Don't you think it's time there's more investment in researching new materials that can enable humanity to build things like the space elevator? I don't think of it as a hype thing (I'm even a bit frightened, what would happen if one of those things fell, prospects like those in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy are not that bright...) but imagine things that could be build with this kind of stuff... Like those trains appended on a single "rope" above Manhattan, or even objects that were never imagined before. Things that will improve traveling, lifestyle, bring better energy efficiency etc. Perhaps it's something worth investigating.

Comments

Brian Dunbar said…
If I may? The SE that KSR wrote about . . . we're a long way from being able to build one of them.

We think an Edwards SE - which is a bit of ribbon not a mucking great tower - will fall to bits as it fails. It sure won't impact the equator leaving a ring of fire and debris across half the planet.

A mess to be sure. But not a catastroph.
10/21/2005 2:34 AM
schrepfler said…
What is the caracteristic of a Edwards SE?
10/25/2005 2:32 PM
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