Something to think about, are you happy having earbuds and everyday items scanning your brain?
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
June 03, 2024
June 07, 2017
The Future of Farming
Farming has little or no future. This is bad news for any country that relies heavily on its farmers and I'll tell you why.
To explain this story I'll start by talking about cars. Cars have changed a lot in the last few years, but if you went back to the days of the Ford Model T and took a driver in a time machine to 2008, a hundred or so years later, that driver from 1908 would easily understand how to drive a modern car, automatic transmissions and all.
But twenty years on and by 2028, the car that drives itself will be commonplace, how technology will have changed and what would our driver from 1908 think then? Would that driver from 1908 even know how to order up such a car without first going into the showroom?
What has this got to do with farming? A lot is the answer. Farmers are not like that driver from 1908, they're stuck in the Middle Ages. Even if you brought forward a farmer from thousands of years ago they'd probably still manage to figure things out.
But wait, we are about to enter an era of rapid technological change that will wipe out agriculture. It's called manufactured food. Not primary produce processed in a factory, but food manufactured (3D printed or whatever maybe in your own home, you'll have cobalt, iron and iodine delivered in sacks) from the basic elements themselves. All we are as a species is carbon based, mostly water (two of hydrogen one oxygen), with other minerals chucked in there. We are now on the threshold of manufactured food from those elements, and the quantity will be practically limitless. That's the end of farming.
This spells doom for any country like New Zealand which nearly made it. From the late 1970's to the mid 1980's its Prime Minister Rob Muldoon knew the country had to industrialise or die, but it didn't listen and turned to relying on its farmers even more than it had in the past. The dairying industry is now its top earner. But hang on, you can make milk, and have it any colour you want without involving cows, or water from the mountains, or fields of grass. Manufactured milk can even be clear like spring water itself. This means countries like New Zealand will cease to exist or become poor overnight, or both.
Who becomes rich? Industrialised countries that own the technology that's who.
To explain this story I'll start by talking about cars. Cars have changed a lot in the last few years, but if you went back to the days of the Ford Model T and took a driver in a time machine to 2008, a hundred or so years later, that driver from 1908 would easily understand how to drive a modern car, automatic transmissions and all.
But twenty years on and by 2028, the car that drives itself will be commonplace, how technology will have changed and what would our driver from 1908 think then? Would that driver from 1908 even know how to order up such a car without first going into the showroom?
What has this got to do with farming? A lot is the answer. Farmers are not like that driver from 1908, they're stuck in the Middle Ages. Even if you brought forward a farmer from thousands of years ago they'd probably still manage to figure things out.
But wait, we are about to enter an era of rapid technological change that will wipe out agriculture. It's called manufactured food. Not primary produce processed in a factory, but food manufactured (3D printed or whatever maybe in your own home, you'll have cobalt, iron and iodine delivered in sacks) from the basic elements themselves. All we are as a species is carbon based, mostly water (two of hydrogen one oxygen), with other minerals chucked in there. We are now on the threshold of manufactured food from those elements, and the quantity will be practically limitless. That's the end of farming.
This spells doom for any country like New Zealand which nearly made it. From the late 1970's to the mid 1980's its Prime Minister Rob Muldoon knew the country had to industrialise or die, but it didn't listen and turned to relying on its farmers even more than it had in the past. The dairying industry is now its top earner. But hang on, you can make milk, and have it any colour you want without involving cows, or water from the mountains, or fields of grass. Manufactured milk can even be clear like spring water itself. This means countries like New Zealand will cease to exist or become poor overnight, or both.
Who becomes rich? Industrialised countries that own the technology that's who.
May 15, 2017
Predictions
Here are my three main predictions for what will happen technologically within the next 40 or so years. Of course country borders will change, most likely in Africa, but also Europe and North America. If there is a new Dark Age then all bets are off, the Dark Ages were very real and we must guard our knowledge well, Knowledge can be destroyed and often is. Okay, so here goes:
1. We'll be able to fly anywhere very quickly. That is rapid passenger transport. How this will be done is by planes flying very high, out into space before descending to their destination. I've seen the International Space Station racing across the sky and it's an incredible sight, this speed of travel will become commonplace.
2. Communications and entertainment will advance so we can actually experience the movie or have our relatives in the room visiting without them actually being there for real. This could be an experience delivered chemically if not using telecommunications or some such (chemical rather than electronic engineering).
3. Freight will be transported rapidly using ground effects shipping. These will be very large ships that hover rather than sit in the water. Being fast, they'll displace air freight and most container cargo vessels.
What do you think?
In sport, the All Blacks will become so dominant they'll be banned and continue on as a Rugby version of the Harlem Globetrotters (just joking).
1. We'll be able to fly anywhere very quickly. That is rapid passenger transport. How this will be done is by planes flying very high, out into space before descending to their destination. I've seen the International Space Station racing across the sky and it's an incredible sight, this speed of travel will become commonplace.
2. Communications and entertainment will advance so we can actually experience the movie or have our relatives in the room visiting without them actually being there for real. This could be an experience delivered chemically if not using telecommunications or some such (chemical rather than electronic engineering).
3. Freight will be transported rapidly using ground effects shipping. These will be very large ships that hover rather than sit in the water. Being fast, they'll displace air freight and most container cargo vessels.
What do you think?
In sport, the All Blacks will become so dominant they'll be banned and continue on as a Rugby version of the Harlem Globetrotters (just joking).