So torn on this because I fall into the chest beating, love to drive my car set but I also remember how much reading I got done when I was younger and used to use the train to commute.
Having that time back is a very seductive proposition.
What I do wonder though is what's the point of having your own car, if all cars are autonomous then isn't that essentially a tram system? How long would it take before there are established routes and taking your car to a given location is no different to hopping on any one of the other cars that are heading there anyway?
Surely the one of the first businesses to be radically impacted by widespread autonomous vehicles is the taxi industry?
I can't see an outcome where pretty soon it's not just a fancy tramway.
The more technical the crowd the more you hear this kind of thing but it really does bear mentioning that if these engineers could be doing it without these figureheads then really, they should do that.
They fact that it's plausible has no bearing on the fact that it is often simply not the case.
Why did Apple nearly fail before Jobs return?
Why are Tesla and SpaceX a direct result of one mans vision?
I'm not saying that no one else is involved in these businesses, I don't think anyone is stupid enough to assert that these are not examples of fantastically great organisations made up of brilliant engineers and probably project managers and lawyers and all of the other parts that make up a great companay but yet the fact remains that the 'figurehead' is there.
Why is that if these 'figureheads' serve no purpose other than to court the media?
The more technical the crowd the more you hear this kind of thing but it really does bear mentioning that if these engineers could be doing it without these figureheads then really, they should do that.
This is an oldish thread, but I want to point out that the main reason engineers need figureheads is to attract capital. The second reason is to unify the engineers toward a common goal.
I do believe engineers deserve a lot more credit from society, and also that engineers underestimate the contributions of non-engineers. I feel that the subtly snide way you worded your statement ("really, they should do that") is needlessly derisive to both groups.
You have my apologies for any perceived or actual snark.
I hadn't intended to insult anyone and in terms of derision, I am certainly in no position to be doling it out.
Going back to the comment in question though, it is kind of the crux of the matter as I read it.
There are some posts further up that are very sarcastic about the contributions of these 'figureheads' and my statement to those people stands for itself: if these 'figureheads' are not necessary then do it without them.
I go on to provide very popular examples of where this simply isn't how things work.
Note that I have never even so much as intimated that it couldn't work like that just that it doesn't often seem to.
I will admit that there is perhaps some of my own insecurity slipping in here. As someone with a technical background who now works in a less technical capacity I think I may have taken some of these comments personally and allowed for them to pile onto an already toppling pile of impostor syndrome type thinking.
The fact remains though that to build something you need engineers, you also need architects, you also need someone to bankroll the project. Asserting that one or more of these players are more important that others does seem illogical to me and it would probably take a lot to change that outlook on my part.
What is the precision and how small can an object be? How small can the printer be? Can we make nanoprinters that are controlled from the cloud to mutate the models they create as necessary?
Nanovaccines that can change in response to mutating threats...
I feel like I have understood the importance of 3D printing for the very first time which makes sense, I have tended to be a little slow.
It's interesting that you ask about nanovaccines in relation to this article. The lead inventor and CEO on this project also founded another company that works in that exact area [1].
As to the precision of Carbon3D, the best I can figure based on their recent publication is printed layers as small as 1µm. That's pretty darn good resolution for a 3D printer.
I found this whole thread very exciting, I as down-voted into oblivion very quickly so I stopped sharing my thoughts but my mind ran on for a while...
Self-healing machines, buildings and devices also sprang to mind.
Basically, if the printer is small enough to be a part of the object and there were a way of determining what it needs to print then the object need never be broken (for very long) in fact: the object doesn't even need to be defined as a cup, a pair of trousers, a bicycle. If the printer can embed itself into anything it prints then it could literally morph according to a given requirement.
He came to talk at UNiversity of Cape Town here in South Africa.
I was never really a fan (not for any reason apart from my infatuation with Gibson which kept me more in Chiba City than in Discworld) but I went with a friend who got his copy of Mort signed.
Sir Pratchett gave a great talk and made a funny (yet by todays standards perfectly hideous) comment about fat goth girls.
Just a memory that a total random holds of the man. For what it's worth.
OK, if it wasn't clear that that was me being facetious then let me make it clear - I was being facetious and poking fun at the fact that people think Pinterest is 'for girls' ...jeez guys.
Incidentally I started my sexist Pinterest board last night, I have enjoyed using the platform thus far - the Chrome P button plugin is super handy.
The main sticking point that I have experienced is that anitvaxxers refuse to accept that their actions impact other people (children) by way of herd immunity.
When they do see it, they are often too deep into the argument to back out.
The other issue is that the argument is often heavily laden with emotion - I had a discussion with ageing hippy grandparents who blame a last minute MMR vaccine on the still birth of their second grandchild.
It's not a fair argument when you are showing data and they are reacting to a still birth. Even harder when you deeply love the people you are having the damned argument with.
Having that time back is a very seductive proposition.
What I do wonder though is what's the point of having your own car, if all cars are autonomous then isn't that essentially a tram system? How long would it take before there are established routes and taking your car to a given location is no different to hopping on any one of the other cars that are heading there anyway?
Surely the one of the first businesses to be radically impacted by widespread autonomous vehicles is the taxi industry?
I can't see an outcome where pretty soon it's not just a fancy tramway.