Comment 43600

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted July 17, 2010 at 19:30:11

A 450 000L savings of oil is impressive, but Americans use over 20 million barrels per day of crude. And while nanotechnology is awful cool, it's important not to get caught up in the science fiction of it all. Nano-construction, already shown by microchips, is unbelievably expensive and resource-intensive. Not only that, but it requires highly specialized and centralized facilities. There are simply too many technologies today which could be implemented immediately to wait for something new and revolutionary to come along.

And as far as complex self-replicating nanostructures go, I think I'll stick to plants and microbes. Why do ya think, with all of our technology, we still have so much trouble copying basic biological materials (leather would be a great example).

Low tech solutions are simple and cheap, yet can yield enormous energy savings. Bikes, clotheslines, local food, passive solar etc. Why do you think the Europeans enjoy a standard of living on vastly smaller energy footprints? When we've dropped our average energy consumption by half or more via the simple means available to us (weatherstripping, proper tire inflation etc), then I'll be ready to talk about high-cost, high-tech solutions.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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