Comments on: What innovations are most important to world's future?

This author thinks that cost-effective desalination technology could solve the world's water crises. What innovation do you think would best ensure our future?

[cmstratton]

To me, water and energy are the 2 biggest issues we should tackle first. They're both resources we're currently in danger of running out of, but are resources where we have pretty much unlimited supplies all around us.

[Penguinisto]

Here's one: Get humans to live off-planet. Large-scale orbital colonies, Lunar colonies, maybe some on asteroids... it actually has a ton of benefits for folks back here on Earth as well, such as...

* given limited resources, a space-bound community will quickly develop techniques and technologies for more efficient use of resources (water, electricity, agriculture, you-name-it), which in turn can be put to use almost directly down here.

* speaking of resources, new means and methods of self-sufficiency and use of unideal-but-locally-plentiful resources (lunar material, asteroids, etc) can be gained from such an endeavor.

* solar (or safely isolated fusion/fission) power generation can be had in orbit, and transmitted back to Earth via microwave. The tech is already proven, and can be refined over time to far higher efficiencies. It's the ultimate clean energy source.

* overpopulation? No problem - move the excess population skyward.

* a pandemic, asteroidal impact, or other global catastrophe would have a far, far lesser chance of wiping out the entire human race.

* running out of $resource? no problem - we could eventually (more often than not) mine far, far more of whatever that item is from NEO asteroids and comets.

Given all of this, I'm guessing that cheap Earth-to-space travel and the tech required to support continuous human habitation off of Earth would do more towards helping us as a species survive and thrive, than anything else I can think of.

/P

[rapier1]

Moving humans off planet is a great idea but in practical terms it won't have that much of an impact on the planet vis a vis population pressure. Maybe at some point in the far distant future when you already have your energy and water issues resolved. Not until then though.

[Penguinisto]

Depends, really... as civilization at large gets a better average lifestyle, birth rates drop accordingly. Western Europe for instance has a huge pile of nations in it where the native population can't even replace itself, and immigration makes up all of their growth. North America sees similar situations north of the Mexican-US border...

/P

[rapier1]

I have no idea what you are replying to.

[_Seffer_]

In the July, 2006 edition of Scientific American, there's an article on an idea for a new electric grid using superconducting material. It would allow us to transmit electricity over great distances with no loss of power (with conventional power lines, you lose more and more power the farther you transmit, limiting the efficiency of potential "smart grid' plans.

There a two huge benefits coming from such a grid:

1) We could put power sources where they make the most sense (windmills where it's windy, and nuclear reactors where there are few people) and then transmit the power to distance cities. Efficient transmission of electricity is key to most/all of the green power technologies under development.

2) Superconducting material needs to be very cold. The authors suggest using liquid hydrogen as the coolant. A grid crisscrossing the country with liquid hydrogen?hmm. Yeah, that would also allow us to end the chicken-egg problem of getting us to a "hydrogen economy." We could use the grid to supply hydrogen fuel cell cars.

There's also a whole other issue the authors discuss regarding increasing power consumption in the U.S. and the fact that our existing grid is looking like it's not going to scale up much more.

Here's a link to the article:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-power-grid-for-the-hydr-2006-07

If that doesn't work, go to www.sciam.com and search for "hydrogen electric grid."

--
Seffer

[ctfoley]

i vote for this one. that's a great comment, it's almost like a little article. On a related note, long-range, high-bandwidth electricity transmission would solve a lot of problems, by making gas stations, power lines, and a lot of other things redundant. it would eliminate the problem electrity transmission to electric vehicles. it would also help transmit power from solar cells in space.

[Markus2008]

What water crises? Semi Industrialized countries don't have a water crises, they just have not completely industrialized. I agree with your thinking, that plentiful drinking water is something that we should innovate for, but I would not call the current situation a "crisis". But then again, I don't know much about the subject. Maybe you could give me a better idea of the problem, or point me to some websites with the info (I am not being sarcastic, I would really like to know).

[rapier1]

There is a distinct water crisis in many areas of the world - including rural undeveloped areas. By water most people mean clean potable drinking water and water for agriculture to support growing populations.
http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/water/

[Penguinisto]

In the US, you have only to travel to the Great Basin states - Utah, Nevada, Arizona, parts of SoCal, New Mexico, Wyoming, and parts of Colorado.

Google any one of thsoe states and the term "water rights"... (hint: when you buy or sell property in the intermountain region of the Rocky Mountains, you don;t necessarily get to buy or sell the right to use any water that is found in or on it. ).

[Manhattan2]

Solar Transfer!

[atici]

A country with pure private government that gives passport to anyone who is willing to pay taxes. It will be an experiment with absolutely no democracy/voting/politicans but on a fixed constitution protecting individual and economic freedoms. If anyone is unhappy, they can leave anytime. That would be the ultimate opportunity for self realization for any hardworking individual in an environment with nil populism/protectionism/bureucratic nonsense...

[rapier1]

How, exactly, do you think this will act as a globally important innovative change that will positively effect the lives of people? I'm just curious because I'm not able to draw the connection between the stated problem and your solution.

[atici]

I thought it is very clear. Individuals innovate not people. If you can produce a conducive environment that would attract international talent and create synergy between such individuals, that would be one of the most important initiatives towards the future of the world. It would be *the* innovation opening up a generation of new innovations.

[rapier1]

I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want to pay for a government that they have no say in. Sure, some people have to deal with that now but its usually not voluntary.

[atici]

From another perspective they would have more of a say. They can come or leave anytime along with their tax pay.

The innovation would be a new kind of politics: a country open to anyone. It may offer further tax incentives for development such as 0 tax for students. Considering many individuals in the world today suffer under horrible regimes, I think that'd be a very welcome change. It would certainly increase the number of innovators.

Let's not forget that there was no democracy in Hong Kong. It was a British colony but it thrived nevertheless.

[jkohut]

I agree that Desalination will be very important as we move forward. My understanding of that Technology is that it requires a pretty significant amount of energy to work. Although energy is also important, I think a key issue (not necessarily a innovation as such) will be to control global population using contraceptives. So many of our issues in the world are related to over population (i.e. stretching our use of resources beyond what the planet can handle) such as starvation, lack of sufficient drinking water, lack of energy, etc...

Having said that, if we could come up with a cheap and clean energy source (ala cold fusion which hasn't been proven yet), then many of the other issues would fall.

[humanssssss]

Efficient market. Have more disclosure of demand and the market will work itself out. When an area is overpopulated, the people will adjust accordingly to reduce the population, like Russia negative population growth. In America, we should permit gay marriage. These are solutions to overpopulation.

Enable people to freely enter water desalinating, purifying, and delivering business to drive price to market price.

Nuclear is cheaper to produce than oil. Creating better nuclear reactor, small and large.

Add the cost of warming the planet into products that caused it. This will require data collection.

More and better information disclosure will help.

[rapier1]

"Enable people to freely enter water desalinating, purifying, and delivering business to drive price to market price."

People already can do that. Ever see those big trucks delivering water to offices and homes? Or are you saying that private companies should be given access to the public water infrastructure?

[rtg2000]

we're missing the single greatest thing that could make this planet a better place to live. the best part is that it doesn't require technology at all (unless it is decided that it be forced upon the people). almost all of the "advancements" addressed here have been related to our inability to sustain the growth of the human population. the simpler solution is population control. reduce the population and the majority of these advancements become a moot point. we all have the power to do this right now but it may become a darwinian process if we as a species are unable to continue to advance in the ways suggested here.

[jonathan260]

Clean coal technology. Coal is so BIG in global electricity production that if all our other alternative energy initiatives succeed wildly but clean coal fails, we will fail in the long run. But if clean coal succeeds while the other initiatives languish, we will succeed. Do the math.

[expatincebu]

End consumerism, end suburban sprawl, enforce planned parenthood, resurrect the extended family and around that community, and finally, end militarism and stop wasting money on the military.

I know, not "innovations", but technology cannot save humanity. Only a total culture change can save the species.

Desalinisation is a good one. I'd offer two that are probably ways off (you said that was okay)--fusion (the hot kind, that we've been pursuing for 40 years) and super-strength materials that could be used in a space elevator (which seems less fantastic with every carbon nanotube story). If you could do the latter, then all the resources of the solar system become available. No forced cultural change required.

[Mister C]

Hey! Anybody notice that 500 pound gorilla?

Maybe a little birth control would solve the problem?

[Seashell-Bob]

These problems are real. Some of the solutions presented here are pure fantasy. Every problem that has come up in my life, there have been those that say let?s solve it by taking something from someone or everyone. It?s wonderful that cooler heads prevail.
Yes there is a world water problem so let?s let 1/3 the population die of thirst. Not a very good idea is it. Better we should figure out a way to get more water. That?s what the writer of this article is suggesting. Great so let?s get on with doing it. It doesn?t matter that there are several Corporations already working on this. Let us urge that more research be put into finding a better less energy intensive way to do it. This is a task so important that it will not be successful until plenty of water can be produced for 1 cent a gallon. Now that?s something to work on and it doesn?t deprive anyone of doing what he desires.

Energy should be next so let us do as much research as required to produce Hydrogen and plenty of it at a price that doesn?t freeze out upcoming industrial countries. How about Vaccines and medicine that everyone can afford. The list goes on and on but we are at the beginning and need to start in earnest the journey to achieve these things. If our brightest and best are given the opportunity these problems can be solved within 50 years. If the effort is not made then these problems will only get worse and still be with us 200 years from now.

[mbossert]

How about cleaning the air? There are existing car systems that clean pollution out of the air - Volvo/ BASF's ozone and nitrous oxide eating catalysts... these could be improved. Total worldwide bans of ozone eating chemicals that are lighter than air - causing the ever increasing enlargement of the hole in the high altitude ozone layer - one of the main causes of global warming.

Ultimately it is a shotgun approach that will win the day, since we've driven so far past the point of easy fixing... clean coal. nuclear, solar, hydro and micro hydro, wind power;

better mass transmission of power vs. small, far more numerous decentralzed power production with short hop transmission;

biodiesel, electric, hydrogen and fuel cell, etc small power plants;

more mass transit, better planning and utilization of available space and resources as well as full suport for locally produced food and products;

true carbon pricing to reflect the full earth-wide cost of product production and transport;

and a huge worldwide, all government committment to making these changes and cooperating with each other. Gonna take some sand to pull this one off, eh?

[Mikebanks]

Too much time and effort are wasted on "fixing" adverse situations and conditions. The fixes are a ways off, and some things cannot be fixed. So we really should be searching for and acting on ways to adapt to some of the problems until they can be overcome. In a way, this is a fix.
--Mike

[Mikebanks]

While people are battling the changes, trying to turn back conditions (some of which cannot be turned back), some of the brighter people ought to turn to learning how to adapt to conditions we can't change Right Now.
--Mike On the Way to the Web

[skywatcher2]

The thing to do is to use natural resources to their best advantage.
!. Use natural feature such as the difference in elevation from ocean level with that of death valley that is the lowest elevation in North America at 85.5 m (282 ft) below sea level. by creating a pipe-line through or over the ridge the separates them you can use the pressure difference to run the water through the desalination processes. Any electricity needed is available using solar energy or the drop differential of the water as a hydroelectric generation dam would.
Minerals extracted can be separated for resale or landfill for later use.

This can also be done with the dead sea or any other location near enough to ocean water and sufficient level difference.

2. Greenland has major runoff of pure water. By tunneling into the area under the ice where water is seeping too you can syphon it off and use the pressure to generate electricity and transport the clean water to either the European Continent or the American.

[Scandahoovian]

I think that once desalinization has become more economically viable, and scientifically streamlined, then every single city along the Eastern and Western seaboards should get their water from desalinization. If this happens, then whatever water is available coming into Lake Meade would there for use by cities like Las Vegas. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Los Angeles didn't get their water from anywhere else but the Pacific Ocean?