Re: The Rings of Earth

Real estate isn't the problem. Resources are the problem. For
example, the USA consumes 6.8 billion barrels of crude oil each year
and has only 28 billion barrels in all of its wells - and the USA is
the richest nation on Earth!

We are running short of fresh water and arable land. We're fouling
the air, and running short of resources as mentioned.

The world is nearly a sphere with a 40,000 km circumference. This
implies a 12,730 km diameter, which means it has a surface area of
509.3 trillion square meters. 2/3 of this area is water. 1/3 of this
area is land. 169.7 trillion square meters.

There are 6.8 billion human beings and if each family of four occupied
10,000 square meters (1 hectare, or 107,639 sq ft, or 2.47 acres) -
they would occupy 10% of the world's surface area!

So, selecting 10% of the world's most valued surface area - and
developing it with 2.47 acre estates - would leave 90% of the world
untouched - IF WE HAD THE RESOURCES TO DO THAT.

That's the rub.

Now, we can get resources off world. Here's what has become known as
the Mok Program;

1) develop low-cost terrestrial solar power to generate hydrogen for
less than $200 per metric ton. Generate 850 million tons of hydrogen
and use it to replace 5.5 billion tons of coal in the world's coal
fired power plants, eliminating the bulk of our carbon emissions.
THEN, use an additional 610 million tons of hydrogen to directly
hydrogenate the coal to produce 38.5 billion barrels of liquid fuels.
Since the world consumes 23.8 billion barrels of liquid fuels, this
provides a means to ease our reliance on liquid fuels, provide for
growth, while reducing are carbon emissions. Use hydrogen with
atmospheric nitrogren to make anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer and
sell it at cost increasing farm output. Furthermore, adapt
construction of large panel arrays to construction of low cost
inflatable housing barns and greenhouses. To generate 1,260 million
tons of hydrogen from water electrolytically requires 70,560 million
MWh of solar electricity. Each square kilometer of solar panels
produces 180 MW of power when illuminated, and placed in desert areas
are exposed to 1,700 hours of sunlight per year. This requires a
total of 230,588 sq km of solar panels. 16 million sq km of deserts
exist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deserts_by_area

and I have organized 250,000 sq km of desert lands from a handful of
mine owners for placement of my solar panels

http://www.usoal.com

So, we have the capacity to do this. The amount of money the world
spends each year on energy is $4.1 trillion. The amount of money the
world creates each year with that energy is $66 trillion. The
amount of liquid assets held by the world's 9.5 million milionaires is
$38 trillion. The cost of covering 230,588 sq km with solar panels is
$2.9 trillion using my system. The cost of coal conversion is $1.9
trillion. So, clearly, the millionaires of this world can be
motivated to invest in this system,once the details are worked out
favorably.

2) Take the revenue stream from profits earned in synthetic crude oil
sales, and buy out the major aerospace companies. Use these assets to
construct a private launch facility in Colorado, and build a 550
metric tons to geosynch orbit heavy lift reusable launch veihcle.
With this vehicle orbit 660 satellites in groups of 33 in coplanar sun
synch polar orbit. Each satellite is equipped with a phased array
uplink downlink and an open optical satellite to satellite data link
at 20 terabits per second. Fully populated this network paints an
array of virtual cells on the Earth's surface providing 50 billion
wireless internet connections worldwide.

http://www.unh.edu/NIS/Courses/Graphics/Animated/teledesic.gif

With this network everyone has a i-phone, and data connection.
Furthermore,everyone has access to financial, insurance, retirement,
and banking services. The value of these services in the world
exceeds $330 billion per year - among the 1.8 billion wealthiest
folks. Adding the balance of humanity, adds another $170 billion per
year - with the capacity to grow the world's economy at double digit
rates. (end energy shortages, drop energy prices slightly, and
stabilize global markets, while increasing food production and
reducing food prices)

The cost of the system is expected to be $20 million per satellite, or
$13.2 billion - with $500 billion in revenues, this is clearly an
important profit center.

Another important aspect, is that this $13.2 billion includes the cost
of bilding a heavy lift RLV and launch center. Capturing 15% of the
$500 billion generated by the network, to be put into space
development, generates $75 billion annually, which is more than ALL
the space programs of ALL the nations of Earth. This combined with
ownership of the space manufacturing assets of the world's major
aerospace companies - allows virtually unlimite development of off
world assets and resources,

Develop a tele-presence and tele-robotic capacity using global network
- basically develop a biometric measurement transfer protocol. bmtp://
to use over wireless global broadband - to implement this capacity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASIMO

This allows people to work anywhere and live anywhere else - reduces
the need for roadways and automobiles - and expands the opportunities
for billions of people while improving the availability of goods and
services. .

3) Build heavy lift launchers to put up large thin film solar power
satellites. These satellites use inflatable optics to concentrate
sunlight to a point, where solar pumped laser arrays are located.
These lasers use conjugate optical processes to safely and reliably
and efficiently beam down band-gap matched laser energy to the
existing solar panel arrays described previously. These solar power
satellites increase the energy output of the solar panels 16 times!
As they develop, hydrogen displaces hydro-carbon as the major fuel of
humanity - providing 20.1 billion tons per year of hydrogen from this
source. This represents a 20 fold increase in total energy usage by
humanity. With a 7% per year growth rate in energy use, this process
will sustain this level of growth for the next 45 years to 2053 - with
average global income $190,000 per person per year .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASIMO

This will require that 520 satellites each 25 km in diameter are
orbited over this period, to illuminate the original 250,000 sq km of
solar panels. There is enough space in GEO to possess 8,377
powersats. This allows another 16 fold increase in energy output -
allowing another 41 years of 7% per year compounded growth to 2094 AD
- with an average global income of $3.1 million per person per year.

Experts indicate that by 2050 we'll have human level computing

http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1

to augment our tele-operated robot system. These teleoperated system
will be in place in the 2010s, and the software to displace humans
will be largely in place starting in the late 2030s and displace all
economic activities by 2050s. In this time period, expect demand for
energy to continue to rise as all people on Earth have incomes that
rise above $1 million per person per year.

The energy from the additional satellites will not be beamed to
stationary collectors, but rather beame at 650 W/cm2 directly to end
users - to homes located anywhere, aircraft, ships - to provide any
amount of power needed. While oil ouput moderate in the 2010s to be
supplanted by hydrogen production as the economy grow through the
2020s - so too, by 2040s hydrogen volume will level out, and new
growth will be in the form of direct beaming of power.

The development of propulsive skin spacecraft with large arrays of
MEMs base rockets

http://www.me.berkeley.edu/mrcl/rockets.html

powere by laser beams from space - will make personal ballistic travel
a safe reliable reality for everyone. Anyone will be able to travel
anywhere at a moments notice and take less than 42 minutes to get
there. Anyone can attain orbit in less than 12 minutes using this
technology.

4) Use heavy lift capacity to send manned expeditions to survey the
asteroids and return the richest of these to Earth orbit. Use heavy
lift capacity to send up telerobotic and later fully automated- mines,
smelting operations,factories, farms and forests - to create raw
materials, industrial goods, consumer goods, food and fiber on orbit -
using solar energy - and deorbit using solar powered rail guns - and
GPS guide re-entryvehicles - with propulsive skin landing rockets - to
deliver products directly to consumers anywhere on Earth anytime of
the day or night.

Large pressure vessels on orbit are built to house factories, then
farms, and then forests on orbit - easing the demand on Earth for farm
lands, commercial forests, mines and so forth.

Solar powered rail guns on the Earth's surface cheaply send waste
materials back to orbit as needed.

1 mile diameter pressure vessels are folded for re-entry and inflated
while descending to Earth. These floating cities operate like hot air
balloons. They are powered by laser beams from space, and supplied
from orbiting factories, forests and farms. Each houses 150,000
people - and provides labor telerobotically, and personal ballisitic
transport. 20,000 such free flying cities - similar to Buckminster
Fuller's CLOUD NINE CITIES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_nine_(Tensegrity_sphere)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ldjjj/109033997/

provide refuge to the planet's poorest 3 billion people in the 2020
time frame - but become passe as global development surpasses the
living standards offered in these cities.

The next step will be the production of pressure vessels on orbit,
from asteroidal materials - to create personally owned SPACE HOMES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

Unlike the space colonies of the 1970s - these are individually owned
by families and orbit in a polar orbit - ringlike - similar to
Saturn's rings - with the asteroidal feedstock and factories acting
like shepherd moons. billions of free flying pressure vessels provide
homes for every man woman and child on the planet. This combined with
robot labor, and space laser powered MEMs rocket vehicles - provide a
means to quickly and efficiently reduce Earth populations..

5) Use heavy lift launch capacity to orbit large SUN ORBITING power
satellites within 3 million km of the sun. These are basically the
focal point of the other satellites without the concentrator - built
on a larger scale - and sent to orbit near the sun - to generate
trillions of watts of power at 1/100th the cost of 'conventional'
power satellites. A single ring of 188,495 satellites each 100 km in
diameter intercept 5 million trillion watts enough to sustain 7%
annual growth until 2193 AD.

These sun orbiting satellites beam energy to modified 'conventional'
solar panels that receive intense laser energy - for beam upgrades -
but most importantly, the number of space homes are spreading out from
Earth orbit as propulsive units are added to the Space Homes.

This high powered solar power satellite is a precursor to Bob
Forward's vision of using laser powered light sails to drive mult-
generation space stations across the interstellar deeps in a few
decades.

http://www.robertforward.com/Fast_Forward_Fifty_Years.htm

The same technology can be used to build up interplanetary transport
capacity as you build it out.

6) Population growth rate peaked in 1960s and dropped after that.
Even though total population is still rising its not rising as fast.
That's because as you move from subsistence living to industrial
living, population growth rates rise as more folks have access to
medical care and food. As income rises above $20,000 per person per
year - increasing opportunities lead to lower population growth rates
- until you reach zero population growth at $30,000 per person per
year. The USA Europe Saudi Arabia and Japan have zpg when you
subtract out immigration. As the world income rises above $30,000 per
person per year - which will be achieved in 2025 - at 7% growth
rate.

There will likely be another spurt in growth as longevity increases at
more than 1 year per year - which will also happen in 2025.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey

This will slow the dropping of population growth rates - but they will
eventually drop below zero - before 2050 - even with longevity
increases.

With the advent of human level computing the real problem will be the
rise in non-human robot populations. Robots will likely exceed humans
as soon as they are capable of independent AI driven action. They
will be constructed cheaply and easily well before 2020 - and with
human level AI and superhuman level AI - available between 2030-2050
time frame - the demand for these systems will rise rapidly. By 2100
- humans will be around what they are today in total number - but
robot population will exceed human population - growing to 20
billions. Humans however will be leaving Earth in growing numbers -
with 7 billion humans alive, 1 billion on Earth terrestrial, 2
billion in floating sky cities, 3.5 billion in Earth orbit, and 0.49
billion spread throughout the solar system and 0.01 billion heading
toward nearby stars.

This will be the beginning of diaspora. Because even with infinite
life spans - we will still die of accidents. And while we will grow
increasingly careful, these finite spans will mean with lower birth
rates, populations will start to decline albeit slowly.

Removing all aging and disease effects from actuarial data indicates
that humans will live to be around 350 years old with perfect
medicines. Eliminating automobile and aircraft accidents - the
largest remaining cause of death - life extends to 690 years.
Eliminating homicide - it extends to 2,800 years. Basically, with
perfect medicine and control of aging processes, you die in a car
crash or airplane crash. With automated cars and planes that are
super-safe, you are murdered by a jealous lover, create an automated
security force - and you die in house fires - make houses safer you
die in lightning strikes, or falling off a cliff and so forth.

Of course distribution around the mean becomes greater. While the
average is 2,800 years say - you will still have some who wil drown in
the pool at 9 and some who will live to be 20,000...

Despite the growing number of people however, expanding the range of
humans from Earth to the solar system to other solar systems - will
reduce population density.

The sun is one star among hundreds of billions of stars in a galaxy
that is one among hundreds of billions of galaxies - a universe of
10,000s of billions of billions of stars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsOeLcUARw

As humans expand out, their numbers peak and gradually decline over
thousands of years - while robot populations rise to hundreds of human
level robots per human being... spreading out at a large fraction of
light speed from sol, to nearby stars.

There will always be less than 10 billion people by this measure, and
likely always less than 1 trillion robots - if robots don't attain a
'will to power' and a self-reproductive capacity which THEY control.
This number of people and robots will spread across thousands, then
millions then billions then hundreds of billions of stars over a
period of dozens, hundreds and thousands of years.

By this process alone - human density will fall well below 1 planet
per human family.

7) time travel - laser light sails that travel at half light speed
will be used not only to move space homes, freight and probes to
nearby stars, but also a new class of collider - where large masses of
iron are caused to collide at half light speed - forming minature
black hole dusts. Charging and spinning these dusts create a new form
of engineered product.


.

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