How Close Can Mankind Come to Reaching Utopia? - Part 1
In three previous articles about the televised miniseries called utopia, I mentioned the idea that America might have a utopian destiny to fulfill and we are currently experiencing the transition.
I base this idea on the apparent miracles that were needed to make America what it is today, and what it could become in the future.
In the second last paragraph I stated something that might have been shocking to some people.
That is that mortal humans might actually reach a form of utopia by living in satellites in space.
I've given a lot of thought to this potential future by extrapolating current technology.
Since predicting the future has become one of my hobbies, I'd like to share some of my thoughts.
Imagine living on the inside surface of a rotating -- to simulate gravity -- cylinder in space.
I'm projecting this cylinder to be 100 miles in diameter and 300 miles long.
When you look up you see a blue sky with clouds.
Rather than being bombarded by cosmic radiation from a sun, the light source this effect is artificial.
As you might suspect, there are no hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroid/meteor collisions, magnetic field reversals, or flooding.
In fact the good aspects of weather and season changes could be simulated.
I personally like an occasional rainstorm and an overcast sky.
I also like a snowstorm as long as I didn't have to shovel the driveway.
With an inside top level surface area the size of the state of Wyoming, we could create lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forested areas, flower gardens, hills, mountains, or anything else that architects can think of -- just think of Disney World.
Now that you get the general idea of what utopian environment might be like, there is much more with regard to living conditions, cultural compatibility, and religious -- or non-religious -- beliefs, and how they merge to form an ideal utopian society.
Since this merging requires some background explanation, I'll begin by predicting its pathway from today's circumstances.
But, first we need to understand where current technology is taking us and why the planets and asteroids, in our solar system, are important to our potential utopian future.
Let's begin by examining where current technology is taking us.
If you're familiar with the Star Trek television and movie series you've seen what many futurists believe could happen.
The molecular transporter, the holodeck, tractor beams, phasor weapons, cloaking devices, transparent metal, antimatter propulsion, warp speed, and the android named Data, are portrayed.
Of these potential future inventions, the android Data is my choice for being the greatest future invention -- at least within the next one thousand years.
However, my proposed android needs to be much less human, and also needs to be electrically operated, self replicating, and mass produced.
A close second choice is modular nuclear fusion using helium 3 fuel.
When a helium 3 atom is fused with another helium 3 atom -- a proton is released which has the potential for directly producing electricity by passing it through a magnetic field.
Helium 3 is extremely rare on Earth but is very plentiful in the atmospheres of our gaseous planets.
If we're lucky, helium 3 fusion might be miniaturized and used in the same way that batteries are used today -- but with enough energy to power a lifetime of human energy usage with one small canister of helium 3 fuel.
Now -- what is so important about the asteroids and planets in our solar system? Let's begin by looking at the amount of helium 3 contained in the atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter: 3,000,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds.
When you consider 900 thousand pounds of helium 3 is enough fusion fuel to provide one year's worth of power to support the Earth's current population you might begin to appreciate the potential of this power source and the need for mining in space -- how about more than 3 trillion years worth of energy! But that's not all folks.
Besides the vast amount of helium 3 fuel, the asteroids are estimated to contain the following vast amounts of other materials that could serve to support Earth's future population: 1.
1,650,000,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds of iron; 2.
115,500,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds of nickel; 3.
8,250,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds of cobalt; 4.
24,750,000,000,000 thousand pounds of platinum; 5.
plus large quantities of other materials such as gold, silver, copper, manganese, titanium, rare earths, silicon, and uranium.
Putting these numbers into perspective, if we were to build a six inch thick hollow iron sphere to enclose the planet Mars, we would be using only 0.
011 percent of the amount of iron available.
Oh yes -- one more interesting piece of information, one asteroid - Ceres -- contains about five times as much fresh water as there is on Earth.
For the Ceres asteroid, a fresh water upper limit was estimated to be 430,000,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds.
Stay tuned for part 2 -- you won't be disappointed.
I base this idea on the apparent miracles that were needed to make America what it is today, and what it could become in the future.
In the second last paragraph I stated something that might have been shocking to some people.
That is that mortal humans might actually reach a form of utopia by living in satellites in space.
I've given a lot of thought to this potential future by extrapolating current technology.
Since predicting the future has become one of my hobbies, I'd like to share some of my thoughts.
Imagine living on the inside surface of a rotating -- to simulate gravity -- cylinder in space.
I'm projecting this cylinder to be 100 miles in diameter and 300 miles long.
When you look up you see a blue sky with clouds.
Rather than being bombarded by cosmic radiation from a sun, the light source this effect is artificial.
As you might suspect, there are no hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, asteroid/meteor collisions, magnetic field reversals, or flooding.
In fact the good aspects of weather and season changes could be simulated.
I personally like an occasional rainstorm and an overcast sky.
I also like a snowstorm as long as I didn't have to shovel the driveway.
With an inside top level surface area the size of the state of Wyoming, we could create lakes, rivers, waterfalls, forested areas, flower gardens, hills, mountains, or anything else that architects can think of -- just think of Disney World.
Now that you get the general idea of what utopian environment might be like, there is much more with regard to living conditions, cultural compatibility, and religious -- or non-religious -- beliefs, and how they merge to form an ideal utopian society.
Since this merging requires some background explanation, I'll begin by predicting its pathway from today's circumstances.
But, first we need to understand where current technology is taking us and why the planets and asteroids, in our solar system, are important to our potential utopian future.
Let's begin by examining where current technology is taking us.
If you're familiar with the Star Trek television and movie series you've seen what many futurists believe could happen.
The molecular transporter, the holodeck, tractor beams, phasor weapons, cloaking devices, transparent metal, antimatter propulsion, warp speed, and the android named Data, are portrayed.
Of these potential future inventions, the android Data is my choice for being the greatest future invention -- at least within the next one thousand years.
However, my proposed android needs to be much less human, and also needs to be electrically operated, self replicating, and mass produced.
A close second choice is modular nuclear fusion using helium 3 fuel.
When a helium 3 atom is fused with another helium 3 atom -- a proton is released which has the potential for directly producing electricity by passing it through a magnetic field.
Helium 3 is extremely rare on Earth but is very plentiful in the atmospheres of our gaseous planets.
If we're lucky, helium 3 fusion might be miniaturized and used in the same way that batteries are used today -- but with enough energy to power a lifetime of human energy usage with one small canister of helium 3 fuel.
Now -- what is so important about the asteroids and planets in our solar system? Let's begin by looking at the amount of helium 3 contained in the atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter: 3,000,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds.
When you consider 900 thousand pounds of helium 3 is enough fusion fuel to provide one year's worth of power to support the Earth's current population you might begin to appreciate the potential of this power source and the need for mining in space -- how about more than 3 trillion years worth of energy! But that's not all folks.
Besides the vast amount of helium 3 fuel, the asteroids are estimated to contain the following vast amounts of other materials that could serve to support Earth's future population: 1.
1,650,000,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds of iron; 2.
115,500,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds of nickel; 3.
8,250,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds of cobalt; 4.
24,750,000,000,000 thousand pounds of platinum; 5.
plus large quantities of other materials such as gold, silver, copper, manganese, titanium, rare earths, silicon, and uranium.
Putting these numbers into perspective, if we were to build a six inch thick hollow iron sphere to enclose the planet Mars, we would be using only 0.
011 percent of the amount of iron available.
Oh yes -- one more interesting piece of information, one asteroid - Ceres -- contains about five times as much fresh water as there is on Earth.
For the Ceres asteroid, a fresh water upper limit was estimated to be 430,000,000,000,000,000 thousand pounds.
Stay tuned for part 2 -- you won't be disappointed.