Zeitgeist: Moving Forward Page #15

Fortunately, there is a glaring alternative -

the soilless mediums of hydroponics and aeroponics

which also reduce nutrient and water

requirements by up to 75% of our current usage.

Food can now be organically grown on an industrial scale

in enclosed vertical farms.

Such as in 50 story 1 acre plots -

virtually eliminating the need for

pesticides and hydrocarbons in general.

This is the future of industrial food cultivation.

Efficient, clean and abundant.

So, such advanced systems would be, in part

what comprise our agricultural belt

producing all the food required for the entire city's population

with no need to import anything from the outside

saving time, waste and energy.

And speaking of Energy -

The Energy Belt would work in a systems approach to

extract electricity from our abundant renewable mediums

- Specifically wind, solar, geothermal and heat differentials

and if near water potentials - tidal and wave power.

To avoid intermittency and make sure

a positive net energy return occurs

these mediums would operate in an integrated system

powering each other when needed

while storing excessive energy to large

super capacitors under the ground

so nothing can go to waste.

And not only does the city power itself

particular structures will also power independently

and generate electricity through photovoltaic paints

structural pressure transducers, the thermocouple effect

and other current but under utilized technologies.

But, of course, this begs the question:

how does this technology, and goods in

general, get created in the first place?

This bring us to Production:

The Industrial Belt, apart from having hospitals and the like

would be the hub of factory production.

Completely localized overall

it would, of course, obtain raw materials by way of

the global resource management system, just discussed -

with demand being generated by the population of the city itself.

As far as the mechanics of production

we need to discuss a new, powerful phenomenon

which was sparked very recently in human history

and is on pace to changing everything.

It's called Mechanization

or the automation of labor.

Well, if you look around, you'll notice that almost

everything that we use today

is built automatically.

Your shoes, your clothes, your home appliances, your car and so on...

they are all built by machines in an automatic way.

Can we say that the society has not been

influenced by these major technological advancements?

Of course not.

These systems really dictate new structures

and new needs and they make a lot of other things obsolete.

So, we have been going up in the development

and use of technology in an exponential way.

So, definitely automation is going to continue. You cannot stop

technologies that just make sense.

Labor automation through technology is at the bottom

of every major social transformation in human history.

From the agricultural revolution and the invention of the plow

to the industrial revolution and the invention of the powered machine

to the information age we live in now through

essentially the invention of advanced electronics and computers.

And with regard to advanced production methods today

mechanization is now evolving on its own.

Moving away from the traditional method of

assembling component parts into a configuration -

into an advanced method of creating

entire products in one single process.

Like most engineers, I'm fascinated by biology because it is

so full of examples of extraordinary pieces of engineering.

What biology is - is the study of things that copy themselves.

As good a definition of life as we've got.

Again, as an engineer, I have always been

intrigued by the idea of machines copying themselves.

RepRap is a three-dimensional printer -

that's to say it is a printer that you plug into your computer and

instead of making two-dimensional sheets of paper with patterns on

it makes real, physical, three-dimensional objects.

Now there's nothing new about that

3D printers have been around for about 30 years.

The big thing about RepRap is that it prints most of its own parts.

So, if you've got one, you could

make another one and give it to a friend

as well as being able to print lots of useful things.

From the simple printing of basic household goods in your home

to the printing of an entire automobile body in one swoop

advanced, automated 3D printing now has the

potential to transform virtually every field of production.

Including home construction.

Contour Crafting is

actually a fabrication technology -

the so-called 3D printing- when you directly build

3D objects from a computer model.

Using Contour Crafting, it will be possible

to build a 2000 square-foot home

entirely by the machine, in one day.

The reason that people are interested in automating construction

is that it really brings a lot of benefits.

For example, construction is pretty labor-intensive

and although it provides jobs for a sector of the society

it also has issues and complications.

For example, construction is the most dangerous job that there is.

It is worse than mining and agriculture.

That has the highest level of fatality in almost every country.

Another issue is the waste.

An average home in the United States has 3 to 7 tons of waste.

So this is huge if we look at the impact of construction

and knowing about 40% of all materials

in the world are used in construction.

So, a big waste of energy and resources

and big damage to the environment as well.

Making homes using hammers and nails and wood

with the state of our technology today, is really absurd

and will go the way of our labor class in

regards to manufacturing in the United States.

Recently, there was a study by economist David Autor of MI that states that our middle class is obsolete

and being replaced by automation.

Quite simply, Mechanization is more productive

efficient and sustainable than human labor

in virtually every sector of the economy today.

Machines do not need vacations, breaks, insurance, pensions

and they can work 24 hours a day, everyday.

The output potential and accuracy

compared to human labor, is unmatched.

The bottom line:
repetitive human labor is becoming obsolete

and impractical across the world

and the unemployment you see around you today

is fundamentally the result of this

evolution of efficiency in technology.

For years, market economists have dismissed this growing pattern

which could be called "Technological Unemployment"

because of the fact that new sectors always seemed

to emerge to re-absorb the displaced workers.

Today, the service sector is the only real hub left

and currently employs over 80% of the American workforce

with most industrialized countries maintaining a similar proportion.

However, this sector now being

challenged increasingly by automated kiosks -

automated restaurants and even automated stores.

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