Sarah Fecht

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“Robots Will Be The Farmers Of The Future”

October 7, 2015 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

As we move into the future, a lot more food production traditionally done out of doors will be moving inside, in labs and “vegetable factories,” away from the fickle and increasingly frightening climate. There’s no reason most of the work can’t be automated.

The Japanese firm Spread is currently developing just such an indoor farm that will be fully computerized and robotized. From Sarah Fecht at Popular Science: 

Robots will be the farmers of the future. A company in Japan is building an indoor lettuce farm that will be completely tended by robots and computers. The company, named Spread, expects the factory to open in 2017, and the fully automated farming process could make the lettuce cheaper and better for the environment.

Spread already tends several large indoor farms, which have a multitude of environmental benefits. The plants can be grown hydroponically without exhausting soil resources. Up to 98 percent of Spread’s water will be recycled, and the factory won’t have to spray pesticides, since the pests are outdoors. Artificial lighting means the food supply won’t rely on weather variables, and the lighting can be supplied through renewable energy.

Currently Spread grows about 7.7 million heads of lettuce a year, and sells them at about the same price as regular lettuce. It sounds like the company is hoping to increase its production and lower its prices by making their growing process even more automated.•

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“Eventually There Will Be Artificial Wombs”

June 10, 2015 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Transhumanist Party Presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan wants to radically extend life with the aid of organ printing, brain implants, etc. But won’t that lead to a dangerously crowded planet? That was one question asked of the fledgling politician in a smart Q&A conducted by Sarah Fecht of Popular Science. The exchange:

Popular Science:

How can the planet support an immortal population?

Zoltan Istvan:

There’s a very strong chance that within 10 years, most of us will be using IVF techniques and designing our babies. We’ll still probably be using the uterus for another 10 years, but giving birth is something that’s medically dangerous. Eventually there will be artificial wombs. There won’t be such a natural family as we see it now. In 25 or 30 years, making a family will be very much something where you sit in front of a computer, and you decide how you want to do this, and then probably they’ll have something–an aquarium or something in your living room or at the hospital, similar to the Matrix. Again that might be 35 years out, and it’s all dependent upon whether this kind of technology is ethically passed. But I do believe the future of having children will change dramatically, and that will also impact the population levels. You’ll find that people won’t necessarily want to have children if they can spend 100 years in great health.•

 

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“Any Such Starship Would Have To Carry A Minimum Of 10,000 People To Secure The Success Of The Endeavor”

April 6, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Maybe we could colonize Mars with a relatively small community of pioneers. Not so another solar system. In that case, the mass would be critical. From Sarah Fecht at Popular Mechanics:

“Back in 2002, John Moore, an anthropologist at the University of Florida, calculated that a starship could leave Earth with 150 passengers on a 2000-year pilgrimage to another solar system, and upon arrival, the descendants of the original crew could colonize a new world there—as long as everyone was careful not to inbreed along the way.

It was a valiant attempt to solve a thorny question about the future of humans in space. The nearest star systems—such as our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light-years from home—are so far that reaching them would require a generational starship. Entire generations of people would be born, live, and die before the ship reached its destination. This brings up the question of how many people you need to send on a hypothetical interstellar mission to sustain sufficient genetic diversity. And a new study sets the bar much higher than Moore’s 150 people.

According to Portland State University anthropologist Cameron Smith, any such starship would have to carry a minimum of 10,000 people to secure the success of the endeavor. And a starting population of 40,000 would be even better, in case a large percentage of the population died during during the journey.” (Thanks Browser.)

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