written about nano-scale items that are engineered to self-assemble, that is, their molecules automatically hook together in useful ways, and how that would enable production of useful objects at a scale where few existing tools (and only extremely specialized and expensive ones, at that) can work. Now it appears that MIT researchers have successfully built most of the parts for nano-scale batteries using genetically-engineered viruses to do part of the work. Such batteries would be manufactured in extremely thin sheets, and it remains to be seen if they can be interconnected in layers or otherwise made into larger-capacity, higher efficiency packages. No data was given on the power density (power per unit volume or weight) for the batteries, but it suggests the ability to make a self-contained power source for nanobots, tiny working machines smaller than most cells and microorganisms, which many expect to be available to us in the future. This development is another key step in the development of nanotechnology, as self-contained power sources and radio communications (see my previous entries) will be essential to someday having sophisticated nano-scale robotic technology for use in medical and other industries.

Wi-Fi Equipped Nanobots Could Revolutionize Medicine

Nano-inspirations often hit first thing in the morning. A concept for nanobot application occurred to me when I awoke this morning that could revolutionize neurology. If nanobots can be built to receive radio signals, then they can also be engineered to detect weak electrical fields such as those that traverse our nervous systems. The proximity of nanobots in the bloodstream to the nerve cells would permit sensitivity to such weak fields, and if the nanobots could transmit weak, narrow-band radio signals to provide measurements of nerve activity, it is possible that much new information could be learned about the nervous system. Of course, the subject would need to be in an electrically quiet environment such as a Faraday cage (no cellphones allowed), and all equipment inside the cage would need to be carefully shielded and bypassed to further eliminate unwanted electrical fields, but the concept seems feasible. Since nano-scale radio receivers have already been demonstrated (link), it doesn’t seem far fetched to have them transmit as well, and, with enough sophistication and computing power, achieve the capability for Wi-Fi-like networking (link).  So how could this capability be applied?

Nanotechnology Developments in Paint Show Promise

Nanotechnology-enhanced paints and coatings are already on the market. Several companies have collaborated to create a paint product that containes no toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and which has the additional functions of stopping algae and fungal growth while also destroying bacteria the come in contact with it (link). The initial application is intended to be doctor’s offices, clinics, and hospitals, but I am sure there will be other uses such as biological laboratories and even breweries and wineries, where the intrusion of unwanted microorganisms can cause serious production and quality problems. A Wired magazine article from February of 2006 detailed a variety of other nanotechnology applications in the area of paint and coatings (link). Paint manufacturer Behr is now selling a line of kitchen and bath paints that resist stains and mildew (link), and giant Dupont is getting into the act with paints that cure in seconds under ultraviolet light and have enhanced properties (link).  In October 2007 Industrial Nanotech announced a line of nanotech-enhanced, thermally insulating paints that have the interesting property of generating electricity from the difference in temperature between the two sides of the surface they are coating (link).  These new products are just a beginning, however.

Price of Rice Reflects Overpopulation Problem

The scale of problems from overpopulation will increase as the population grows. The Christian Science Monitor, long a bastion of sound journalism that has never followed the corporate main stream media (one of few), ran an article recently (link) explaining how a lack of agricultural development in the Philippines is combining with their rapidly growing population (and that of other less-developed nations) to create food shortages. The clearest evidence of the shortages is in the doubling of rice prices in the past year (2007-2008). While most people in North America, for instance, won’t think that is a very big deal, there are hundreds of millions of people in other parts of the planet who depend on rice as a staple – a major part of their diet – and for whom any price increase is seriously bad news. I remember reading in the news a month or two ago that the price rise has caused people who used to get two bowls of rice per day to cut back to one. (Try living on that diet, you in the developed countries, if you want a dose of reality.) The important realization is that, as energy shortages and population growth exacerbate food shortages, there will be more food riots and unrest in the fastest growing and least-developed countries. In response, the developed countries need to put more family planning, education, and economic aid, all proven to reduce birthrates, into the poorest areas of the globe for the good of all. Here’s a more detailed analysis.

A Trip to the Nanotech Dentist

Will nanobots someday clean my teeth? In the future, will my dentist spray a fine mist of nanobots into my mouth? Then, will he activate the nanobots with a remote control, after which the nanobots will identify where plaque and other undesirable materials bond to the enamel of my teeth and dissolve those bonds? Some of the nanobots would also move into the space between the teeth and gums and break up bacteria and the acid molecules they excrete, and possibly even repair cell damage. Then, ten minutes later, will I just rinse my mouth, have an inspection from the dentist, make my appointment for next time, and leave?

Nanotechnology Products, Like Many Others, Have Risks That Are Being Managed

Many products in current use have risks that must be managed. Many products we use every day have risks, and their dangers are managed systematically, not infrequently by force of government regulation. Gasoline, for example, is a known carcinogen, so regulations govern its handling and the warnings we are consistently given about it. As recent research has shown, carbon nanotubes also have risks that must be managed (link). Science doesn’t move ahead smoothly, however, and one study shows that toxicity of certain carbon nanomaterials could appear to be proven by one test, while other tests would show no toxicity (link).

Delivery Food of the Future?

Energy cost increases, and their effects on food prices, raise deeper questions. As fossil fuel costs increase, and in the period before a seriously viable substitute like fusion-derived electricity arrives (I’m guessing 2040 or later), economies of scale will continue to increase in importance, especially in the provision of what will become relatively lower cost commodities such as food. Will energy prices pull food prices higher to the point where we will once again have only locally produced food? Will everyone, even in suburbia, be turning their front yards (and every available patch of dirt) into a garden to reduce their food bills? Or, thanks to large scale agribusiness, will food remain cheap enough to have its cost increases eclipsed by those of energy itself?