Five Human Achievements That Could Top Walking on the Moon

Sorry to see this extremely naive stance on nuclear disarmament. Of course he ignores the fact of terrorist states desperately seeking nukes, and focuses on the low hanging fruit of the large nuclear powers reducing stockpiles. Of course if the chief nuclear nations ever did completely disarm, this would dangerously empower any rogue state. Not to mention that if we'd followed this hippie pipe dream in the 80s, we'd still have the Soviet Union to contend with today.
One day we will indeed have a nuke free world--when an even more powerful weapon has made them obsolete.

Check out:
http://fusionfilter.com/?p=1048

For a great article on the Apollo Anniversary and some footage weblinks NASA has to offer.

I would have to say that the greatest impact on everyone, and particularly the media because they are the eye of the populace, would be free energy. Once that has happened it would substantially change the way everybody lives. It would also change all the future technologies, so getting to mars after that event would probably be much easier. Removing all nuclear powers is ideal, but its impact would be a safer world and every one can take a sigh of relief. But overall it wouldn't change our current stance on technology. The same goes for HIV/AIDs. I don't even know what to say about alien life. Yes it's interesting, but after we find it, what then? Free energy has, by far, the most impact on the world and it's future, I would give it a higher priority to it than it is now.

Wait I forgot to add my contribution to the list:

A technology more important than all other technologies!
http://www.lolgadgets.com/useless/dancing-usb-booty/
Bow, bow down because we are not worthy.

lol, jkjk

I have to say that if farming towers pulls through, we could hopefully reduce the food shortage in many countries. While this IS a relief technology, it does help to know that may be able to apply this in a hostile environment, namely space. Thus sustaining life during space travel will be more sustainable and independent of earth.

Nothing, especially energy will ever be free. As long as the world is based on a monetary system the current oil/energy corporations will make sure that you pay for every single electron you use. So what if the power comes from oil, fusion, wind, the sun or gerbils on treadmills. .You're going to pay for it.

robotic house construction. A large portion of a houses cost is human labor...i'd say 40%. Robotically built housing would reduce the cost of houses and change the world. Home ownership is linked to financial prosperity. Alot of people can't afford a home because they cost so much so they are forced to rent..which is wasted money when it could be going to a house you could own. But if they were built by robots the cost would lower significantly allowing a much greater percentage of the population to own houses. And home values double every 10 years.

This would change everything as the average person would become financially stable and save tons of money that would then be spent in other industries.

Most importantly build nuclear spacecraft that can get us to where we are going in 1/10th the time, nuclear rockets have been tested for forty years. The nuclear fuel would have to be mined and processed in space like the moon or asteroid. It would be more publicly acceptable that way, then and only then can we finally use a far superior rocket system to get us to where we are going much safer than chemical rockets can. Note nuclear rockets would have to be tethered a substantial distance from the explorers because of their fast and slow moving neutrons in order to be safe.

The discovery of alien life is within our grasp within our lifetime for maybe a very few of us, but since the delay of stopping human exploration beyond low earth orbit after the moon missions it may only happen for a few of the young ones alive today.

Would we recognize alien life if we saw it with a robotic mission to another world, I would guess not because they would be treated like UFO's. However if human explorer's were sent to search for life and found life, they would recognize it right away. Because of not trusting our instruments or what we actually see the treatment of something moving in the soil, unidentified moving object, UMO, will be explained away similarly to how we explain away UFO's today. Take this example right here, we may only find out for example if this is life taken from the images of the Phoenix Lander, by human exploration long after I have passed away:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfSjJeQf58

Obviously Popular Science has a pop culture take on achievements that would rival landing on the moon. I would select entirely different achievements, like 1) Space elevators with Buckminster carbon fiber threads because nothing promotes space like weightless sex 2) Cheap electrical batteries with power densities that exceed gasoline by a magnitude of 2. - Because batteries are the ball and chain tether of robots, cars, planes, submarines and energy weapons. 3) Cheap room temperature Super Conductors – no need for wasting money on fluff solar or wind because we could make due with what we have. 4) Micro fusion anti-matter nano-bombs that are smaller than a grain of sand yet yield in the kiloton atom bomb range – way cooler than sharks with lasers on their heads and perhaps Gravity bombs – what better way to suck souls 5) Teleportation at a cheap rate and infinite range – look out universe!

Lots of room to add all sorts of goodies:

-Science finally conquers superstition and irrational thinking;
-A worldwide network of vacuum tunnels with ultra-highspeed trains running on magnetic tracks. Major cities would be joined togethr, with subnetworks for lesser destinations.The world would really then be a much smaller place;
-At the equator, you could transfer to stations from where gondolas would climb up nanocables to tethered colonies at geostationary orbits. To attain escape velocities one would merely have to climb further past this point and letting go at the right time. Space would literally be a couple of train rides and an elevator trip away;
-programmable matter becomes a commercial reality: want to turn your blank wall into a window, a mirror, or a giant video display?;
-We finally ween ourselves away from our petroleum addiction;
-Total neuro-cybernetic interface, the best of William Gibson's prophecies that still haven't come true;
-Science finally makes the human lifespan indefinite. I don't know about you guys, but I would like a longer recommended shelf life.

what about free water? if we could make the ocen water drinkable worldwide and free, africa will be much more green.

Well I have to say some lofty goals in there. If the truth were to be known I am sure that we havent needed to search for a free energy source for a long time now. Nuclear fusion is a dangerous pipedream suitable for space exploration possibly. Nuclear disarmament will be acheived once a few nuclear weapons get fired on other countries....of course by the time the last nuke gets fired there may not be much of a planet left. As for E.T. look all you like search the skies, dream ponder, space is big who knows. Cures for disease will eventually be found through genetic manipulation... so will super viruses that can destroy the human race. Bottom line 90%+ of all species that ever existed on the earth are extinct.... Why should we be any different? Enjoy life while you can, eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die. ;)

sex bots...

"Although the start up costs are high, solar thermal and offshore wind power drastically reduce the long term cost of energy by using a fuel that, unlike coal, natural gas and nuclear, costs exactly nothing."

If this were true, our energy problems would be solved. But solar and wind are *NOT* free after the initial investment. Thousands of devices with moving parts (wind turbines, rotating mirrors, high pressure/high temperature pipes and generators) must be maintained over a distributed network. Additionally, the thousands of miles of high power lines must also be maintained.

Just recently, T. Boone Pickens, an oil baron who promoted a significant investment in wind energy in Texas, has run into problems when he couldn't get financing for the $12 billion needed to build the power lines for his wind project. He's now selling off the thousands of turbines he purchased from GE.

I don't say all of this to rain on the alt-energy parade. I very much support wind and solar. But you can't make statements like "hey it's free!" and remain honest. There are significant costs, which is why we aren't powered by these systems as easily as with coal and nuclear.

Heart disease kills many more people than AIDS, at least where I sit it does. I suspect malaria and other diseases might compete for the top spot world-wide, as would famine and the need for clean drinking water. Lack of affordable energy also contribute to poor health and high mortality.

The sad truth is that AIDS is a largely preventable disease. The fact that it has not run rampant through developed countries shows that education and common sense can keep it in check. This is not to say that we shouldn't search for a vaccine or effective treatments, but I wouldn't say it tops the list of things mankind should aspire to.

Since you asked, I would say the top 5 should be: 1) clean, plentiful and cheap energy; 2)clean drinking water for all of earth's human population; 3) effective waste treatment and disposal which protects the environment and recycles as much of the material and energy as possible from waste streams; 4) free quality education for all who want it, subsidized through the college level; 5) freedom to choose your local and national leaders without threat of tyranny.

I'm sorely tempted to move #5 to #1 at the risk of making the list more political than scientific/technical. I do believe that political freedom provides the foundation for many of the other items in the list, but I'll leave it as it is.

Space Elevator was mentioned but it needs to be emphasized - that one item alone will radically alter humanity simply for the fact that mankind will have the means by which we can ensure the survival of our race.

Also - no one mentioned full, complete Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) with human-level or greater reasoning capabilities...

Pixie-dust realization (Human regeneration)

Full HCI (Human-Computer Interfaces) allowing full augmentation of all bodily process as needed/desired.

Samuel Friedfeld
I think when Sky Net becomes self aware we'll have a real problem on our hands (you've all seen that one). All kidding aside, I agree that when mankind forgets about their worst invention (yes, invention) yet, religion, the world will experience an infinite amount of prosperity leading to achievements that will make the lunar landing look like a joke. After this point we will need to invent a way for machines to take over a majority of our work days so that humans will only have to put in roughly two hours a day to maintain the machines. At this point we will be able to concentrate on more important things and move forward. I think this is within two three to four decades away, as for religion, who knows.

Do you have any idea how dangerous free energy would be?
All oil is purchased in US dollars, regardless of where it came from, or where it's going. So if you want to buy oil, you first have to buy US dollars. This artificially inflates the demand (and hence the cost/value) of the US currency.
If the demand for oil declines as much as we dream of it, so too does the demand for the green-back.
Since we've moved most of our manufacturing off-shore, the price of consumer goods would sky-rocket as the value of the dollar plummets. Economic chaos.
The good news is that it would likely repatriate a whole whack of manufacturing jobs... But then China would find themselves in big trouble, wouldn't they? So it's in the best interest of the 2 biggest economies in the world to keep everyone burning oil and paying for it with USD.
Don't buy it? Just ask Venezuela and Iraq how their experiments with selling oil for Euro's instead of dollars went.

I would believe that the biggest advance in technology we could accomplish soon would be true artificial intelegence. This would lead to a huge increase in technology also as using the AI we could eliminate the need for many non technology related jobs, freeing up many more people to pusue technilogical advances, and in fact use the AI to create new technologies. With the building of more and more advance robotics systems I see this as being something that will come within the next 10 years also. You all read it here, Japan will unveil a true AI by the year 2015.

Even if solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, etc. aren't completely cost-free, they'd still be significantly less expensive than fossil fuels, due to the fact that the source of that power itself is free. Then the only financial cost incurred would be the initial setup of the collecting mechanism, battery storage, the transmission grid, and maintenance costs. And I would guess that the maintenance costs would be a lot less expensive for clean power (particularly solar, whose infrastructure requires no moving parts) than for fossil fuel generated power. Free? Maybe not. Bargain? Absolutely!

I think that the idea of nuclear disarmament is a nobel albeit naive goal. As long as people let religion dictate their views, the need of resources run the economies and land for the uncontrolled population growth then we(humans) will continue to strive to make deadlier weapons to kill people with. A goal which I was surprised not to see on the list was a cure for cancer. Not a treatment that might irradicate it, but an honest-to-goodness cure like what they have done for smallpox. Cancer has been around much longer than HIV/AIDS and has killed many more people than HIV/AIDS. Now some would argue that it is because cancer has been around much longer than HIV/AIDS and they would be right and in all that time we have not yet been able to reliably cure it.

To follow up on the life question outside of earth, here is a new YouTube video from Mars Opportunity Rover Microscopic Imager showing what appears to be some salty brine drip sol 1886? There seems to be some small spherical spherule, Blueberries, like objects causing some of the drip?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7LMxoPIlog

Five achievements of man. . .How bout the amazing $2 bill giveaway going on at Verblist.net See site for details.

-Verblist

Verblist.net

I'd modify the list like this:

Mission to Mars would be replaced by Permanent Settlement on Mars. Although the trip to Mars would be a quantum leap beyond a trip to the moon, on the surface, people wouldn't see a huge difference. I think, for most people, setting foot on Mars and setting foot on another planet would be almost the same.

Alien life is good, but it would have to be more than a microbe. Multicell alien life would qualify. I think single cell alien life, or a protovirus of some sort would not excite people too much.

Free energy is excellent. I'd keep it. But I'm not sure what form this breakthrough would have to take to excite people. Probably something like the creation of the first fusion reactor. Saying "We're going to build wind and solar power over the next 20 years to replace dependance on other sources" would not generate too much excitement.

Nuclear disarmament is not enough. Making war obsolete would be a better criteria. How? Who knows. But, if nuclear disarmament were possible, it would just set the stage for the next big thing (biological warfare, chemical, etc.)

Finally, the cure for HIV/AIDS would as this point be almost anti-climactic. I think the cure for cancer would be the one that would excite people.

the manned mission to mars seems the closest to being feasible(followed close by the cure for HIV/AIDS). but i think if it is ever going to happen we can't think the same way we did when going to the moon, it is a completely different situation. there are a couple of ways we can approach this problem., now i'm thinking purely about getting there, not so much being alive when we get there( if we can't fix our magnetic field what are we going to need a portable one for?), so this could be applied to any new rover missions. it seems clear that sending the entire mission from earth to mars is to much, so i see just two options: 1. we build a space craft in space, just for space. it could be lighter and faster because it does not need to be able to survive re-entree. this would also allow us to build it in pieces(like the ISS)2. we send 2 tanks of fuel into space, one orbiting earth(or the moon) to provide the fuel to start the journey, and the other one sent to mars with the fuel for the return trip. instead of having a fuel tank floating around earth we could just build a moon base, but then that a whole different ball game. and i think that's the big choice; a moon base or a manned mission to mars. both would be great but with no motivation(as in America beating them damn commies to the moon) there is no funding. but i think we have bigger problems on earth that need dealing with, especially if you live on the coast.

wowlfie...... the worst kind of religion is the kind that won't admit itself....like the naturalists religion. Let's face it....how many people it did the atheists Soviet Union ship off to spend tropical vacations in Siberia?

As far as the article goes.

Mars would be an achievement.

Disarming all nukes can't happen. Once knowledge like that is out there, it's not going away. Someone will always be able to build one if they are driven enough.

Finding alien life would be interesting. If all that money they've blown on SETI actually brings in some alien's sit-com our 'scientists' today might have a reason to hold to the (generalized) Copernican principal.

I love some of the comments here... I laughed my ass off. To add to the list, I fully believe that the human mind is capable of doing much more than it currently does, it just lays dormant most of the time. For example, regeneration... the genetic make-up of your body is there, so if you lose a limb or something why can't the mind simply recall those genes and regrow your limb. Memory, accessing long-term memory at will or handling memory however you please. Promting your mind to send the correct signals to your body so that you can do whatever like re-grow hair, burn fat and build muscle... whatever. Or telling your body what to do specifically fight any disease, such as AIDS, where you tell the body to essentially ignore the HIV cells so that you don't contaminate your own.

I went on a tangent, but I hope I got my idea across.

BTW, of those mentioned in the article, I think intelligent Alien life would have the most dramatic effect. The push to connect with it and potentially others, or maybe the fear of the unknown would alter our lives dramatically. In some instances it may force mankind to unite under one banner. No longer seperated under racial, religious or national banners, but by species in the universe.

Number one earth game changer... When people stop confussing the terms religiosity, extremism, and religion. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. If anyone thinks this is Global problem, please explain. However, Religiosity is that oppresor of souls, that bogs humans down in impossible to keep laws, traditions, dress codes, regulations, and unfounded superstitions. In this case we do have a world wide problem. Finally, extremism is violence under that name of a cause (in most cases in the name of a religion), but not always. Lets not forget the Columbine shootings, that was violence in the name of naturalism and natural selection. So, at the top of my list would be for all humanity to embrace true religion so that we all will be enabled to work together to push for the advances in science and technology.

I agree with the global smackdown of religion. It is just another voracious parasite we can do without, and maybe the jimmy swaggart's and oral roberts' can get real jobs. Then maybe electromagnetic propulsion, genome bridging, to make us prepared for space travel/colonizing. auto translation at any publicly owned facility for all languages and lastly worldwide health care.

We forgot the cure for cancer. It kills more people than AIDS does. And I will ad - abolish religion. This is a major setback for technology, advancement and causes trouble worldwide.

Jen @ http://www.squidoo.com/invest_in_gold

nuclear disarmament is a perfect addition to the list
however the US needs to take large steps itself if it wants any other countries to follow. we need to set an example first

Wireless electrical delivery.

Force fields.

It has been proven that women know their role much more clearly than men. Men have lost the reason why they have been put here. At one time men were much more in tune with nature than they are now.

Today men are hung up on how many toys they possess. What's needed is for Man to look inward to a frontier that has hardly been tapped. An HONOR movement has to take hold so as when boys grow up, they know their place in the world. It's not about how many toys one has, but what one does with them once they've succeeded in getting them.

We need a person to come along who can print a road map for men to allow them to grow to their potential. Good hearts that get behind progress nurture the hopes and aspirations of the masses. It just can't be about making money anymore. "Why, I would pay to see a sunset like that one again".

Time travel.

How about developing a public address system (PA System) for airports and train stations which can actually be heard and understood? To me and many fellow travelers, that would be "life changing". :-)

Kyleb2112 - can I help you out a little here? Since Bill Clintstone decommissioned the Savanah River K,L & P reactors in 1988 the US nuclear arsenal is reduced by 1/2 every 12.33 years. In 2051 the USA will have no nuclear arsenal. In 7000 years of recorded human history, how many times and for how long have men lived- free? You inbreeds that hope for change, change to what? You are so seriously reality challenged that you deserve to have to eat each other. I am stocking up on barbeque sauce so you don't get tired of the taste.

In order to reach Mars in a shorter period of time, can't we use multiple orbital slingshot maneuver(s), like say between the Earth & Moon?

Is there a mass (gravitational) speed limit if initiated?

If we don't learn to communicate, we will kill each other. I truly believe that telepathy is the next step in human evolution. 10, 20, maybe even 30 minds or more in rapport working on a solution to what plagues mankind is a lot better than the all mighty dollar driving machine. That carrot does not work. The rich just get richer and someone very often gets left out. Up the organization on a regular bases is good for everyone. Politicians should be dedicated to serving the public for one or two terms and not a life long career of power breeding corruption. New ideas come for new minds. Crime is just one of the diseases that telepathy will cure. Knowledge used correctly is awesome.

Religion does not cause men to be evil and commit atrocities. Evil men use religion to commit atrocities. Eliminate religion and evil men will find a different justification.

Pointing to religion as the source of all evil is part of the inherent problem of evil in general. It seems to be human nature to look for scapegoats to lay the problems of the world on and then supposedly solve problems by eliminating the scapegoat. It is a time honored human tradition.

Life would be great if we didn't have ____________.

Fill in the blank according to your desired scapegoat:

Blacks, Jews, whitey, liberals, conservatives, communists, capitalists or the religious. Etc.

^ Ingeld has it right. Humans certainly don't need anything except their own depraved minds to invent ways to commit evil. Actually, many scientific advancements have been made possible by the generous support of religious people who helped start major universities.

In the article, "12.2 cents per kilowatt hour" in 2020? That would be a decrease for those of us in Texas. Bring it on!

Besides the difficult task of keeping us from killing each other (which will always be a work in process), I think we need to focus greatly on energy.

I am absolutely for wind and solar power, in addition to any other like source, such as tidal. We can't be afraid to embrace clean energy. Yes, we will pay for it like we always have, but those who sell the energy would be those who invest money in it, and not those who happen to be at a geologic advantage, holding others at ransom. It would also grow a sector of jobs that would be much more stable than oil-related jobs. Additionally, we would all benefit from the obvious health improvements of having clean air.

I have driven across vast stretches of the U.S. that are windblown and not used for a lot of things. Wind power has big potential.

If the technology around solar could be developed to a point where it is viable in new construction without skyrocketing costs, then we would create more energy each time we build more rooftops, helping us to be self-sustaining.

We simply have to get vehicles off of oil, because the scenario is not pretty. The world is industrializing and consuming more oil, while production is declining. There again, an energy problem.

The ones who solve our energy problems will be heroes who eclipse in totality those who walked on the Moon. With apologies to Neil and the guys, their achievement was more of a demonstration of our capability as a nation during the Cold war, than it was a solution to a specific problem.

Short term: cure for Cancer
Mid term: cure for all diseases
long term: faster than light travel: don't waste time
and money on chemical or nuclear power, go
for something entirely new; gravity drive,
worm holes, inertialess drive where an
object's mass is reduced to zero or some
way that someone can dream up

First, to those who condemn religion and what you believe is hatred and bigotry born out of such, you are apparently too daft and ignorant yourselves to realize you are doing the very thing you purport to condemn. Secondly, here's something to put in your pipe and smoke: Take a look at chimpanzees - do they have religion? I don't think so, and I don't think anyone else who makes a career out of studying their behavior thinks so either. And yet they fight - they fight small wars - they have "gang bangs" - they kill each other in premeditated attacks - despite the fact that they have no faith in a higher power to speak of (and are unable to comprehend that which is beyond their present reality). So, let's send a bunch of Atheists to Mars, since you people seem to think that's all the human race fights and kills over. Let's see if they can hack the 500 day mission without finding something to want to kill each other over. Sorry, but that's just human nature. It's the nature of our closest relatives and it's in our nature as well. It has nothing to do with faith. Take away religion and I guarantee humans will ALWAYS find something else to bicker over. One other thing to consider: Hitler was an atheist, and look at the horrors he brought about. His motive? Race and ethnicity, primarily. Gee, let's see if we can make everyone on earth the same Caucasian color like Michael Jackson tried to do to himself. Maybe that will end all wars...

Now, having gotten the idiocy out of the way, with regards to energy, I think a lot would be solved cost-wise (and getting away from fossil fuels at the same time) by simply allowing more (and encouraging) nuclear power plants to be built. Not free, but far cheaper than coal and oil (and in today's dollars) wind and solar. Existing technology, yes, an improvement, certainly.

Regarding AIDS, I too am one who thinks that a far more important cure would be that of cancer. I personally know of only one person who died of AIDS, my cousin, who got a tainted transfusion in 1981. Yet I know scores of people who have fought and sometimes died of cancer, including my grandmother and my mother.

I'd like to see a manned mission to Mars too, but I don't think it's a priority today with all that's going on in the world right now. And here's a good one (half-joking) - since the first and only humans to set foot on the moon (which is a feminine symbol in Greek mythology) were men, how about sending an all female crew to Mars (which, of course, is male in mythology)? You know, Men are from Mars and women from Venus! Of course, if we ever went to Venus (not that any human would want to do that) we'd then have to send all men again!

True understanding physics, but understanding just gravity on a quantum level would be huge.

I was thinking to myself last night, how could I create bio-created, yes, bio-created fuels. Then I came across a tree that grows in the Amazon, its called the Copa-iba tree this tree is unique became it produces in its leaves, diesel fuel that can go right into the tank, it doesn't have to be treated! But it can only grow in the Amazon. Sooooooooooo I was thinking about splicing the diesel producing genes from this plant into maple trees, and splicing the fast growing genes from the bamboo into the tree because bamoo grows 12'' a month! So instesd of getting mapel syrup from maple trees you get diesel fuel! And I planning to do the same thing with JetA and gasoline! Here is some info on the Copa-iba tree.

The idea isn't new. Nearly half of Brazil's fuel comes from sugarcane, for example. But sugar juice from cane must be fermented, to concentrate the carbohydrates into higher-energy hydrocarbons. "We would much prefer . . . plants which would do the whole thing in one step--reduce all the way down to hydrocarbons,' Calvin told an international symposium on grasses last week at the Smithsonian Institution research and education center, at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the United States to create an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of
..... Click the link for more information. in Washington, D.C.

Calvin reported in 1979 that the Amazonian copa-iba tree (Copaifera langsdorfii) produces diesel fuel that can go directly from the tree into a car's gas tank (SN:9/15/79, p.182). Since then, Brazilian researchers have grown an experimental plantation of the trees, which they hope to begin tapping soon. Copa-ibas grow only in the tropics also called tropical zone or torrid zone, all the land and water of the earth situated between the Tropic of Cancer at lat. 23 1-2°N and the Tropic of Capricorn at lat. 23 1-2°S. , but Calvin says researchers may be able to adapt them to temperate climates or to transfer the oil-producing genes into a temperate-adapted tree.

Calvin, at the University of California at Berkeley, also works with hydrocarbon-producing temperate plants. The Euphorbia (y fôr`bēə): see spurge. lathyris, or gopher plant, produces an oil-based latex as well as fermentable
adj the ability to undergo a chemical reaction in the presence of an enzyme that results in the creation of either acid or alcohol; in the oral cavity, the ability to create acid in plaque.
..... Click the link for more information. sugars and cellulose. After growing small crops of the plants on soil-and water-poor experimental plantations in California, Calvin and his colleagues estimate that an acre of gopher plants would produce the equivalent of 12 barrels of oil from the three components. At that level of productivity, the crop would become economically enticing if oil prices rose above $30/barrel again, Calvin says.

But the gopher plant is an annual, and while that means it can be harvested almost immediately, it also means the crop is relatively expensive and hard on the land. The Pittosporaceae family offers a few candidates for a temperate perennial oil-producer. Growing throughout the U.S. West Coast, P. undulatum's grape-sized fruits are sticky with oil. And in the Philippines (at high altitudes, which bodes well for temperate adaptation), the fruits of P. resiniferum are so oily they are used as torches. Calvin estimates that such trees might keep producing for 10 to 15 years.

Some biologists at the meeting had misgivings about using wild lands for large-scale planting of fuel crops--and, ultimately, still coming up short on fuel. Asked Hugh Iltis of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, "After you provide fuel for the next 5 billion [people], what next?'

I was disappointed in the PopSci's lack of creative thinking when putting forth their list of accomplishments that would top the moon-walk. Because of JFK’s leadership, courage, timing, and an accurate understanding of this country's potential, he was able to galvanize the people, especially the engineers, scientists, and associated support staff that illuminated a path to preeminence in technology, with only one achievement along the way being the moon-walk. Furthermore, the resultant technical spin-offs ultimately led to our preeminence in communication, information technology, economics and business.

(1) The proposed Mars-walk would be foolish to pursue until scientists and engineers come up with good ideas in the areas of (a) safety, and (b) reliability, and (c) unique contribution.
(a) When moving out of the earth’s protective magnetic field, astronauts are subject to cell-damaging radiation. I was told of one calculation (by NASA personnel) which indicated that over the 2-year round trip to Mars, just about every cell in an astronaut’s body would have suffered radiation damage. The radiation damage experienced by the astronauts during their 10-day round trip to the moon was noticeable – but acceptable. Thus, until a light-weight radiation shield is developed, the cost of the trip would be totally unacceptable.
(b) Not all of the attempts to send a robotic satellite to Mars have been successful. No one has tried to bring back a spacecraft from Mars and land it safely on Earth. A great deal more confidence must be developed before the life’s of astronauts are committed to such a trip.
(c) Of prime importance is to first determine what added advantage an astronaut on Mars would make over a set of scientific instruments. Presumably the astronaut would make measurements using instruments that actually can do the job alone. In other words why build and send a deluxe passenger train when a bare-bones freight train will do; this idea is more directly captured by the saying: “Why send in a marine when a bullet will do?”

(2) Most scientists believe that some forms of life probably exist throughout the cosmos. With respect to the discovery of alien life, NASA already has already made great steps in their ability to use the light of nearby stars to determine the atmospheric constituents of planets in nearby sun-planet systems. The co-existence of certain constituents could strongly suggest the presence of life. But if we do come face-to-face with an alien, it will probably be a result of the alien’s achievement rather than one of our own; and sadly we may find ourselves being in the position of an aborigine.
(3&4) Achieving full nuclear disarmament and free energy before we learn how to live together in peace and respect would probably be the ultimate disaster for the human race. The former would probably lead to a continual state of wars well beyond what now exists. The latter would probably lead to a huge population increase ending up with tens of billions of humans who can’t get along peacefully.
5. With respect to the development of a vaccine for Hiv/Aids, many throughout the world might rather see cures for ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and lower respiratory infections; these diseases collectively account for over 29% of the world’s deaths whereas HIV/AIDS accounts for 5% of the world’s deaths.

Our best near term (ten years) hope for fusion power is Polywell Fusion.

We will know in two years if it can be done:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2009/05/we-will-know-in-two-years.html

Note: a Polywell driven rocket could do Earth to Mars in 39 days.

jerrydd

Removing religion would be a huge boon to mankind as it's myths are used by so many to control, hurt, divide people. And stop equating Communism with atheism as they have nothing to do with each other than not believing the religion myths. But even there Religion has done far more damage than any other cause by far.

Next, Governments that work for the people in the most just, fair and free way instead of for the rich, corporations.

A tax on fossil fuels to pay their full, complete costs.

While energy is not free yet it's close.
Small wind, CSP and soon even PV is less costly than fossil fuels even now if you are frugal and soon they will be mass produced at very low costs.

A 1-2kw windgen costs only $300-400 in parts and you can now buy a 1kw windgen for $1k. A CSP unit is only a 5hp steam/heat engine with a 200sq' trough collector and a 3kw alternator that give 9-24kwhrs/day of electric and 27-72kwhrs of heat too. In real mass production this shouldn't cost over $6-8k so a combo of 2kw windgen/15' dia, and a 3kw CSP in most places means you can power your home, EV and get a check back from the utility for the extra power you make for life. Since the overproduction of energy can pay for it it can actually be free.

There is no shortage of energy, just the equipment, will to catch it. It's not a technical problem, but a political one. We just need to put the full, real cost of fossil fuels in them and these rest will solve itself.

Why HIV and not Cancer which kills many more times the number of humans. Aids can be mostly be prevented by use of condoms and practicing safe sex. Cancer strikes humans without warning, even those who have healthy lifestyles.

It's choice of this list over Cancer seems a little PC.

Wow, how did they miss IC?!

I would placed micro chip processors and integrated circuitry technology and continued development far ahead of landing on the Moon as an achievement.

With out that none of the other stuff would be possible!

The next two big developments that will fundamentally change everything as it develops is Bio-Hacking and Matter Printing (starting out now as rapid 3D prototyping)

So HIV/AIDS makes the list, but Cancer is left off?? A very dissppointing but revealing look at the political agenda favored by the author(s) of this article. Say, while you're at it, why don't you take off the manned mission to Mars (after all, Obama doesn't like it) and put in 'Creation of huge worldwide government which will crush us all into socialist molds'? Geez Louise, people . . .

While you eliminate religion, are you open minded
enough to elimimate socialism and its more murderous
derivatives nazism and communism, both of which have
lead to the deaths of more people than almost all
religions combined.

Oh, and before you rush to rebut about nazism being
a conservative scheme, the nazi party was actually
the national socialist party

“Life would be great if we didn't have ____________.
Fill in the blank according to your desired scapegoat:
Blacks, Jews, whitey, liberals, conservatives, communists, capitalists or the religious. Etc.”

I’d finish it with nuclear weapon scientists, bioweapon researchers, and anyone working on the next most lethal invention. Catholic priests might love choir boys, but they can't build bombs or critters that can destroy the world.

“We would much prefer . . . plants which would do the whole thing in one step--reduce all the way down to hydrocarbons”

No $#!%. Look at this article…

“During a two-year collaborative project through the Bioscience Discovery Evaluation Grant Program, Basu is cloning the genes responsible for the production of oleoresin, a diesel-like fuel, produced in the copaiba or “diesel tree.” The genes will then be transferred into plants and algae to determine which plants are compatible and can produce the most biodiesel. Basu has been working on the project with University of Tennessee-Knoxville Professor C. Neal Stewart Jr., Ph.D.”

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2595

The one and only next frontier that we must cross is the invention of genuine AI. Not AI that is tied to one environment but a creative, independent Artificial Intelligence that can learn and grow and be the equal and helpmeet of mankind.

1. We will always have nuclear weapons, until, as another poster pointed out, they become obsolete in the face of new, possibly even more destructive weapons. Everyone, even the Japanese (taking the broad view), should be grateful that the US developed them first. It's insulting that the writer repeatedly speaks of "scientists" as though all scientists share the same childish political views. Many scientists, even those brilliant in their particular specialty, tend to sound like 3rd graders when trying to preach on topic like geopolitics, economics, and politics. Fortunately that's not always the case, and there's plenty of room for "scientists" to disagree on such matters.

2. Cancer is a far more important disease to cure than AIDs, if not as politically correct to obsess over.

3. Walking on Mars would grab the world's attention but the Apollo missions to the moon will always be considered the most important such voyage, since it was the first time humans traveled to an extraterrestrial body, got out, and walked around. Right now establishing a permanent base on the moon is a better goal than a one shot, high risk Hail Mary pass to Mars with enormous cost and little likely benefit. In fact there's a chance that a trip to Mars, even a successful one (as measured by the astronauts making it back alive) could displace other worthy programs and kill the government space program for future generations.

4. Nuclear energy is relatively clean and far more economically feasible than solar and wind. Unfortunately some of the most allegedly energy conscious politicians don't want ANY of it, even windmills, in their own backyards.

5. LOL at the moronic, militant atheists who have assaulted this board. Not only do explicitly atheist societies have the worst human rights records in the world, but studies have shown that religious people, at least in the US, volunteer and give more to charity than secular people. They tend to live slightly longer. Being religious is an almost universal and apparently healthy part of the human condition. It provides meaning in life and a foundation for morality. Even most secular humanists in the west have either consciously or unconsciously inherited their particular moral outlook from the surrounding Christian culture and the influence of centuries of conditioning. The truth is that there would have been no civilization, much less any science, without religion. Even if you believe it's all bunk it would be more rational for you to want to keep it around as some kind of "noble lie", rather than simply wanting to destroy something because you disagree with it, almost like a toddler smashing blocks in a play pen.

Faster than Light Travel.
As magnificent as it would be to see a landed Mars mission in my lifetime for the reasons set above, I think that landing on Mars is only the next logical step for mankind, after the moon. As the future rushes towards us, it is my hope that what are now considered "giant leaps" for us (Lunar and Martian landings) will become part of a monumental "Hop, Skip and a Jump" for humankind, the jump taking us beyond the reaches of our own solarsystem. Leaving our solar system and traveling the stars opens up a range of possibilities that will undoubtedly capture the imaginations and interests of all the wonderfully varied people of earth, in the same way that leaving the planet in the first place once did.

Where we are now: With heavy thanks to the fine folks in Switzerland, humanity is coming much closer to sending objects the speed of light than it ever has before. Also, with more frequent experimentation and manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates, we are beginning to actually manipulate and understand electromagnetic waves (which travel at the speed of light). Playing around with the fastest stuff in the galaxy is a pretty good way to understand the fastest speeds in the galaxy.

What needs to happen: After 54 comments, I found only one other mention of Faster than Light travel. Congratulations OTDPete. We need to start talking about faster than light travel. Come on people! Pretty much every future-set videogame has some form of faster than light travel. Wouldn't that be reason enough to at least talk about it?
Realistically, we need to start pushing the envelope when it comes to hard research. Theoretical mathematics is only ever going to give us theoretical possibilities unless someone starts searching alternative ways of propulsion and movement. Its a lofty goal, but one we have to strive for eventually. Why not now?

WWII victory cry in the African Deserts
"I read your book you magnificent B*st*rd!"

I would like to add these to this list....

1) RELIGION-FREE WORLD. Let's face it, religion has caused more wars than any nuclear weapon ever has. Now while religion has helped shaped moral and political views, which we all value, it is these moral and political views that cause the most destruction to global society. So in the end, religion is the core to every war ever started. We need to shift our belief systems to a universal explanation of ourselves and our place, and SCIENCE is the only universal system that will allow for this explanation. GO SCIENCE!!!

2) HABITABLE SPACE COLONIES. We are literally raping our planet of all it's natural resources. For example, a chunk of forest the size of Manhattan is annihilated every day, and for some reason the companies that are doing this don't feel the need to replace them. And this happens with everything; soil, animals, natural stone, water, etc. This, along with our ever-growing population is making the need for Space Colonies greater every day. I'm not even talking about colonies on other planets. I'm talking about human-constructed Space Stations that orbit our own planet. Something like a centrifuge that can generate false gravity and large enough to house millions of people. Colonizing planets is great, however it takes far too long to travel to them. Maybe these space colonies could actually travel themselves.

3) EXTENDING HUMAN LIFE (IMMORTALITY). Now I know that the repercussions of this is enormous. However, it can not be denied that this would be the single greatest human achievement ever; and it would never be topped. IMMORTALITY is the motherload. Imagine what religion would do if we found this in our lifetime. I mean, how can you cheat the all might bearded guy in the cloud, right?

4) THE COMPLETE AND UTTER ANNIHILATION OF REALITY TV. I'm sorry, but it's just awful and has got to be one of the least beneficial things to human society. I'm so sick of society making very uneducated, unimportant people a butt load of money for nothing. Sorry, I just had to put this in here :)

All of these fools who think that the eradication of religion will make the world a ‘better place’ are just shooting themselves in the foot.

If they are really serious, let them try to run some sort of serious campaign on that platform and see how long they live.

If everything didn’t happen in exactly the way it did, we wouldn’t even have made it this far, would we? And religion has always been one of the chief motive forces in human social evolution, for both good and bad.

As far as the moon landing being the crowning glory of American achievement and and of JFK’s foresight, the real reason we hit the moon first is because the Ruskies were showing us up, big time.

Hey, they crash-landed a probe on VENUS in ’66 - the first man-made object ever to make contact with another planet - and the next year they landed another successfully and were transmitting data back to earth!

This would not do, especially from a pontential military perspective (remember the Cold War?) so we really got on the stick and made it work. Because we had to.

But in fact, the moon landing is one of the few firsts that the US can claim in the space race - although certainly the most significant thus far.

And I’m all for nuclear disarmament - of the other guys’ nukes. . .

Naturally!

And if you smoke too much, you get lung cancer;

If you drink too much all the time, eventually you crash your car;

And if you engage in buggery, you get AIDS.

All of these ill fates are largely preventable.

Okay, to all of you theolophobes, yes, religion has been the cause for countless wars throughout history...however, (pause for effect), most of these battles were fought before the age of modernism, when nearly everyone in the world clung to religion steadfastly, without ever actually knowing the entire set of dogmatic laws (of course, this time also predated the use of public schooling, the printing press, the concept of freedom of speech...and the list continues.) In the post-modern era to the current era, humans have found totally unrelated issue to kill one another en masse (i.e. the Nazi Anti-Jew/Gypsy campaign, the Communist Movement under Stalin [caveat: More people have died in the past 30 years under the banner of communism than any other cause, directly and indirectly, at an estimated 100,000,000,] The Darfur campaigns, and the list goes on, none of them religion, just ethnicity.)

As for the Article:

*Personnally, I can't believe the mapping of the human genome didn't get the grand "huzzah" of the global community, but oh well

1)Adaptive Sentient AI
2)The Finding of Atlantis...laugh if you want, they did about the city of Troy, and lo, they found more than 7!
3)The successful creation and transplant of genetically cloned major organ system (i.e. cardio system, respritory system, etc...)
4)Extraterrestrial Communication
5)Faster-than-light acceleration of an object (above the molecular/atomic/subatomic level)

MTFBWY

nothing short of either:
1. Teleportation
2. Invisibility cloaks or the like

I would like to simply state the following with regards to religion. Imagine yourself as smart enough, sane enough to not need a threat of "hell" or a promise of "heaven" to be respectful, charitable, compassionate, etc... Now imagine people who are not so sane. Imagine that your religious neighbors are high strung, stressed out, largely unhappy people ready to snap, but have not swung the rope over to insanity for the basic fear of an "ultimate punishment".

Can you imagine how many seemingly normal people could go roaming the street, doing anything they feel to anyone in their way, simply because they no longer have a reason to fear any punishment beyond death? If science finds a way to take away the faith of the people, and the reprocussions will be horrendous.

Religion keeps the masses in line.

just get rid of religion its stupid has no point and has been proven wrong many times so STFU all you religious dopes out there i believe in what science tells me