Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere
"This automated fishing boat/processing plant is so efficient, that the men have forgotten what a fish looks like.
It's rumoured that the Bosun didn't know they were a fishing vessel and was under the impression that they were the Ramsgate ferry."
Despite its quaint reputation, agriculture has always been an early adapter of technology. This is evident from the beginning of mechanization with the cotton gin, McCormick's Reaper, tractors, hybrid seed, to genetically engineered plants that protect themselves and grow in arid environments. Yields have grown quickly, but demand from developing countries and population growth are growing faster Prospero is the working prototype of an Autonomous Micro Planter (AMP) that uses a combination of swarm and game theory and is the first of four steps. It is meant to be deployed as a group or "swarm". The other three steps involve autonomous robots that tend the crops, harvest them, and finally one robot that can plant, tend, and harvest--autonomously transitioning from one phase to another.
Advanced spacecraft designers, who saw hydroponics as a way of recycling air on long spaceflights while providing the crew with the odd tomato or bit of salad greens to brighten up their day. Not a bad idea, if it weren't for the fact that a) the equipment and fertilisers needed have so far outweighed any payload benefits and b) finding the sand and caterpillars in deep space to go with the spinach has proven an insurmountable obstacle."
"This was before the advent of aeroponics !"
via davidszondy.com
"While the country bumpkin farmer stereotype might suggest otherwise, driving a tractor is difficult, requiring precision skills. Now Flemish engineers have announced a new self-driving tractor whose precision rivals that of a human driver. This could mean drastically lower operating costs for farmers, and a step towards automated agriculture.
The tractor, built by Flanders’ Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) and the Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS) division of K.U. Leuven’s Biosystems Department can automatically adjust its speed and turning radius during its preprogrammed route over a field."
Space Elevator ©2003 Kenn Brown
"Climbers ascend a ribbon, 100,000 km long, strung between an anchor on Earth and a counterweight in space. Connecting Earth and space in a way never before possible, the space elevator will enable us to inexpensively and completely expand our society into space.
Beyond Earth, space elevators on the moon and Mars open new economic opportunities and expand humanity's reach ever so slightly into the solar system." The Space Elevator Reference
