Anthony Repetto/Concept Log - Revision history

Anthonyrepetto: /* Railroad */

2011-07-27T18:30:43Z

Railroad

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:30, 27 July 2011
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	Buoyancy is the most efficient way to carry large loads great distances (until we get space elevators, I suppose...). Water craft and blimps fit that niche well. And, for traveling over rough terrain in unexpected or uncommon directions, tire treads or wings work best. But, if you intend to connect two places by a land route, and you have a known, regular path for travel, rails are darn efficient. Unfortunately, rails have a few nasty design constraints: 1) because they float on their rails, ''unattached'', trains cannot manage certain grades and curves in the rail bed, 2) because they float on a ''pair'' of rails, only cars with that axle width can run on a given rail, 3) laying a smooth, level grade and rail bed are labor- and material-intensive, and are only cost-effective for major transport lines, 4) unlike a horse-drawn carriage, rail cars carry their load on the wheel, AND transfer drive through the wheel, requiring an over-engineered axle and drive chain.		Buoyancy is the most efficient way to carry large loads great distances (until we get space elevators, I suppose...). Water craft and blimps fit that niche well. And, for traveling over rough terrain in unexpected or uncommon directions, tire treads or wings work best. But, if you intend to connect two places by a land route, and you have a known, regular path for travel, rails are darn efficient. Unfortunately, rails have a few nasty design constraints: 1) because they float on their rails, ''unattached'', trains cannot manage certain grades and curves in the rail bed, 2) because they float on a ''pair'' of rails, only cars with that axle width can run on a given rail, 3) laying a smooth, level grade and rail bed are labor- and material-intensive, and are only cost-effective for major transport lines, 4) unlike a horse-drawn carriage, rail cars carry their load on the wheel, AND transfer drive through the wheel, requiring an over-engineered axle and drive chain.

	The idea is to link rail cars to ~~their tracks~~, with a zipper-like rubberized gear under the belly of the carriage. This allows the car to travel along steeper grades, tighter turns, and even slosh through snow, mud, and water-logged ground. By transferring drive to the belly of the carriage, the exterior wheels only have to support the weight of the car, and could be big, light hoops, like a bike wheel, with an axle running through the car's center of mass, instead of tiny metal discs underneath all that weight. Attached to the rail, the gears could even absorb brake energy, regenerating power for the next incline. By fitting onto a single, central rail, cars of variable widths could use the same rail line; long trains hauling raw materials, fast refrigeration & time-dependent transport, as well as personal cars, would all share the road. With suspension on the exterior support wheels, cars would ride easy over bumps and potholes, requiring less land development and maintenance to lay rails, and making rails profitable in new locations. Combine these considerations: all-weather, all-terrain, all wheel bed widths, efficient transfer and regeneration of drive, all for minimal input costs. Zipper-line monorails sound like a good fit for underdeveloped regions.		The idea is to link rail cars to a single, central track, with a zipper-like rubberized gear under the belly of the carriage. This allows the car to travel along steeper grades, tighter turns, and even slosh through snow, mud, and water-logged ground. By transferring drive to the belly of the carriage, the exterior wheels only have to support the weight of the car, and could be big, light hoops, like a bike wheel, with an axle running through the car's center of mass, instead of tiny metal discs underneath all that weight. Attached to the rail, the gears could even absorb brake energy, regenerating power for the next incline. By fitting onto a single, central rail, cars of variable widths could use the same rail line; long trains hauling raw materials, fast refrigeration & time-dependent transport, as well as personal cars, would all share the road. With suspension on the exterior support wheels, cars would ride easy over bumps and potholes, requiring less land development and maintenance to lay rails, and making rails profitable in new locations. Combine these considerations: all-weather, all-terrain, all wheel bed widths, efficient transfer and regeneration of drive, all for minimal input costs. Zipper-line monorails sound like a good fit for underdeveloped regions.

	The sections of rail would look like a stockade's support fencing, with long poles at regular intervals, driven into the ground, to support a beam that floats parallel to the ground. The beam would have a 'daisy chain' of loops along its sides, for the rubberized zipper-toothed gear. For advanced versions of the railroad, you could run power and telecom lines through the rails, as well. Re-fueling stations would have replaceable batteries that pop in and out of the chassis, and recharge wherever they land, for the next train passing through. A single metal 'fence' laid across desert, swamp, and mountain, could route power and communications to distant regions, and provide versatile transportation. Diagrams forthcoming!		The sections of rail would look like a stockade's support fencing, with long poles at regular intervals, driven into the ground, to support a beam that floats parallel to the ground. The beam would have a 'daisy chain' of loops along its sides, for the rubberized zipper-toothed gear. For advanced versions of the railroad, you could run power and telecom lines through the rails, as well. Re-fueling stations would have replaceable batteries that pop in and out of the chassis, and recharge wherever they land, for the next train passing through. A single metal 'fence' laid across desert, swamp, and mountain, could route power and communications to distant regions, and provide versatile transportation. Diagrams forthcoming!

Anthonyrepetto: /* Railroad */

2011-07-27T18:29:04Z

Railroad

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:29, 27 July 2011
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	=='''Railroad'''==		=='''Railroad'''==

			Buoyancy is the most efficient way to carry large loads great distances (until we get space elevators, I suppose...). Water craft and blimps fit that niche well. And, for traveling over rough terrain in unexpected or uncommon directions, tire treads or wings work best. But, if you intend to connect two places by a land route, and you have a known, regular path for travel, rails are darn efficient. Unfortunately, rails have a few nasty design constraints: 1) because they float on their rails, ''unattached'', trains cannot manage certain grades and curves in the rail bed, 2) because they float on a ''pair'' of rails, only cars with that axle width can run on a given rail, 3) laying a smooth, level grade and rail bed are labor- and material-intensive, and are only cost-effective for major transport lines, 4) unlike a horse-drawn carriage, rail cars carry their load on the wheel, AND transfer drive through the wheel, requiring an over-engineered axle and drive chain.

			The idea is to link rail cars to their tracks, with a zipper-like rubberized gear under the belly of the carriage. This allows the car to travel along steeper grades, tighter turns, and even slosh through snow, mud, and water-logged ground. By transferring drive to the belly of the carriage, the exterior wheels only have to support the weight of the car, and could be big, light hoops, like a bike wheel, with an axle running through the car's center of mass, instead of tiny metal discs underneath all that weight. Attached to the rail, the gears could even absorb brake energy, regenerating power for the next incline. By fitting onto a single, central rail, cars of variable widths could use the same rail line; long trains hauling raw materials, fast refrigeration & time-dependent transport, as well as personal cars, would all share the road. With suspension on the exterior support wheels, cars would ride easy over bumps and potholes, requiring less land development and maintenance to lay rails, and making rails profitable in new locations. Combine these considerations: all-weather, all-terrain, all wheel bed widths, efficient transfer and regeneration of drive, all for minimal input costs. Zipper-line monorails sound like a good fit for underdeveloped regions.

			The sections of rail would look like a stockade's support fencing, with long poles at regular intervals, driven into the ground, to support a beam that floats parallel to the ground. The beam would have a 'daisy chain' of loops along its sides, for the rubberized zipper-toothed gear. For advanced versions of the railroad, you could run power and telecom lines through the rails, as well. Re-fueling stations would have replaceable batteries that pop in and out of the chassis, and recharge wherever they land, for the next train passing through. A single metal 'fence' laid across desert, swamp, and mountain, could route power and communications to distant regions, and provide versatile transportation. Diagrams forthcoming!

	=='''Mini-Steamer'''==		=='''Mini-Steamer'''==

Anthonyrepetto: /* Taming & Tending */

2011-07-27T17:48:28Z

Taming & Tending

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:48, 27 July 2011
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	=='''Taming & Tending'''==		=='''Taming & Tending'''==

			Nietzsche loved his pet 'uber-mench' hypothesis; in the early stages of Darwinian theory, it seemed that human society was a 'selector of fitness', awarding 'good genes' with wealth and power. The result, according to Nietzsche, would be evolution of a 'better' human, who would naturally replace the existing variety. Adding to his addled conception of ecology was a love of his pet 'superior beings': Nietzsche thought that eagles and lions, by virtue of being 'at the top of the food chain', were somehow superior to the mice and gazelles they relied upon to live. His vision of our future evolution, by this model, was a human 'lion' - a man with "the mind of Caesar, and the soul of Christ." Poor fellow. He had no understanding of fidelity.

			Evolution is not moving 'up', only forward. It is directional in time, so ecologies of the future will keep being different from those in the past. But that doesn't mean 'an improvement' occurred. Ecology just changes. And, while fitness is the tautological expression of survival, (only those who '''DO''' survive were 'fit' to survive) nothing in evolution guarantees that there ''will'' be survivors. Evolution is happy to lead to extinction, and we're just lucky it hasn't done that here, already. Nothing in evolution demands that the whole system improve, so evolution can't be relied upon to make anything 'better'. There's no guarantee of an 'uber-mench' coming into being, and no force pushes the expansion and dominance of such an organism, if it were to appear.

			Nietzsche's lion-men, in particular, are doomed. Lions and eagles occupy a tiny slot in their ecologies (being 'top' of the food chain has nothing to do with dominance or survival). Because they need a huge pyramid of food energy under them, these predators are precarious, falling victim to any small shock in their environment. While mice and gazelles happily munch on the scattered patches of grass, lions and eagles die out because of thinned herds and fields. In general, you can visualize the ecological pyramid as many threads of energy tapering as they knit together at higher tiers. When a disruption occurs, whatever was knit together at the very top comes undone, and the energy coming from the bottom of the pyramid re-aligns under new 'top consumers'. Cyanobacteria don't go extinct, Tyrannosaurus did.

			"But!" a neo-nietzschian might argue, "top consumers are not beholden to the whims of the mice, while the mice are subject to the consumer's choices." Really? An eagle cannot choose to eat grass, so if mice OR eagles make choices that lead to lower energy in the system, eagles suffer first. That means, it's in the interest of the mice to ''create sufficient disruption'', to control eagle populations. And eagles can't do diddly about it! Bats are a great example of this process: by becoming mildly resistant to Rabies, bats have sustained the virus endemically. And, while a bat can travel far, even over water, to spread the virus, ground predators are quickly land-locked by their rabidity; they can't stand water. This creates a macro-response to increased predation: if dogs start eating bats, they become rabid, and infect the rest of the pack. Local predator populations collapse, and that's exactly were the bats become locally abundant. They spread outward, carrying the rabies that protected them. Pretty quickly, there are no more 'top predators' that feast on bats.

			Humans, during the time of the mammoths, were 'top predators' - we ate the biggest herbivores on the ground, and did so with skill and economy. When they died out, we had to change tack, or die with them. As omnivores, we had options that eagles don't. We started eating veggies, like good little mice. :) Nowadays, we're all talking about ways to 'reduce our ecological footprint' - by moving '''lower''' on the food chain! Let's eat insects, microalgae, fruit, honey, milk products, and eggs, not expensive and wasteful meat. A carnivorous man would starve, however big his teeth and claws. We eat from the lower levels of the pyramid, now, and use technology to avoid predation. Like the bats, we're mice with a defense against lions.

			Fundamental to Nietzsche's flawed thinking was a misunderstanding of POWER. What do we mean, when we say that something is "powerful"? There's the version from industrial engineering - power is work per second. But, that's hiding the ecological nature of real power: I don't need to have big muscles, if I can ''leverage a cascade of events'' that are useful to me. I'll give a name to the scale that this leverage operates on: 'reach'. If an organism can leverage systems that are more distant, complex, and larger than another organism, that one has greater 'reach'. Is that equivalent to greater power? Not quite. There's another part missing: continuance, through time. If you can't guarantee that you'll be around forever, your reach isn't worth much to you. It's unlikely you'll live, to see that leveraged cascade snowball your way. In contrast, if you can keep surviving, even a moderate reach can be enough to leverage your survival. So, power requires reach, as well as fidelity. An organism that appears briefly, covers 98% of the Earth, and vanishes in self-induced collapse, is not as powerful as the organism which, while only a fraction of 1%, continues to exist despite the collapse, and repopulates afterwards. You don't have to be abundant to survive; you need resilience and strength.

			Included in this concept of fidelity is the warning: if you become over-abundant, ('dominant') you will ''require'' consumers, to balance your energy and material usage. If you fail to create checks and balances, you will collapse. Collapse isn't a high-fidelity state, so dominance should be avoided, if you want to survive and be powerful.

			I remember, in Frank Herbert's "Dune", his presentation of the idea that "if you can destroy a thing, you control that thing." I don't see this happening in reality. If I catch a fly in a bottle, I can destroy it at any time. But, that doesn't mean I can direct the fly with my own will. It flies were it pleases, and my power to destroy it is only the power to stop it from flying. Gandhi understood this, arguing that 'you can beat me, imprison me, even kill me. Then, you will have my dead body, not my obedience!'

			'Destroy a thing' not equal to 'control a thing'

			Omnivores provide balance

			Migratory social omnivores

			Cooking & Sharing

			Herding Cats: Tuna

			Ecological utility is rewarded with bonds of cooperation

			Species groups as tool kits

			Our choice to tame and tend

	=='''Food Forests'''==		=='''Food Forests'''==

Anthonyrepetto: /* The Soft Wall */

2011-07-27T15:38:43Z

The Soft Wall

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:38, 27 July 2011
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	=='''The Soft Wall'''==		=='''The Soft Wall'''==

	I'm very unpopular in the Kurzweilian futurist camps. Ray Kurzweil, Daniel Dennet, Drexler, and the rest, are all hoping we'll hit a technological 'point of no return', ('The Singularity') where the polynomial connectivity of existing technologies allows ''increasing'' exponents of growth in new technology. We'll swing up into a new mode of life, they say, where the only economy is information, while cheap or free energy and productive capacity allows anyone to make whatever can be made. Unfortunately, their predictions don't add up, and it's ~~very~~ likely we'll come to a soft landing against a very hard technological wall: beyond a certain point, new technologies become unmarketable, even if humans have the insight and capacity to realize them.		I'm very unpopular in the Kurzweilian futurist camps. Ray Kurzweil, Daniel Dennet, Drexler, and the rest, are all hoping we'll hit a technological 'point of no return', ('The Singularity') where the polynomial connectivity of existing technologies allows ''increasing'' exponents of growth in new technology. We'll swing up into a new mode of life, they say, where the only economy is information, while cheap or free energy and productive capacity allows anyone to make whatever can be made. Unfortunately, their predictions don't add up, and it's likely we'll come to a soft landing against a very hard technological wall: beyond a certain point, new technologies become unmarketable, even if humans have the insight and capacity to realize them.

	I'll go over the Kurzweilian stance, first. It's predicated on Moore's Law: "the processor speed of new computer chips doubles, for the same price point, about every 18 months." Kurzweil likes to show how this doubling was happening long before computers, as humans transitioned to more advanced methods of calculation. (Never mind how fast those kids are on an abacus...) Kurzweil goes on to argue that, not only will Moore's Law continue until the fundamental computability of matter is attained; it will spawn a revolution in technology by giving us machine intelligence that surpasses our own insight, fueling technologies of all stripes at the same exponential rate.		I'll go over the Kurzweilian stance, first. It's predicated on Moore's Law: "the processor speed of new computer chips doubles, for the same price point, about every 18 months." Kurzweil likes to show how this doubling was happening long before computers, as humans transitioned to more advanced methods of calculation. (Never mind how fast those kids are on an abacus...) Kurzweil goes on to argue that, not only will Moore's Law continue until the fundamental computability of matter is attained; it will spawn a revolution in technology by giving us machine intelligence that surpasses our own insight, fueling technologies of all stripes at the same exponential rate.

Anthonyrepetto: /* Concept Summaries */

2011-07-27T15:37:40Z

Concept Summaries

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:37, 27 July 2011
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	=Concept Summaries=		=Concept Summaries=

	last updated: 26. July, 2011		last updated: 27. July, 2011

	Here are a few concepts OSE may find useful. I'll continue to update, and link to detailed sub-pages as I draft them. This page is the reference point for work I find interesting; each topic has a summary of its design features, and the issues it addresses. I'd love to develop simple visualizations for these ideas, and others; text is limited.		Here are a few concepts OSE may find useful. I'll continue to update, and link to detailed sub-pages as I draft them. This page is the reference point for work I find interesting; each topic has a summary of its design features, and the issues it addresses. I'd love to develop simple visualizations for these ideas, and others; text is limited.

Anthonyrepetto: /* The Soft Wall */

2011-07-27T15:37:21Z

The Soft Wall

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:37, 27 July 2011
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	We've had the good fortune to stumble on a massively scalable, massively miniaturizable, global good: integrated circuits. More importantly, we've done so during a period of exponential growth in the world's population, GDP, & disposable income, and a drop in transaction costs that drives integration of local economies into a global exchange. All these forces have generated exponential growth in the ''market for'' integrated circuits. And, on top of that, circuit-production as a ''portion'' of the global economy has grown exponentially! If the cost of research, development, and fabrication facilities is split between 10,000 ICs, there's a high 'R&D premium'; as the market expands, those development costs are spread thin, lowering that premium. As long as Intel could expand their share of GDP, they could afford to spread this premium out, and researching the next iteration made sense. If you produce a chip that's twice as fast, at the same price, you capture that entire, growing market.		We've had the good fortune to stumble on a massively scalable, massively miniaturizable, global good: integrated circuits. More importantly, we've done so during a period of exponential growth in the world's population, GDP, & disposable income, and a drop in transaction costs that drives integration of local economies into a global exchange. All these forces have generated exponential growth in the ''market for'' integrated circuits. And, on top of that, circuit-production as a ''portion'' of the global economy has grown exponentially! If the cost of research, development, and fabrication facilities is split between 10,000 ICs, there's a high 'R&D premium'; as the market expands, those development costs are spread thin, lowering that premium. As long as Intel could expand their share of GDP, they could afford to spread this premium out, and researching the next iteration made sense. If you produce a chip that's twice as fast, at the same price, you capture that entire, growing market.

	But, population growth is slowing, and ~~so is~~ market ~~integration~~ (it can only go so far, before tapering off ~~near~~ 100% - it's an 'S-curve'). On top of that, the economic engines in developing countries were fueled by roads, power lines, and factories, not cell phones or lap tops. Once China has all the bridges and schools it needs, its stellar growth with slow, and so will the growth of all the economies that depend upon that expansion. (er, that's us.) As these emerging markets mature, and become ''consumer'' markets, there is greater competition for scarce resources. (China is busy making contracts with dictators and repressed states the world over, for their supplies of raw materials.) Driving up raw materials' prices, they effectively 'tax the market' of all the countries that saw less growth in consumer demand. Though our consumer demand does grow, it doesn't increase anywhere near China's pace, so resources will re-align away from us, and the raw material costs will 'inflate' until we're at equilibrium with China. This is a huge equalization of disposable income, and as disposable income spreads thinner over a larger population, fewer folks can afford advanced technologies. We've already seen a saturation in the PC market of the industrialized world (which I predicted in the midst of the dot-com boom, and saw come to pass when IBM sold off its PC division to Lenovo, a Chinese company). How long will Intel be able to fund new chip development, in a ''static'' market for integrate circuits? How long until that chip research is unmarketable? Not long.		But, population growth is slowing, as are market integration and the chip industry's percent of the global market (it can only go so far, before tapering off below 100% - it's an 'S-curve'). On top of that, the economic engines in developing countries were fueled by roads, power lines, and factories, not cell phones or lap tops. Once China has all the bridges and schools it needs, its stellar growth with slow, and so will the growth of all the economies that depend upon that expansion. (er, that's us.) As these emerging markets mature, and become ''consumer'' markets, there is greater competition for scarce resources. (China is busy making contracts with dictators and repressed states the world over, for their supplies of raw materials.) Driving up raw materials' prices, they effectively 'tax the market' of all the countries that saw less growth in consumer demand. Though our consumer demand does grow, it doesn't increase anywhere near China's pace, so resources will re-align away from us, and the raw material costs will 'inflate' until we're at equilibrium with China. This is a huge equalization of disposable income, and as disposable income spreads thinner over a larger population, fewer folks can afford advanced technologies. We've already seen a saturation in the PC market of the industrialized world (which I predicted in the midst of the dot-com boom, and saw come to pass when IBM sold off its PC division to Lenovo, a Chinese company). How long will Intel be able to fund new chip development, in a ''static'' market for integrate circuits? How long until that chip research is unmarketable? Not long.


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	How technology gets better		How technology gets better

	Moore's Law Died		Moore's Law Died in 2003

	Processor speed doesn't equal productivity		Processor speed doesn't equal productivity

Anthonyrepetto: /* The Soft Wall */

2011-07-27T15:23:45Z

The Soft Wall

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:23, 27 July 2011
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	=='''The Soft Wall'''==		=='''The Soft Wall'''==

			I'm very unpopular in the Kurzweilian futurist camps. Ray Kurzweil, Daniel Dennet, Drexler, and the rest, are all hoping we'll hit a technological 'point of no return', ('The Singularity') where the polynomial connectivity of existing technologies allows ''increasing'' exponents of growth in new technology. We'll swing up into a new mode of life, they say, where the only economy is information, while cheap or free energy and productive capacity allows anyone to make whatever can be made. Unfortunately, their predictions don't add up, and it's very likely we'll come to a soft landing against a very hard technological wall: beyond a certain point, new technologies become unmarketable, even if humans have the insight and capacity to realize them.

			I'll go over the Kurzweilian stance, first. It's predicated on Moore's Law: "the processor speed of new computer chips doubles, for the same price point, about every 18 months." Kurzweil likes to show how this doubling was happening long before computers, as humans transitioned to more advanced methods of calculation. (Never mind how fast those kids are on an abacus...) Kurzweil goes on to argue that, not only will Moore's Law continue until the fundamental computability of matter is attained; it will spawn a revolution in technology by giving us machine intelligence that surpasses our own insight, fueling technologies of all stripes at the same exponential rate.

			==='''Moore's Law'''===

			We've had the good fortune to stumble on a massively scalable, massively miniaturizable, global good: integrated circuits. More importantly, we've done so during a period of exponential growth in the world's population, GDP, & disposable income, and a drop in transaction costs that drives integration of local economies into a global exchange. All these forces have generated exponential growth in the ''market for'' integrated circuits. And, on top of that, circuit-production as a ''portion'' of the global economy has grown exponentially! If the cost of research, development, and fabrication facilities is split between 10,000 ICs, there's a high 'R&D premium'; as the market expands, those development costs are spread thin, lowering that premium. As long as Intel could expand their share of GDP, they could afford to spread this premium out, and researching the next iteration made sense. If you produce a chip that's twice as fast, at the same price, you capture that entire, growing market.

			But, population growth is slowing, and so is market integration (it can only go so far, before tapering off near 100% - it's an 'S-curve'). On top of that, the economic engines in developing countries were fueled by roads, power lines, and factories, not cell phones or lap tops. Once China has all the bridges and schools it needs, its stellar growth with slow, and so will the growth of all the economies that depend upon that expansion. (er, that's us.) As these emerging markets mature, and become ''consumer'' markets, there is greater competition for scarce resources. (China is busy making contracts with dictators and repressed states the world over, for their supplies of raw materials.) Driving up raw materials' prices, they effectively 'tax the market' of all the countries that saw less growth in consumer demand. Though our consumer demand does grow, it doesn't increase anywhere near China's pace, so resources will re-align away from us, and the raw material costs will 'inflate' until we're at equilibrium with China. This is a huge equalization of disposable income, and as disposable income spreads thinner over a larger population, fewer folks can afford advanced technologies. We've already seen a saturation in the PC market of the industrialized world (which I predicted in the midst of the dot-com boom, and saw come to pass when IBM sold off its PC division to Lenovo, a Chinese company). How long will Intel be able to fund new chip development, in a ''static'' market for integrate circuits? How long until that chip research is unmarketable? Not long.



			How technology gets better

			Moore's Law Died

			Processor speed doesn't equal productivity

			Productivity isn't innovation

			Innovations are marginal, with diminishing returns

			Complexity and diversity are limited by the size and energy density of the system

			Insight is powerful, but is constrained by gestalts. (story of what happened hinders our new stories)

			Machine intelligence will be insane, or constrained; you pick.

			Life has fidelity; machines don't, even if they 'self-replicate'.

			Life has interlocking functions which, separately, can be out-done by machines. But no machine has ''ever come close'' to doing all that life does, regardless of efficiency. Flowers are better than factories.

			Life is already endemic to the universe, colonizing every little moon as soon as it's viable; we ARE Drexler's 'gray goo'. (See Panspermia.)

	=='''Emergence & Occam's Razor'''==		=='''Emergence & Occam's Razor'''==

Anthonyrepetto: /* Dingbats & Lantern Squid */

2011-07-27T14:23:57Z

Dingbats & Lantern Squid

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:23, 27 July 2011
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	Animal metabolism, when it evolved, was usually underwater and encased in a hard shell. With micro-algae floating throughout the ocean, it didn't make much sense to 'go soft', just to get a sun tan. But, plants and animals have spread to new niches, and there's a logistical constraint in oceanic ''and'' terrestrial environments that plants suffer, which animal photosynthesis may relieve. A plant needs water, nutrients, sunlight, and a good climate. There's also risk of predation, competition, disease, and catastrophe. Plants do a good job of filling up a place, when their needs are met, but most of the surface of the earth doesn't meet those needs. As I see it, their main limitation is that they can't move. If conditions change, or resources are dispersed, a plant can't take advantage of them. The deserts and mountains are virtually nude, and oceanic life is concentrated at river estuaries, up-wellings, and shallow bays. Only a small percent of earth's surface photosynthesizes, and animals have the power to overcome plants' constraints, to spread into previously under-utilized regions. What would this look like? Bats and squid.		Animal metabolism, when it evolved, was usually underwater and encased in a hard shell. With micro-algae floating throughout the ocean, it didn't make much sense to 'go soft', just to get a sun tan. But, plants and animals have spread to new niches, and there's a logistical constraint in oceanic ''and'' terrestrial environments that plants suffer, which animal photosynthesis may relieve. A plant needs water, nutrients, sunlight, and a good climate. There's also risk of predation, competition, disease, and catastrophe. Plants do a good job of filling up a place, when their needs are met, but most of the surface of the earth doesn't meet those needs. As I see it, their main limitation is that they can't move. If conditions change, or resources are dispersed, a plant can't take advantage of them. The deserts and mountains are virtually nude, and oceanic life is concentrated at river estuaries, up-wellings, and shallow bays. Only a small percent of earth's surface photosynthesizes, and animals have the power to overcome plants' constraints, to spread into previously under-utilized regions. What would this look like? Bats and squid.

	I should note, before diving into each of them, a few important points about animal photosynthesis: 1) animals are unlikely to have sufficient surface area to meet ALL their energy needs - instead, photosynthesis reduces their individual food needs, allowing members to survive in more marginal climates, and it generates a much larger biomass of those animals, from a given level of food energy, 2) the spread of photosynthesis will mean the collapse of the marginal ecologies - deserts, mountains, and deep seas would be replaced by orchards, berry hedges, and tuna, 3) as animal biomass and 'waste' ~~increases~~ in those locations, they will develop the conditions for additional plant life, feeding the energetic needs of a rich, deep ecology.		I should note, before diving into each of them, a few important points about animal photosynthesis: 1) animals are unlikely to have sufficient surface area to meet ALL their energy needs - instead, photosynthesis reduces their individual food needs, allowing members to survive in more marginal climates, and it generates a much larger biomass of those animals, from a given level of food energy, 2) the spread of photosynthesis will mean the collapse of the marginal ecologies - deserts, mountains, and deep seas would be replaced by orchards, berry hedges, and tuna, 3) as animal biomass and 'waste' increase in those locations, they will develop the conditions for additional plant life, feeding the energetic needs of a rich, deep ecology.

	==='''Dingbat'''===		==='''Dingbat'''===

Anthonyrepetto: /* Lantern Squid */

2011-07-27T14:16:10Z

Lantern Squid

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:16, 27 July 2011
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	The limiting factor to photosynthesis in the deep ocean is nitrogen. There's plenty of nitrogen in the air, so it's not immediately clear why there's so little of it available to micro-algae; it turns out, the enzyme they use to fix nitrogen requires iron, which tends to sink in water. :) Scientists interested in carbon sinks have tried boosting oceanic algae production by 'fertilizing' the sea with iron and sulfur. Wherever they do, algae productivity jumps over ''eight-fold''. (awesome!) Unfortunately, these deep waters don't have the right balance of species present, to handle that rapid burst of productivity; the only consumer species that can quickly reproduce, to fill the gap, are microscopic zooplankton. These little critters tend to overshoot their algal food supply, and their oxygen requirements create a 'dead zone' in the water. When the zooplankton die off, the water is even emptier than it was before. If a portion of photosynthesis went into larger organisms, these zooplankton wouldn't be able to overshoot their photosynthesizer base, and dead zones wouldn't occur. No die-off, so the nutrients continue to recycle in the surface waters. Modifying a small squid species, to produce chloroplasts, would be ideal. Young squid would fill the same feeder niche as zooplankton, but adults would gather more of their energy from the sun itself. Adults would generate much of their own oxygen, during the day, and could migrate effectively between regions. Ramping up surface nutrients, the squid would grow abundant, and dampen both microalgae and zooplankton abundance. They would also be a food source for fish. Considering that about 70% of the earth's surface is unproductive deep water, and that oceanic photosynthesis already produces half of the plant activity on the planet, if our seas were covered in lazy green squid, the total energy capture of life on Earth should ''quadruple''. That would mean more food for us, for recovery species, and eventually, for new niche species.		The limiting factor to photosynthesis in the deep ocean is nitrogen. There's plenty of nitrogen in the air, so it's not immediately clear why there's so little of it available to micro-algae; it turns out, the enzyme they use to fix nitrogen requires iron, which tends to sink in water. :) Scientists interested in carbon sinks have tried boosting oceanic algae production by 'fertilizing' the sea with iron and sulfur. Wherever they do, algae productivity jumps over ''eight-fold''. (awesome!) Unfortunately, these deep waters don't have the right balance of species present, to handle that rapid burst of productivity; the only consumer species that can quickly reproduce, to fill the gap, are microscopic zooplankton. These little critters tend to overshoot their algal food supply, and their oxygen requirements create a 'dead zone' in the water. When the zooplankton die off, the water is even emptier than it was before. If a portion of photosynthesis went into larger organisms, these zooplankton wouldn't be able to overshoot their photosynthesizer base, and dead zones wouldn't occur. No die-off, so the nutrients continue to recycle in the surface waters. Modifying a small squid species, to produce chloroplasts, would be ideal. Young squid would fill the same feeder niche as zooplankton, but adults would gather more of their energy from the sun itself. Adults would generate much of their own oxygen, during the day, and could migrate effectively between regions. Ramping up surface nutrients, the squid would grow abundant, and dampen both microalgae and zooplankton abundance. They would also be a food source for fish. Considering that about 70% of the earth's surface is unproductive deep water, and that oceanic photosynthesis already produces half of the plant activity on the planet, if our seas were covered in lazy green squid, the total energy capture of life on Earth should ''quadruple''. That would mean more food for us, for recovery species, and eventually, for new niche species.

	To support oceanic nutrition, we could build dredging barges that sweep along the ocean floor like motorized pool cleaners, filling buoyed tarps with silts from the bottom. The buoys suspend the tarp a few meters below the surface waters, and wave action sifts a fine dust into the surrounding waters. Seed these locations with photosynthetic squid, and you have a new Sargasso. The nutrient requirements to get life started, in those deep waters, are minimal. But, the biomass that can accumulate in productive seas is enormous. We would see a draw-down of huge amounts of carbon, from the atmosphere; with squid sucking up CO2, we might have to issue 'carbon credits' as profit to producers of carbon gas! Otherwise, carbon levels in the atmosphere could drop too low, leading to run-away cooling. Once we have squid across the Pacific, we'll want to burn all the coal we can. :)		To support oceanic nutrition, we could build dredging barges that sweep along the ocean floor like motorized pool cleaners, filling buoyed tarps with silts from the bottom. The buoys suspend the tarp a few meters below the surface waters, and wave action sifts a fine dust into the surrounding waters. Seed these locations with photosynthetic squid, and you have a new Sargasso. The nutrient requirements to get life started, in those deep waters, are minimal. But, the biomass that can accumulate in productive seas is enormous. We would see a draw-down of huge amounts of carbon, from the atmosphere; with squid sucking up CO2, we might have to issue 'carbon credits' as ''profit'' to producers of carbon gas! Otherwise, carbon levels in the atmosphere could drop too low, leading to run-away cooling. Once we have squid across the Pacific, we'll want to burn all the coal we can. :)

	=Tangents & Miscellany=		=Tangents & Miscellany=

Anthonyrepetto: /* Lantern Squid */

2011-07-27T14:15:28Z

Lantern Squid

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:15, 27 July 2011
Line 248:		Line 248:
	The limiting factor to photosynthesis in the deep ocean is nitrogen. There's plenty of nitrogen in the air, so it's not immediately clear why there's so little of it available to micro-algae; it turns out, the enzyme they use to fix nitrogen requires iron, which tends to sink in water. :) Scientists interested in carbon sinks have tried boosting oceanic algae production by 'fertilizing' the sea with iron and sulfur. Wherever they do, algae productivity jumps over ''eight-fold''. (awesome!) Unfortunately, these deep waters don't have the right balance of species present, to handle that rapid burst of productivity; the only consumer species that can quickly reproduce, to fill the gap, are microscopic zooplankton. These little critters tend to overshoot their algal food supply, and their oxygen requirements create a 'dead zone' in the water. When the zooplankton die off, the water is even emptier than it was before. If a portion of photosynthesis went into larger organisms, these zooplankton wouldn't be able to overshoot their photosynthesizer base, and dead zones wouldn't occur. No die-off, so the nutrients continue to recycle in the surface waters. Modifying a small squid species, to produce chloroplasts, would be ideal. Young squid would fill the same feeder niche as zooplankton, but adults would gather more of their energy from the sun itself. Adults would generate much of their own oxygen, during the day, and could migrate effectively between regions. Ramping up surface nutrients, the squid would grow abundant, and dampen both microalgae and zooplankton abundance. They would also be a food source for fish. Considering that about 70% of the earth's surface is unproductive deep water, and that oceanic photosynthesis already produces half of the plant activity on the planet, if our seas were covered in lazy green squid, the total energy capture of life on Earth should ''quadruple''. That would mean more food for us, for recovery species, and eventually, for new niche species.		The limiting factor to photosynthesis in the deep ocean is nitrogen. There's plenty of nitrogen in the air, so it's not immediately clear why there's so little of it available to micro-algae; it turns out, the enzyme they use to fix nitrogen requires iron, which tends to sink in water. :) Scientists interested in carbon sinks have tried boosting oceanic algae production by 'fertilizing' the sea with iron and sulfur. Wherever they do, algae productivity jumps over ''eight-fold''. (awesome!) Unfortunately, these deep waters don't have the right balance of species present, to handle that rapid burst of productivity; the only consumer species that can quickly reproduce, to fill the gap, are microscopic zooplankton. These little critters tend to overshoot their algal food supply, and their oxygen requirements create a 'dead zone' in the water. When the zooplankton die off, the water is even emptier than it was before. If a portion of photosynthesis went into larger organisms, these zooplankton wouldn't be able to overshoot their photosynthesizer base, and dead zones wouldn't occur. No die-off, so the nutrients continue to recycle in the surface waters. Modifying a small squid species, to produce chloroplasts, would be ideal. Young squid would fill the same feeder niche as zooplankton, but adults would gather more of their energy from the sun itself. Adults would generate much of their own oxygen, during the day, and could migrate effectively between regions. Ramping up surface nutrients, the squid would grow abundant, and dampen both microalgae and zooplankton abundance. They would also be a food source for fish. Considering that about 70% of the earth's surface is unproductive deep water, and that oceanic photosynthesis already produces half of the plant activity on the planet, if our seas were covered in lazy green squid, the total energy capture of life on Earth should ''quadruple''. That would mean more food for us, for recovery species, and eventually, for new niche species.

	To support oceanic nutrition, we could build dredging barges that sweep along the ocean floor like a motorized pool ~~cleaner~~, filling buoyed tarps with silts from the bottom. The buoys suspend the tarp a few meters below the surface waters, and wave action sifts a fine dust into the surrounding waters. Seed these locations with photosynthetic squid, and you have a new Sargasso. The nutrient requirements to get life started, in those deep waters, are minimal. But, the biomass that can accumulate in productive seas is enormous. We would see a draw-down of huge amounts of carbon, from the atmosphere; with squid sucking up CO2, we might have to issue 'carbon credits' as profit to producers of carbon gas! Otherwise, carbon levels in the atmosphere could drop too low, leading to run-away cooling. Once we have squid across the Pacific, we'll want to burn all the coal we can. :)		To support oceanic nutrition, we could build dredging barges that sweep along the ocean floor like motorized pool cleaners, filling buoyed tarps with silts from the bottom. The buoys suspend the tarp a few meters below the surface waters, and wave action sifts a fine dust into the surrounding waters. Seed these locations with photosynthetic squid, and you have a new Sargasso. The nutrient requirements to get life started, in those deep waters, are minimal. But, the biomass that can accumulate in productive seas is enormous. We would see a draw-down of huge amounts of carbon, from the atmosphere; with squid sucking up CO2, we might have to issue 'carbon credits' as profit to producers of carbon gas! Otherwise, carbon levels in the atmosphere could drop too low, leading to run-away cooling. Once we have squid across the Pacific, we'll want to burn all the coal we can. :)

	=Tangents & Miscellany=		=Tangents & Miscellany=