Stark Trek - How far are we?
gcv: We need to solve the problem of producing energy. I think that human progress, even in the short term, depends entirely upon "breaking" the first law of thermodynamics. Clearly, no one will successfully create energy out of nothing, but I hope that physics will one day invent a way to cheaply and cleanly tap into energy sources which produce a huge yield. We have nuclear reactors today, but they are enormously large, expensive, and difficult to maintain. The day that you can buy a car --- or a wristwatch --- powered by atomic energy, you can say that the future arrived.This energy source does not have to be atomic, except we don't know of a fuel more densely packed with energy than atoms. E = mc^2 and all that. In most science fiction, this problem has been solved using mumbo-jumbo technology, such as matter-antimatter reactors. Whatever; maybe someone will one day think of a way to make that work. Solving the energy problem means that the vast amount of effort currently directed at, e.g., oil production, stable trade with parts of the world which produce and sell hydrocarbon fuels, and climate maintenance can free up to really push things forward.Just think of the rockets we could build if they didn't need to use awful rocket propellants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_propellant) or nuclear explosions for fuel. And I'll try to make sure the controlling software for those rockets uses Lisp. :)