Difference between revisions of "Material/Intro"

Revision as of 01:09, 26 June 2007 (view source) CharlesC (Talk | contribs) ← Older edit		Revision as of 01:02, 29 June 2007 (view source) CharlesC (Talk | contribs) Newer edit →
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−	[[Image:Air sea and land.jpg|right|120px|Atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (a.k.a. air, sea and land)]] Air, water and the twenty most abundant elements in the earth's crust give us practically all of the raw material needed to create the machines and goods that mankind requires, such as:	+	[[Image:Air sea and land.jpg|right|120px|Atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (a.k.a. air, sea and land)]] Air, water and the twenty most abundant elements in the earth's crust provide almost all the material needed to create the multitude of machines and goods that mankind requires: buildings, vehicles, robots, industrial machinery, computers, consumer goods and so on.
−	*Buildings and construction materials	+	Extracting these plentiful elements and creating useful compound materials just involves [[Fundamental resources/Energy|energy]], which is massively abundant, and the right processing. From a technical point of view there is practically no limit to the volume of material we could extract and make use of if we wished. The point is that these reserves of raw material are not going to run out any material scarcity has little to do with reserves at our disposal.
−	*Cars, trains, ships and aircraft	+
−	*Industrial machinery	+
−	*Robots	+
−	*Computers and electronic products	+
−	*Food	+
−	Extracting these plentiful elements and creating useful compound materials just involves [[Fundamental resources/Energy|energy]], which is massively abundant, and the right processing. From a technical point of view there is practically no limit to the volume of material we could extract, if we so wished. This is a simplistic picture of course, and does not take into account the damage wrought to the environment in the process. The point is that these reserves of material are not going to run out, and there is no reason for people to go without unnecessarily.	+	No sensible person would advocate being wasteful just because material and energy are plentiful, and of course the biosphere must be considered; however one aspect of technological progress is the increasing efficiency of design and manufacturing {{en}} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization doing more with less].
−	However no-one, or at least no sensible person, would advocate wasteful processes just because material and energy are plentiful, and the biosphere must be considered; but one aspect of technological progress is the increasing efficiency of design and manufacturing {{en}} i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization doing more with less].	+	Resources such as fossil fuel may well be limited but there are more plentiful and greener energy sources available. The current heavy use of fossil fuel is due to convenience and the fact that current economics make the alternatives appear less viable in comparison. However 'economics' distorts the view of what is possible, it simply dictates what is easier when working within the current framework.

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Revision as of 01:02, 29 June 2007

Air, water and the twenty most abundant elements in the earth's crust provide almost all the material needed to create the multitude of machines and goods that mankind requires: buildings, vehicles, robots, industrial machinery, computers, consumer goods and so on.

Extracting these plentiful elements and creating useful compound materials just involves energy, which is massively abundant, and the right processing. From a technical point of view there is practically no limit to the volume of material we could extract and make use of if we wished. The point is that these reserves of raw material are not going to run out any material scarcity has little to do with reserves at our disposal.

No sensible person would advocate being wasteful just because material and energy are plentiful, and of course the biosphere must be considered; however one aspect of technological progress is the increasing efficiency of design and manufacturing – doing more with less.

Resources such as fossil fuel may well be limited but there are more plentiful and greener energy sources available. The current heavy use of fossil fuel is due to convenience and the fact that current economics make the alternatives appear less viable in comparison. However 'economics' distorts the view of what is possible, it simply dictates what is easier when working within the current framework.