X-Message-Number: 32969
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
Subject: laserology
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:27:49 +0100


I was amused by the concept of "laserology" as proposed for an alternate 
universe by Mark Plus.

Our universe is the exact opposite of this, quite weirdly so, in fact.


I attended a meeting in a telecommunication laboratory in the early 1960s where 
the subject of (ruby) lasers and their uses was discussed. 


I suggested printing (albeit by scorching the surface of the paper) and 
recording on a plastic disc or plastic tape (by punching tiny holes in it to 
represent digits rather than by the much more sophisticated method it is really 
done). These suggestions were rejected, not because of the practicality of them,
but on the basis that there would be no economic market for them. Making 
holographic 3D videos for educational purposes was about the only thing I can 
recollect my elders and betters coming up with. (But their ability to record 
them would have been even more limited than mine to produce the laser printer 
and DVD at the time.) It was generally decided that lasers weren't that 
important to telecommunications. 


A couple of years later the optical fibre and semiconductor laser were invented,
and this did provide a use and led to the development of optical 
telecommunications spread over the next 30 or 40 years, the spin off from which 
enabled the Japanese to develop and manufacture the mass entertainment 
technologies we all know about.


Nanotechnology is different. There is no shortage of either applications or 
companies claiming to be developing them. If you type "feynman" into 
http://www.youtube.com you can see the start.


As an irrelevant aside, Feynman's paper "Room at the Bottom" was known to the 
leader of the laser meeting.
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html

(Although he had to get it from the firm's library rather than download it over 
the Internet :-)

Assembler nanotechnology will happen, for that there can be no doubt. 


However there is doubt as to whether assembler nanotechnology will have the same
impact as lasers within the lifetime of Mark Plus or many readers of this list.
Mark Plus could quote quantum mechanics: it hasn't happened unless he observes 
it. If the many world interpretation applies, then he can only observe a world 
in which both it happens, and he is cryopreserved.

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

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