Quora – Which area of scientific research would you like to see progress?
One stands out above all others – nano scale manipulation of matter.
The mining and manufacture of material at the atomic scale.
When we get that, then total recycling, and fully automated manufacturing become possible.
An age of universal abundance.
Individual sapient life (human and non-human, biological and non-biological) and their liberty, can then become the highest values of society.
The scarcity based system of values measured in markets then becomes essentially redundant.
People would be freed from the economic slavery they are under today, and would be able to do whatever they responsibly choose. And that would be a very new experience for most, as most currently think of their slavery as freedom; and very few have given the notion of responsibility much thought at all – even though it is the necessary companion of any sort of freedom that is to survive for very long in reality.
It would take time for most to adjust. Some sort of universal income is probably required to assist people through the transition.
[followed by a question about energy required for recycling and not quite understanding the second part.]
Yes – and if we are capturing 30% of solar power coming in, then we have quite a bit of energy available.
By comparison, trees (as fuel sources) are only about 3% efficient at turning solar energy into usable fuel.
The second part does come out of a fairly deep investigation of evolution and the classes of mathematical systems embodied and encoded in its products.
