> At 07:47 AM 2/3/97 -0800, Hal Finney wrote:
> > If so, then demolishing
> >the rain forests and replacing them with the ultra-exotic designed
> >ecosystems of the future may be the road to maximal diversity. I don't
> >think we'll sign up many traditional environmentalists for this program.
>
> "Natural" - that is, suggested by economic utility - development of
> innovations would probably bring to life lots of complex information
> structures and some efficient generic physical media for carrying them.
> Those are not fun to lie under though, unlike palm trees.
That might be due to the fact that we evolved together with the palm
trees, so we naturally find them convenient and nice. A being evolved in
a nanotech ecology might find resting in a reflected beam of sunlight
from a nanocluster equally peaceful.
> So somebody would have to redesign the ecologies for just that -
> recreational purposes. And while humans admire diverse surfaces and shapes
> of the New Nature, its insides may be filled with adjustable computing
> architectures doing something useful, and new materials tested in multiple
> automated research experiments.
I have been thinking of something like this, a bio/nano forest city.
Imagine something like the Evok city of _Return of the Jedi_, but with
modern conveniences; the trees are supported by diamond fibers and contain
plumbing, energy distribution (from solar collectors in their crowns) and
information networks. A kind of combination of primordial and supermodern.
(Hmm, I feel the urge to start studying architecture and biotech now...)
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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