/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.5317366]

I feel like there's some grand project that we're missing.

We have projects such as ISS, LHC, ITER, NIF, and corporate developments such as spaceX and google self driving cars, and IBM deepQA which are all very neat and can give some pretty nice improvements to the fields they target.

But I still feel the grand undertaking is missing. There's no "men walking on the moon", or pyramids of our time, feeling to any of those. None of them manage to convey that feeling of excitement and inspiration.

What grand vision ought to be followed that could give this inspiration, while still being reasonable to come true in 20-30 years.

[Anonymous No.5317368]

Take childish escapism to >>>/r9k/

[Anonymous No.5317373]

Energy efficiency/independence from old world fuels to new ones like safer nuclear/fusion/solar/wind/geothermal/gas/wave. Battery technology that lasts/stores 20x longer than what is available today at a much cheaper price.

[Anonymous No.5317379]

Public fascination with science for itself rather than science heroism is much more effective at holding the interest of those who might someday become scientists.

[Anonymous No.5317382]

>>5317373
>Energy efficiency/independence from old world fuels to new ones like safer nuclear/fusion/solar/wind/geothermal/gas/wave.
Technically ITER can give this.

>Battery technology that lasts/stores 20x longer than what is available today at a much cheaper price.
Would be very nice, but not very inspiring to throw $100 billion USD on a grand superbattery project.

Maybe I'm just dull and can't appreciate the grandness of our current projects.

[Anonymous No.5317387]

>>5317379
Bull. People actually are affected by cultural perceptions of these things, particularly when they're too young to be intellectually serious.

(I'm not defending OP's childing lack of appreciation for how technology actually develops.)

[Anonymous No.5317424]

>>LHC not grand
you have to be fucking kidding me, a kilometer sized machine cooled with tonnages of liquid helium isn't grand?

>>5317382
Do you have any idea how important energy storage is?

[Anonymous No.5317441]

>>5317366
>men walking on the moon

Not that great.

>pyramids of our time

Not that great.

What the fuck inspires you about a pyramid or walking on the moon? If you use careful logic and reasoning this is childs play. What's not so easy is building an intelligence equal to humans in machines. Now that will be some shit to get excited about because 1) We don't know how to do it and 2) I've been waiting 20 years to fight Skynet.

[Anonymous No.5317489]

>>5317373
This.

Nuclear fusion or something along the lines of almost unlimited and clean energy. And then transition all transportation and machinery to operate on electricity and things will be good.

[Anonymous No.5317495]

>>5317366
The next big thing will be new energy sources. After that it will be uploading our consciousness. Probably men on mars in between there too.

[Anonymous No.5317502]

>>5317489
Neutron flux of all proposed fusion reactors will transmute the reactor materials into radioactive elements. Meaning you have to replace the whole goddamn thing every couple of years. Not very economical. Pipe dream.

[Anonymous No.5317504]

There are many exciting science projects, but a grand project brings together a wide variety of fields instead of using a highly specialized group.

Ultimately, it is exploration and population of unknown territory that has this effect, since it allows people to play an important role in something entirely new. Therefor, it attracts smart courageous individuals with visions and dedication.

So if I had to guess which project achieves a similar outcome, I would bet my money on Seasteading. In contrast to settlements on Mars you get to create your own utopia without being stuck in a dead desert for the rest of your life. And new societies need every kind of citizen, from menial workers to superb experts.

Build me a libertarian society on or under water, and I will leave everything behind to join, even if my income should be substantially less. Some things are simply more important than earning money - things like writing history.

[Anonymous No.5317506]

>>5317379

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmKlA_UnX8c

Its these mega projects and massive undertakings that inspire scientists and engineers, we tend to be dreamers and proponents of grand changes rather than career men plodding along in a field to advance it a little in our lifetime. People keep advocating science in schools like some government program is going to inspire anyone to invest their lives in a scientific field.

If America was as serious about its space program now as it was in the 60s I would pack up in an instant to move there and contribute.

[Anonymous No.5317508]

>>5317506
Just restart the Cold War. It was the best thing to happen to space exploration. Scientists riding on waves of misguided nationalism and fear.

[Anonymous No.5317519]

Quantum computing.

[Anonymous No.5317526]

>>5317508
I don’t like that conflict is the only force strong enough to drive scientific investment at an acceptable rate. I hope that mega projects can take the place of such a base motivator (hah like it will happen).

I do like the idea of cold war era scientists fucking each other on huge piles of research money whilst laughing at the plebeians and their petty motivations.

[Anonymous No.5317530]

>>5317506
> Its these mega projects and massive undertakings that inspire scientists and engineers, we tend to be dreamers and proponents of grand changes rather than career men plodding along in a field to advance it a little in our lifetime.

Yeah clearly people working on growing entire limbs from stem cells are nothing compared to building pyramids.

You sound so arrogant it hurts to listen to you, using words like "we" amongst the likes of people that are magnitudes smarter than you could imagine.

[Anonymous No.5317539]

>>5317530
>implying genetic engineering/organ replacement/ bio engineering is not a mega project.

[Anonymous No.5317544]

>>5317530
So I am not an electronics engineer then? I will have to go get my degree changed, thanks for the heads up.

When I say "we" I am talking about everyone in research/design fields from the super geniuses at the leading edge to the legions of engineers that help their ideas become reality. I am in no way a researcher but I wish there was a project that inspired me to go beyond designing control systems for manufacturing plants. I have seen far smarter people than I quit huge pay checks because they need something more than a salary to drive them.

[Anonymous No.5317671]

>>5317539
>>implying genetic engineering/organ replacement/ bio engineering is not a mega project.
It viable to progress the field through minor research projects, which is what we're doing right now.

Sinking 200bil USD into a monolithic regenerative medicine project could be pretty awsome though. We'd go from transplants and clunky mechanical prostethics to regrowing everything in a decade and a half.

Still, there's really very few high intensity megaprojects going on.

>>5317424
>Do you have any idea how important energy storage is?
Sewage sysetms and highways are important too, very few people are insipired by them though.

[Anonymous No.5318224]

>>5317671

It'd be great if the money went into REAL research instead of BigPharma or pet projects.

You need a board that is going to work hard to make sure the money hits the right areas.

Then, it'd be awesome.

[Anonymous No.5318279]

>>5317504
TTHHIISSS

[Anonymous No.5318283]

>>5318224
don't wait for someone else to do it, or for it to happen then you join. start now. be the person you want to be in the future now.

[Anonymous No.5318289]

>>5318283
kind of an accidental reply to >>5318224 was kind of meant for everyone.

[Anonymous No.5318293]

>>5318289
kind of

[Anonymous No.5318326]

Welcome to Rapture!

[Anonymous No.5318335]

Asteroid mining
Automation revolution
3D printers transitioning to molecular assemblers
Terraformation of Mars

[Anonymous No.5318348]

>>5317366

Quantum Computers

[Anonymous No.5318677]

Quantum Computers OP

[Anonymous No.5318818]

>>5318335
>Asteroid mining
>30 years

More like 300 years, anon.

[Anonymous No.5318836]

i can feel what you meant by grand,
I think only triviality is not enough, it has to be something trivial to think but hard to do, and it has to be futuristic and glorious.

quantum computer is futuristic but it's non-trivial,imo,not too glorious

My speculation is that for any theoretical physicist,most probably think that the universe is quite dull, many people may also have this feeling.
Exploration on space may not be too glorious now, unless you can visit very very far away.

Japan has plan to build a space elevator,imagine the giant building we made,it's glorious,
with that we are free from "escape velocity", also imply that space travel will be cheap, as if we are free from the earth

[Anonymous No.5318863]

>>5318836
>My speculation is that for any theoretical physicist,most probably think that the universe is quite dull, many people may also have this feeling.

Now this is really very incorrect. Theoretical physicists investigate the most fundamental reality, and we there see over and over again that the laws of nature are subtle and intricate, and very far from boring, making the universe a highly interesting entity to study.