User:Lsparrish

Luke Parrish

Research Interests

Main areasː Space, cryonics, robotics, education, economics

Space Space-based manufacturing, replication of robotic parts and automated assembly for sustainable growth in space. I've surveyed a lot of the literature and studied various different approaches. The reason this matters is because resources in space are abundant, and not subject to land ownership bottlenecks, so economic growth (in terms of physical resources and energy harvested) could be very rapid in this environment as soon as a self sustaining replication process is implemented.

Another important topic relating to space is non-rocket space launch mechanisms. Despite the tyranny of the rocket equation, rocketry has a successful history dating back to the first space missions. In fact, every space mission has been a rocket to orbit. The concept of rocket science and aerospace are synonymous. However, in principle there are other ways to deliver useful cargo to orbit at much lower costs, and these have been discussed endlessly in the literature. Large scale guns with barrels in the hundreds of kilometers long could fire with acceleration rates favorable to human occupants. Another mechanism proposed by Paul Birch in the 1980s is a superorbital stream of particles or structural material that encircles the globe and supports a series of tethers via electromagnetic repulsion. The stream can also be used in lieu of an orbital burn rocket maneuver, as the cargo can be coupled electromagnetically to the stream. This system is called an Orbital Ring, and typically envisioned at very large scale using a protective sheath containing two counter-balanced mass streams.

There are some reasons to suspect that it may be impossible to design orbital rings that mass less than 1000 tons, or even 100,000 tons. This dramatically impacts the cost of the project, although expected economic gains could justify it even then. Thus it is desirable to seek alternatives in the 1-100 ton range. One such alternative would be a [Hypervelocity Landing Track], which would be a track that is kept horizontal by means of ion rockets and coupled to by the payload by means of magnetic induction.

Cryonics Applied human cryobiology, blurring the line of life and death. By some criteria, a human is dead (irreversible cessation of life) when their heart stops or brainwave is flat. These criteria relate to systemic damage that is not reversible with current medicine. The heart stopping is notable in that it has exceptions (depending on the reason for stopping) and is frequently restarted with a defibrillator. However, there is reason to suspect these are typically reversible by the capabilities of advanced future technologies which will eventually exist. Similarly, the damage done by cryopreserving a brain has properties that may be reversible by advanced future technologies. Cryonics involves an attempt to reduce the damage of the dying process to whatever the achievable minimum is. That is a moving target, based on the quality of the procedure and the circumstances of death. Thus there are many shades of grey involved in how realistic the core tenet of cryonics (which may be summarized as 'freeze, wait, reanimate') may be.

Robotics Our world's manufacturing processes are increasingly automated. The number of robots sold per year for manufacturing is around 12 percent per year, a figure which implies that the number doubles every six years. That presents us with the prospect of a 'soft singularity' where the number of robots vastly exceeds the human population in a matter of decades. For example, in 60 years a constant rate would predict 1000 times as many robots. That said, the automation of human labor is driven by manufacturers wanting to save money, achieve things that humans cannot, or produce greater volume than their workforce would be able to handle. Automation always has to compete against (often low-priced) human workers as an alternative. As robots become more sophisticated, and as the process of automating industrial practices matures, the rate at which we adopt robotics may increase. Furthermore, in environments where human labor is more expensive due to innate risks and costs, such as space, this relative competition may be absent. Paradoxically, this may lead to faster growth overall, as human labor is cheaper at the local level (individual business, for example) rather than being cheaper at the broad economic level (rate at which the economy self-doubles). Thus a complex system of robotics in space, absent human labor competition and resource bottlenecks (primarily energy, which is available in the form of consistent, high intensity solar energy), may double itself at rates of a year or less.

Education Learning notably takes substantial time and effort, yet is one of the most effective tools for self improvement and achieving more in one's lifetime. We often expend substantial time and effort on video games, despite their relatively low utility, due to their tendency to trigger the brain's reward centers. It may be suspected that successful learners are finding ways to "gamify" learning by triggering their reward centers in response to small learning achievements.

Economics One thing I'm interested in is the concept of Ricardian rent and how it applies to resources other than square footage of the planet's surface. Rent appears to be about the monopolization of a resource, which forces competitors to use a different resource. For example, building a subdivision on a given parcel of land competes against building a high-rise apartment complex on the same land. City planners must coordinate with developers to provide the utilities for the latter type of structure, hence the practice of planning and zoning (which anyone who plays SimCity will be familiar with).