Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: ems%nanotech@princeton.edu Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: First Steps to Self Sufficiency Message-ID: Date: 5 Dec 90 03:10:17 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 122 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu As requested, one possible pathway. Steps to Self-sufficiency via Nanotechnology These few nanotechnology changes outlined here are really trivial first steps. No flashy AI or intelligence enhancement applied. But even so the effects rapidly become gigantic. ENERGY I think that the first step toward individual self-sufficiency would have to be your energy supply. Your first nanokit should contain devices that convert your lawn, roof shingles, and siding into efficient photoconverter cells, and also build a storage unit of some kind in your basement. (The battery could be chemical, but it might be simpler and more efficient if it contained millions of tiny flywheels). If your lawn is big enough, sell power back to the public utilities for cash. But not for long. Unless nanokit one is made illegal, there won't *be* any public power utilities after a while. FOOD Having solved the energy problem, you'll next want to stop flushing valuable organics into the sewers, and instead purify and refine them into next week's meals using your nanorefinery kit. This should happen far out of sight for the squeamish, in one of your sub-basements. (Nanotech homeowners will probably excavate one or more sub-basement volumes, "mining" for raw construction materials.) Whomever is cooking will program next week's menu into the master computer, and the food refinery will take it from there. In passing, you've helped solve 95% of the pollution problem. This nanokit eliminates the agribusiness and the waste disposal industries. (If you don't have any debts, at this point you can quit your job.) CLOTHING Clothing is easy, if you want it. (Remember, you no longer need to leave your house :-) You'll own one nanosuit, which will keep itself (and you) scrupulously clean, and alter it's colors, textures, and style on command. Clothing styles may become outlandish over time. It'll be nice to find yourself already in pajamas as you approach the bed at night, without having changed. You'll reclaim all your closet space and use it for equipment storage. Wasn't there once a clothing industry? SHELTER A much larger version of the clothing nanokit will handle your home. As above it will keep itself clean and change colors, textures, and style on command, although probably not as frequently as with clothing. Imagine the fights to come with your kids. ("Aw Dad, it's been a Scottish castle an entire month now, can't we change it please?") "Housing starts" drop to nearly zero, of course. TRANSPORTATION Nanokit number three could convert your automobile to run on hydrogen and add a water cracking plant to your basement industry. Or perhaps some portion of the mega-flywheel batteries from nanokit one above would also serve here. In either case, no more auto pollution, and no more gasoline bills either. Cars will also "heal" their dents, and periodically regrow tire tread. Goodbye automakers, at least as we presently know them. COMMUNICATION This is a stickler. While not strictly necessary for self-sufficiency, it is an ability we baseline humans won't want to give up. Yet it requires cooperation. Communication protocols and hardware interface standards will have to be agreed upon. Perhaps we'll give everyone a personal ethernet address. Each homeowner could grow their "LAN" and interface with their nearest neighbors at property boundaries. Misanthropes would have unlisted addresses. Whither the phone company? HEALTH/MEDICAL Also a tough one. It's likely going to be a rare and exceptional individual who has the combined encyclopaedic medical knowledge and superior programming skills to be completely self-sufficient in this area, as long as we remain baseline humans. It would be a shame to blow immortality just because of a program bug. Most of us are going to have to hire the services of a clinic for this. The die-hard (pun accidental, really) individualists could limit this to one visit by having the clinic drastically simplify their physiology. At least doctors and programmers will still be employed. INCOME The advent of nanotechnology is bound to do drastic things to the economy. So many industries will collapse that it will look like a deep depression by all standard measures, even while the average person's standard of living is actually shooting up out of sight. Infrastructure (roads, law enforcement, etc) will still need to be supported. The average person will still need to purchase services, rare trace elements, and information from other sources, and will most likely no longer have a conventional salary (after the cascading effects of the collapse of major industries) with which to pay for them. If you are smart you'll pay off all your major debts before the nanotech crunch comes, or prepare to be foreclosed. Unless you're one of the lucky few with sufficient wealth in land, rare elements, and/or information, you'll find yourself having to barter personal service in exchange for these things. It looks like we'll nearly all be self-employed "professional" persons. Also, various forms of accreditation/certification will assume a much larger importance. People will naturally prefer the services of a *trained* nanotech medical wizard, for instance, rather than the average self-taught variety. I'd like to think that enlightened employers will provide the first five "nanokits" above, along with basic training, and that employees will graciously accept this, before the company doors get shut for good, but I bet it won't happen that easily, if we just leave it up to human nature. Just look at how many people stubbornly resist new technologies now. Naturally there are short-cuts to all of this. If you're radical enough to use the earliest nanotech to transform yourself into a completely inorganic form, and go into space for your raw materials, you'll reduce your basic human needs drastically. Ed Strong Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com