X-Message-Number: 32807 References: <> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:01:14 -0500 Subject: Re: CryoNet #32800 - #32804 From: Freeposity <> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 4:00 AM, CryoNet <> wrote: Scott Locklin in the comments to his blog post points out: >Charles Babbage designed something which could have been made with the technology of the time. If Britain had dedicated a significant portion of its GDP and thousands of workers to creating an analytical engine for the next 25 years, and failed to even build a gear for the damn thing, well, then we might have suspected that Mr. Babbage was full of baked beans. 25 years! Do you know how long 25 years is? In 25 years, we went from Von Neumann writing a paper on how to make a digital computer to having freaking Unix and GUI's. In 25 years, we went from biplanes made out of cloth to the SR-71. 25 years is a working lifetime for many people. And there have been hundreds or thousands of people who have dedicated their lives to this "nano idiocy. Yet, we are not one whit closer to having anything remotely resembling a nanotechnology now than we were 25 years ago. If Drexler and his propellor heads wish to comfort themselves with the idea that they are visionaries ahead of their ti me; well, I deny it. I maintain that they have picked a delivery date so far into the future that the day of judgement will never come. They'll all be comfortably retired by then. How convenient. I find it interesting that with a simple google search you can find over 800 consumer products that are nanotech based. Perhaps the author is working from old data. -- Money isn't speech. A Corporation isn't a person. http://www.movetoamend.org/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=32807