Dangers of the upcoming "Diamond Age".[was New era in ultra-hard

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:50:37 -0800 (PST), BradGuth
wrote:

Either China or India will be first with the commercial diamond
economy.

Why? China seems to be full of near-term capitalists right now.
Going ahead a generation or two could put the leading edge almost
anywhere.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

Howard Brazee wrote:
On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:50:37 -0800 (PST), BradGuth
wrote:

Either China or India will be first with the commercial diamond
economy.

Why? China seems to be full of near-term capitalists right now.
Going ahead a generation or two could put the leading edge almost
anywhere.

Going ahead a generation or two, resources will be depleted,
and the few remaining people there(and here) will try to adjust
to an ox cart driven economy.

On Feb 9, 2:48*pm, " wrote:
On Feb 9, 3:09*am, Robert Clark wrote:

(Bronze Age cultures destroyed by widespread use of iron)

*If it is the case that very dangerous weapons and the means to
deliver them world-wide might become wide spread, could we have any
defense against them? Is there anyway to prevent their use for
destructive purposes?

* What specific weapons did you have in mind that cheap diamond would
make more widespread?

Some free speculations...

[1] Diamond is much stronger and stiffer than the glass currently used
to make telescope mirrors. This will allow their use for making
mirrors much larger than the size currently possible for a single
mirror. Since, I hypothesize, space travel will become routine during
the "Diamond Age", lofting numerous such mirrors will be technically
feasible. This would permit real-time monitoring of any place on Earth
with submillimeter accuracy with such mirrors aimed back at Earth for
surveillance. Some recent research with "terahertz" frequencies
suggests such imaging would even be able to penetrate walls.
Would we want such intrusive surveillance of every moment of our lives
if it could prevent war and crime?

* Very stiff mirrors are what you DO NOT want for extreme precision
imaging from orbit. You want very flexible mirrors so that they can be
actively distorted to compensate for atmospheric turbulence.

* Now, a diamond framework for the flexible mirrors to be braced
against...

* Also, my Google-Fu failed to find specific numbers on diamond's
transmission or reflection characteristics in the terahertz range.

[2]The idea of everyone being able to look in on everyone else would
be a radical one in human culture. It would mean the complete lack of
privacy at all times. If we were to accept this, could we go one step
further? Could we even allow open access to our thoughts to be shared
at all times? This is a capability that might be close to being
possible:

* Privacy is relative; if you really want to keep a secret, tell NO
ONE.

Well, but that's why the people with actual economic future brains
in the stooge
Oprah-controlled US build nothing but On-line Banking, On-Line
Publishing,
RISC++, Bi-Optical Computers, Post AT&T phonics, and Post GM
Robotics.
Rather than Diamonds, though.












ON SCIENCE
Sharon Begley
Mind Reading Is Now Possible.
From the magazine issue dated Jan 21, 2008
"A computer can tell with 78 percent accuracy when someone is thinking
about a hammer and not pliers."http://www.newsweek.com/id/91688

Technology
The Silent Speaker
David Armstrong 04.10.06
NASA researchers can hear what you're saying, even when you don't make
a sound.
"When we speak aloud, we're forcing air past the larynx and tongue,
sculpting words using the articulator muscles in the mouth and jaw.
But these muscles go into action regardless of whether air is sent
past them. All you have to do is say the words to yourself and you're
sending weak electrical currents from your brain to the speech
muscles. Jorgensen's trick is to record those signals (known as
electromyograms), process them with statistical algorithms and compare
the output with prerecorded signal patterns of spoken words, phrases
and commands. When there's a match, the unspoken turns into speech."http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0410/084.html?partner=yahoomag

* Tell no one, not even YOURSELF!

Then you could imagine an orbital surveillance system able to resolve
changing patterns on the skin within resolution of a few microns would
also be able to read this as well remotely.

* Um, only if it can tell what I'm subvocalizing via my scalp. Tinfoil
hats, anyone?





[3]If the electrical firings of our thoughts or muscles can be read
remotely, is it possible a genetic mutation could allow humans to do
this innately? The electrical pulses produced by our thoughts or
muscles are so small it would seem impossible that this could be done
in nature. But there is the case of the shark that has a fantastically
sensitive ability to detect variations in electric fields:

Electric Gel Gives Sharks Ability to Sense Heat.
January 30, 2003.
"Brown recovered gel samples from a black-tip reef shark and a white
shark captured off the Californian coast, and tested them in a lab. He
applied heat to one end of the sample holder and measured the change
in the electrical field as the temperature shift moved through the
gel.
He calculates that the gel delivers 300 microvolts of electricity for
every 1ºC change in water temperature. Previous experiments with
sharks have suggested that the sensors start firing in response to
just 0.05 microvolts."http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/innews/electicgel2003.htm

This is an idea written about quite frequently in science fiction
where you have an alien culture where they have a sort of group mind.
This is usually something regarded with horror in the stories, but
would it be if it allowed the species to survive?

* Somehow I doubt this would work in air. If it did, some critter
would have tried it by now, I'd think.

[4]Speaking of genetic mutations, could we induce a genetic mutation
so that no one would want to do harm to their fellow man? There has
been much research lately over particular personality traits that may
have a genetic component. Could we insure that everyone perhaps by a
genetically engineered virus had the "altruism" gene? This would raise
the specter as well of a genetically engineered viral weapon. There is
also the question of unintended consequences where something seen in
humanity's best interests has unforeseen negative consequences.

* ObSF: Story by Niven with telepathic, nonviolent Neandertals.

* Notice that they are extinct and we're not.

[5]Instead of imagining such radical changes in human nature and/or
culture, could we just create a shield against any known weapon?

* Obvious workaround, invent NEW weapons. Anyway...

The recent experiments with "levitating frogs" makes clear that any
body or particle can be effected by magnetic fields of sufficient
intensity, not just metals. Then you can imagine force fields on this
basis able to repel a material projectile, metallic or not. You would
need quite a lot of power to do this with large bodies or high speeds.
Possibly the idea of the projectiles own energy being used against it
could come into play. The projectile impinging on the magnetic field
would cause induced eddy currents which could be used to create more
energy that could be used to produce a bigger field to repel the
projectile.

* Exactly how do you propose to project multiTesla fields dozens of
kilometers, oherent "magnetic beams"? That flew in John W. Campbell's
heyday, but not now.





OK for material projectiles, but what about energy weapons? At low
intensities you could have a material shield. But suppose it was at
high intensity or of highly penetrating wavelength or you wanted the
shield over an entire city? One possibility might be to convert the
energy into matter then use the magnetic shield method on the matter
produced:

Out Of Pure Light, Physicists Create Particles Of Matter.
"ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 1997) — A team of 20 physicists from four
institutions has literally made something from nothing, creating
particles of matter from ordinary light for the first time. The
experiment was carried out at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(SLAC) by scientists and students from the University of Rochester,
Princeton University, the University of Tennessee, and Stanford. The
team reported the work in the Sept. 1 issue of Physical Review
Letters."http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/09/970918045841.htm

* Parry a high-energy laser beam with another that converts enough of
it to particles that scatter the rest of the incoming beam harmlessly?

* Mark L. Fergerson- Hide quoted text -

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On Feb 4, 4:45*pm, BradGuth wrote:
Whomever gets their

*~ BG

You mean "~ Dumb****".