Recreating the Manufacturing Process is our only Hope
Treeclimbr
I can never seen to get more than a small trickle of
environmentalists to take the work on the biodegradable technology
website very seriously, even after being on the net five years, and year
after year we see more and more effects of global warming. Isn't it
clear to any of you that we are not going to change the manufacturing
need, we can only change the way in which we manufacture products?
We can't change the ongoing consumer demand for junk. I can't believe now,
looking back over the last twenty years, how foolish so many were in believing
so many delusions of how progress was going to happen.
I really beg of you to read into my writing and try to find some kind of
new way of looking at the problem.
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Permission to copy and publish this essay is given with the limitations that
the
author's name is given and his website (http://www.eskimo.com/~telical/).
Introductory Note from web page:
Biodegradable Technology is a term that sounds like "biotechnology" --
something that exists today in a multitude of forms. But when you examine the
phrase
"biodegradable technology" you can see that it is not exactly the same as the
more popular term "biotechnology," which is largely a medical field.
Biodegradable technology is concerned with manufacturing science -- fusing the
pollutive processes today with a more advanced science based on the
mechanisms of plant genetics such as photosynthesis. It is one of the
avant-garde of science today and needs your support to grow.
It's interesting that Al Gore and his administration recently released a long
document about future technology which has some of the flavoring in this essay.
To
quote from another government document, the first on our page of links:
PROTEIN-BASED ELECTRONICS ENVISIONED
A naturally occurring protein may serve as the basis for development of
advanced optical switching, optical data storage, and holography applications.
When
irradiated with visible light, bacteriorhodopsin (BR) absorbs light and
proceeds through a complex cycle. Under certain conditions, some of the
intermediate
states persist for a long time; under other conditions, BR has intermediate
transition states that change in less than one picosecond. The capability of BR
to exist
in two states makes it a potential candidate for use in molecular electronics,
molecular switches, and the lithographic fabrication of nanometer-scale
patterns. In
Federally supported research, physicists and materials scientists have
succeeded in stabilizing BR in a self- assembled, two-dimensional,
multi-layered lattice at
temperatures as high as 140ยก C. The capability to stabilize BR in the desired
state is key to developing advanced applications.
The essay here has stated that plant proteins could be used for this very
reason way back in 1986 when it was written as the humorously titled work:
"Hard
Science."
This essay is a request towards those who have the resources to take bold new
steps in research and development. We are all benefitted by fresh air, free of
the carcinogins that industrial factories have produced. In some countries
today, air pollution causes one in twelve of the total deaths per year. If this
doesn't
have to be, then it will take government regulation to enforce. The ideas
talked about in this essay may seem far off, but in reality they may only be a
few years
away.
BIODEGRADABLE TECHNOLOGIES Copyright 1986/1992 R.S. Pearson
INTRODUCTION
If industrial civilization ends, it ends, and we don't have to concern
ourselves with ecology. If it does not end, we must supply ourselves with the
ongoing
consumer demand. This consumer demand can cause our natural environment to be
greatly damaged, but it doesn't have to. If the ideas in this essay are correct
and possible, the more products we manufacture the more of a positive effect we
will actually have on the environment because of the carbon dioxide/oxygen
exchange
It can be argued that the consumer drive does not depend only upon the type of
goods sold, or its purpose in our lives, but on an inherent human need; the
conquest of the item desired, and the need to occupy one's time. This means
that a new technology can replace our past technology partially without having
to
replace its exact function. If the five-billion people on earth continue to
expand at the same rate and the same manner, then most of these people will
need
televisions, stereos, computers, watches, etc.
Instead of an overwhelming concern regarding ecological parameters we have
continued our depletion of the increasingly limited resources of the planet,
and
we continue to use many sciences without focusing on developing new sciences
that would operate in a way corresponding to ecological parameters. There are
scientists that work in areas and create these negative impacts without
themselves searching for the more complex alternative. Surely they are far from
brilliant if
they are not operating in directions that sustain the health of the biosphere
and humanity.
When many are discussing the negative effects of our factories on the
environment, they must realize the answer does not lie in eliminating our
factories but in
modifying them. It appears that it is possible for a technology to be invented
that could coexist with the environment. We must envision our future to have
even
more technological devices than today. These devices, however, will be
constructed on a different platform of technology for a different system of
electronics,
using different systems of manufacturing.
This work concerns itself not with "new" energy sources, such as solar, wind
and aquatic energy. It examines new types of machinery and their industrial
production that use these and other new types of energy. Energy, limited
throughout our history mainly to the burning of wood and fossil fuels, can come
from
more abundant sources and less damaging processes, such as: gravity,
fermentation and other organic chemical reactions, and the mechanisms of
photosynthesis in plant tissues. These new sources would require machinery
appropriate to them, machineries that we have not conceived of, but for needs
of
which we currently have technology for.
My premise is if applied research scientists, those working for the big
manufacturing corporations, have an truly ethical and truly creative connection
to their
craft, they can take the Earth out of its present first stages of ecological
decay by developing a use of plant genetics that would mimic some present
technologies.
ONE
Today's industrial products damage the physical environment in three distinct
ways: by the method in which they are manufactured, by the way they operate
when functioning, and by their disposal and eventual decay when obsolete.
This new technology I speak of combines organic chemistry, botany, plant
genetics, electronics and mechanics to manufacture new products to perform the
tasks of our current technologies.
Plants are a dynamo of power in themselves. They are very effective machines,
as we see when we weed our lawns. The harnessing of this power, the refining
of these machines is all that is needed. One possible goal is to make a plant's
biological processes work with different chemicals, producing electronic-like
components that are manufactured in a way that will produce no pollution, or a
small fraction of today's factory pollution.
These electronics though comparable in function with the electronics of today,
would be different in both theory and application. Much theory, such as the
concepts of modular components, may remain similar to the electronic theory of
today. Due to being built on the foundation of plant tissues and not dry
elements, new concepts will be introduced.
The initial technologies developed in this new area of biodegradable
technologies need not be a full synthesis of genetics and electronics, but
primarily the
engineering of botanic mutations. Some items developed may be like a paper pulp
"banana- pod" a deciduous unit that requires no manufacturing after a harvest
except the refining of the pulp. Also "banana-pod" trees for other resins may
be grown to erase the need for certain petrochemicals.
Petrochemicals form such a large percentage of our products that it is hard to
foresee if we could ever live without them. Yet since we do use so much of them
it also seems imperative that we abolish the way they are being produced and
reinvent their chemical ideas so that the production of these substances do not
harm humanity nor the environment. This general area is one that science has
already conquered in many ways, but the manufacturing establishment is
reluctant
on changing.
The first resins we could develop are the resin family's that rubber trees
produce. Then with genetic engineering we could produce better strains of that
resin,
and more productive means for the plant to create it. With experimentation,
such as feeding the plant's soil with different chemicals, we could begin to
get a
plant that would tolerate stronger types of rubber.
To bring this technology into reality requires the participation of the very
foremost scientists working today. In fact, the level of scientific expertise
in genetics is
such that it is impossible for its knowledge to handle the more advanced types
of systems I will be describing. Some simple device, such as putting together a
banana-pod that encases paper pulp or a rubber resin, seems almost possible if
it became a point of focus for today's geneticists.
These ideas do not point to any one specific type of technology alone, but
instead at many related technologies. I am pointing toward at a spectrum of
technologies and methods to handle the wide range of needs that we currently
have and will continue to have.
In the catalogue for the earth's plant life there are several oddities: buds,
pods, knobs, hard flowers; oddities whose genes could be analyzed to reveal
methods
for using these compositional devices for a pragmatic purpose. Other items
grown may be wooden-like objects, genetically crafted by a machine that could
program specific sizes and shapes into plant genetics. The product would be a
plant that gives off as fruit or acorns or specific designs. The need to cut
down
trees to get wood to make these items nor use the petrochemical-based polymers
currently used so often today to make these items would be eliminated. Even
today it seems that one could make a good composition board out of acorns and
pine cones, and not cause any loss of trees.
As mentioned above, one direction we want to have available is work based on
exploiting the nature of the chemical composition of plants. As we master this
the chemical transforma- tions produced by plants from food and sunlight can be
altered.
This is the method by which our work becomes involved with electronics. A
plant's food is the soil and the liquid that is watered into the soil. We know
that if
we add fertilizer we can grow better, stronger plants. But will certain
chemicals effect the nature of the photosynthetic processes? If they could, it
might begin
the change from natural plants into biodegradable technology. Combining this
with manufacturing processes derived from botany, such as changes in the
environment, grafting, and new manufacturing techniques we have the potential
to use the plant kingdom to divert our present use of the environment.
What one can acquire are various devices that are parallel to our current
merchandise, yet which are made out of organic and more readily recyclable
materials
than current plastics, which are not based on organic chemistry like our
products are. Nor must they be derived from the lumber of trees. Maybe one day
soon
we will only need to cut a tree down to get lumber. The jobs that loggers once
had could be replaced with jobs in this new industry.
TWO
How would this change from business owners of pollution emitting factories
toward a new society of business people whose products are based on using the
environmentally sound technology occur?
Visually, it may be a technology that at once appears at once primitive and
modern.
What would be the first complete electronic device grown? A simple solar
oscillator might be the first complete unit, but before that it seems possible
to
develop electronic components like the resistor and capacitor.
The first primitive schematic might have on it a photosynthet- ic energy source
for a battery and a hard cellulose-back support similar in form to a circuit
board.
Complex reproductive organ structure in embryo form shows a level of diversity
that is most complex in flora. So therefore, since we are trying to find such
complex structures in the present plant architecture, we would look at these
designs first in the DNA. By designing this as we see fit, it may be possible,
with
post harvesting manipulations to not get products that exist after harvesting
as a single, standalone device, such as a solar-powered l.e.d. clock, but to
treat it in
various ways to find an organic component for a biodegradable electronic
device.
The main problem is the high charge of electricity voltage required in
electronics in general. Yet, presently this is not as strong as it was in old
electronics. There
is a key however. Chlorophyll is chemically similar to hemoglobin; hemoglobin
has iron in it. Iron is a metal, and we have the promise that plants resemble
electronic technology in this roundabout way. After a system gets to a certain
stage, the grafting in of other devices, and a mimicry of the component system
of
current electronics.
One idea is to manipulate genetic techniques in a seed system; a seed sac with
fertilization. The fertilization can be modified to be more than just simple
soil,
since there are hundreds of elements and compounds that aren't pollutants and
can be consid- ered biodegradable and non-toxic to plant, animal and human
life. Once a plant is mutated in a certain way for increased durability then it
could absorb more of a certain element into its structure for that quality.
Likewise,
when working with increasing the amount of energy substances in photosynthesis,
a corresponding element would be needed from the soil.
One problem is size. It seems just as in non-biodegradable technologies
primitive devices were large that the first successful experiments will be
quite large.
Yet, as things progress, the size of the items will shrink, just like we are
witnessing today!
The types of objects that will be built from these bio-degrad- able
technologies can be looked at as modular electronic compo- nents.
If purposefully mutated plant DNA can be worked into molecular electronics, all
problems might in this new type of electronics might be solved. And since
these new devices are hooked up with their own solar power adaptor, these new
devices won't require external energy, they will create it with sunlight and
soil.
What will the first schematics look like?
It's not a good idea to predicate what we can do in the future. The ideas in
this treatise have to be expanded by the mind of the reader. For instance,
could a
complete televi- sion set one day be grown?
Flower bearing plants are the most complex plant genetics, pods on trees also
have complex structures.
Many of these units may still involve manufacturing, or post harvesting
manipulation. The genes do not have to always simply grow completed units;
rather
groups of units that fit and work together.
The first question to answer is what types of restructuring can be done with
plant DNA? The second question is how can it be restructured?
A connection of circuits of different cell types for different chemical
processes may produce the differentiation we require for this technology to
take on the
roles of electronic devices.
Let's also work to substitute non-noxious elements into electronics.
Electronics has not been geared into ecological parameters; ecology has not
guided
electronics thus far. The chemicals needed to produce the technology we have
now takes place in vast pollution producing factories, the molding of plastic
cases throws out tons of carcinogens into the air and directly into the
presence of the factory workers when manufacturing them.
THREE
Methods of manufacturing this technology are obviously different, but so would
be business and distribution of the technology. In a lawn or one's backyard,
one
could grow exotic fruitbearing technologies and market them in a type of
Mom-and-Pop type operation. They could be powered from the sun, and could draw
all the nutrients needed for the "factory" from the soil. So a person could
support an income from having these different biodegradable machineries based
on
plant genetics in their backyard.
If one had five different modular fruitbearing technologies in their backyard
one might be able to adjust them together each year for different technologies.
Perhaps it would have great value for producing new hobbies.
Imagine if the machines could reproduce and bear seeds, if possible, in the
distant future. A very big issue: would plants naturally carry the mutation in
their
genes, and give off offspring that would be exactly like them?
To further help the imagination towards the end of recognizing the
possibilities of these ideas, I've thought up some future biodegradable
technology
publications:
Popular Flower Technology
Fruitbearing Industries
Fruitbearing Technologies
International Catalogue of Component Fruitbearing Technologies
Catalogue of ElectroFruiting Technologies
Here is one examined in closer detail:
Popular Flower Technology: From murals on the side of buildings to postcard
size flower paintings, flower technology is the art of utilizing flower genes
to make
living works of art. In my imagination I see a type of typesetting machine that
programs the flower genetics in a mosaic setting to be whatever the programmer
intends.
The work could be frozen in time by spraying fixative on it. Painting could
shift in color by different genes controlling the images, by the different
climatic
controls inside the plant genes.
Flower genetics could be grafted into tree genetics and then
electromagnetically shifted by remote control like impulses, thus one could
have a strong body of a
tree and have an exquisite flower technological painting surface for
exhibition.
Several applications of this possible technology are immedi- ately evident.
The technologies that may be first fruitful are these applica- tions: pulp
machines producing pods for paper pulp, composition boards, polymers produced
for
rubber and plastic-like materials, aesthetic control of genetics for objects of
beauty and hobbies, production of household goods like soap dishes, combs,
napkin holders, letter openers, tableware, children's modular toys -- like
Legos, blocks, etc.) cotton articles and organic technology for the increase of
production of hemp, cotton, and foods; also genetic devices for the increased
production of every type of plant product.
For instance, parsley trees, which can produce many pounds of parsley a year
out of a ten square-foot plot of ground. Assorted new inventions could be
produced, such as a solar 365-day-a-year calendar which produces images on a
background that was similar to a l.e.d. display, and a microcomputer screen
based on the same principle. Nothing has to be grown in one simple stage but
instead could be built of modular components that are grown separately. The
screen could grow, and then be added to the keyboard and the CPU.
Soon it seems more control of plant genetic code will be developed and we will
be are able to program it like we program on magnetic tapes or electronic
fields. The main apparatus of electronic progress such as the tape
recorder/player that can be seen as early as the phonograph and as late as the
CD-ROM.
We have to invent a biode- gradable version, one that writes and reads in plant
DNA. We need to make an I/O device for plant genetic code and once that
device is invented, it will have a million uses, just as the tape player
recorder (or disk drive, etc.) have now. And in electronics there are other
powerful
inventions such as the amplifier. We need some type of amplifier. We need some
type of amplifier in plant genetics. Perhaps some inventions will work in a
different, slower way, controlled by a photosynthetic-like process, but which
would still fulfill completely the need of the outdated device.
Four
The mass production mentality involved in pollution emitting, resource
depleting means, is continuing fairly unobstructed in many areas. We can
contribute to the
"radicals" who are attempting to curb this mentality by first realizing that it
is only a "radical" that is not concerned with the problem or who believes
there isn't
much of a problem.
For me, I am affected on the level of beauty as well. I don't like it when I am
surrounded for dozens of square miles with only a few patches of grass here and
there or a token ten-foot high tree. Instead, why not great murals on building
sides built out of vegetation-paneling that would make the air of any city
smell
fresh? And that wouldn't mean taking up valuable city real estate for a park.
Our next parks would be vertical!
There are numbers of concerned scientists working toward waste maintenance,
recycling, alternate energies and the like, but even their work is
incomplete.When they realize the full solution, outlined here, and when they
gear genetic engineering towards the ideas in this work, we will have a
platform for
a much fresher earth, with the vibrant presence of plants comforting us as it
was in the beginning. Ecological awareness means wanting to preserve vast
amounts
of species, instead of just a few, to protect our total biosphere.
We need to build a new ecologically friendly technology. Each step that is not
extraneous, but pragmatic, will be a point for the score of life over that of
death
It is an incomplete science that has caused so many carcinogen and other
harmful pollutants to be produced. Some believe the present manufacturing
sciences
have even put all life on the earth in jeopardy.
It will only by be a more advanced science that the Earth can be permanently
removed from this jeopardy. Our technology is not going to be taken away from
us, like the Ecological radicals would believe our technology is simply going
to transform itself. I want to use the word "clumsy" to describe our
technological
innovations when they tend to have polluting effects on the environment or on
our bodies.
It is not a "spooky thing" that this change must occur. The change should not
be seem in some type of New Age totalitarian nightmare. It should be viewed as
a
gradual yet eventful scientif- ic revolution, with the mechanisms of common
sense and desire motivating those who have seen the pain and damage the side
effects our technologies can cause. Perhaps by this new direction in science
we'll have products that will not only supply our present needs but discover
technological ideas beyond what we now expect. Perhaps by working with plants
and other aspects of our environment that we, in the clumsy excitements of
our first major years of technological discovery were too primitive to take
into account, our science will take off in new ways and we will ultimately
begin to
exhaust the well of scientific progress.
The nature of the profitability impulse has at its heart when that heart is
uncivilized mere conformitive routin repitition. The idea of "not re-inventing
the wheel"
when the wheel is a system that brings in large amounts money while still
degrading the whole biosphere is an area that needs to be studied and worked on
by
great minds who are also environmentalists and futurists.
I believe through this writing I can open up a definite horizon of what some
future technology will actually be like, a technology that is more advanced
than
present technology in the way it is harmless to life on earth.
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I would really like some feedback on this essay by those of you who
read it.
http://www.eskimo.com/~telical/bdt.html
___________________
Robert Pearson
Creative Virtue: http://www.eskimo.com/~telical/
ParaMind Brainstorming Software http://www.paramind.net/