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"There's a tendency to think that maybe if we can just throw enough hardware at the AI problem, then evolution can take care of the rest. Certainly that's how God went about making us."
- Rudy Rucker
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| Garbage Mine | ||
| The idea that recycling can spawn entirely new industries. |
This is an interesting idea; I think the general idea was floating around in the 1970's, but I can't find a reference.
| ...soft-drink cans, ketchup bottles and disposable diapers... engine oil, transmission fluid, and electroplating residue... tires and cars, broken stereos and obsolete computer..
Some suggested leaving the sites exactly as they were, so future archaeologists could find a wealth of detail from the prodigal middens of TwenCen California... It might have been predictable, and yet few saw the answer coming. In a later day of harder times, of short resources and mandatory recycling, it was inevitable that those landfills should draw the eyes of innovators, looking for ways to get rich. Iron, aluminum, silica ... nickel, copper, zinc... Claims were filed, mining plans presented and analyzed.... Excavation began between the ancient hills. Into a past generation's waste, their desperate grandchildren dug for treasure. The garbage rush was on. |
| Technovelgy from Earth,
by David Brin. Published by Bantam in 1990 Additional resources -
|
This is an idea whose time has come; it goes beyond recycling.
If it makes you feel any better, North Americans have always produced trash. According to archaeological studies of a clan of Native Americans who lived around 6,500 BC, each person produced an average of 5.3 pounds of waste per day during the hunting season.
Note: The first municipal dump was established in Athens in around 500 B.C.
Read more about the history of waste.
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Garbage Mine-related
news articles:
- The Garbage Mines Of Ghana
| 3D Printing A 12-Meter Boat Hull |
| China Still Working On Rescue Robot That Eats People |
| Can One Robot Do Many Tasks? |
| Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm |
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'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
