A low cost floating platform shields the suspended plants from saltwater splashes. At worst, if it fails, you get pickles. Use in warm areas of oceans and seas.
The only problem is pirates so stay away from Somalia.-- pashute, Feb 08 2018 Nemo's garden https://www.theguar...-nemos-garden-italySea food [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 08 2018] //low cost//
Might want to consider the cost of anything floating, staying on station, not sinking, being accessible for harvesting etc gets compared to the price of a patch of dirt which has no such problems.
Plus you don't have to worry about your vegetables getting killed by the salt. When you coat a cucumber plant with salt, you don't get a pickle, you get a dead cucumber plant.
Might want to look into creating naturally ocean going plants that are edible.
Before you say "seaweed", just because people eat something doesn't mean it's edible. Seaweed is not edible, I've eaten enough sushi to know. It's primitive masking tape (with a more unpleasant taste) that holds the edible parts together.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 08 2018 (+) I think this is already a thing, but under water. Give me a minute.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 08 2018 <18.9 seconds later>
[link]-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 08 2018 So let me do the math. With the system shown in the link, a strawberry would cost.... hmm... carry the 3... add the... factor in the... OK. One strawberry: $2,375.
Other than that, it's a terrific idea.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 08 2018 Yeah but that's just thinking short term.We need to spore outward into the universe or we'll be at 600 billion soon.
The way the folks running the show squabble like children has me figuring that near-coastal submerged real estate will be a valuable commodity soon.We'll have underwater Shopping Malls before you know it.
One thing that gives me hope in that regard is Seacrete, where running a small current through a metal framework causes minerals in salt water to accrete into whatever shapes we can devise.Growing seacrete along the edges of thick triangular glass panels suspended about waist height above the bottom of the seabed until they fuse would create water-tight domes anchored to the bottom.Pump air from the surface to displace the water and farm oxygenating plants beneath each structure to scrub Co2 and bubble up oxygen.
Spacious two bedroom open-concept suites in Submerburbia, close to amenities, restaurants, and the Aquarimall, are currently renting for $1700.00/month. {Subject to change without notice}-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 08 2018 // We need to spore outward into the universe or we'll be at 600 billion soon. //
<advertising blimp loudhailer>
"A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, a chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure."
</advertising blimp loudhailer>
Of course, not everyone gets to watch C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. But if you're happy with a below-minimum-wage long-hours job doing the equivalent of picking avocados or fast-fashion garment manufacturing in dangerous, squalid conditions with no healthcare or pension and subsisting on Soylent Red, then the the rest of the Galaxy will be quite happy to issue you with a short-term work permit, but not a residence visa. Oh, and don't even dream of bringing any dependant relatives.-- 8th of 7, Feb 08 2018 It's funny isn't it?Our first-world countries looking down on third-world countries while first-galaxy planets look down on our little third-galaxy planet.
HA! They're even making us pay for our own wall...
But back to the idea itself, what if we killed seven birds with one stone by using plant life to bind up the Gyres and create floating islands of agricultural land which currently don't exist.They're each about the size of Texas. They rotate so all of the plants would receive at least partial southern exposure, and once all of the plastic bits have been bound up strategic use of sails and oceanic currents would allow them to eventually become autonomous countries as long as the remained in international waters.
I mean if we're going to farm on the water then let's Really farm on water!-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 08 2018 //We need to spore outward into the universe or we'll be at 600 billion soon.//
Expansion away from Earth will have no impact whatsoever on Earth's human population density.
Current population growth on Earth is about 100 million per year. To send that many people to off-world colonies, you'd be looking spaceships carrying 1000 people each, departing every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 09 2018 <Obligatory Soylent Green reference/>-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2018 Not if you put the occupants in suspended animation, like the "B" ark in HHGTTG...
In fact, you can just freeze them. There's no actual need to be able to revive them ... and they're never going to know, or complain, are they ?-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2018 //Current population growth on Earth is about 100 million per year. To send that many people to off-world colonies, you'd be looking spaceships carrying 1000 people each, departing every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.//
Moving to other planets won't solve the problems for people on Earth, only those of the former Earthlings who now have unlimited horizons to conquer and new land to inhabit.
The problem of overpopulation on Earth will be handled as it always has, by nature.
One possibility I'm fascinated by is the de-evolution solution where clever man has overgrown the boundaries that all other life has to live within and he gets replaced by a dull witted bipedal farm animal that eats, shits and procreates. The other path is we continue to "figure it out". I think the latter solution is more likely, but the former probably a possibility too.
Intelligence is a feature, like plates on the back of a dinosaur, that may or may not be useful in the future as environments and circumstances change. To believe that intelligence is inevitable because it's the trump card of evolution smacks a bit of orthogenesis, which is a controversial biological hypothesis that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve in a definite direction towards some goal (teleology) due to some internal mechanism or "driving force". (I cut and pasted that) I think the programming all life shares is simply to live and expand and is entirely subject to the whims of the environment it inhabits.
If smart people are better suited to the current environment, they win the evolutionary game. If stupid people fare better, they will inherit the planet.
It grieves me to think that those Gia nut-jobs might agree with me, and obviously I could be wrong, but I do think that's one possible path for mankind. Harmless eating, shitting, mating machines, living (and dying) in harmony with whatever patch of dirt they inhabit.
Kind of like Philadelphia Eagles fans, only less dangerous.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 09 2018 Yup. Kansas is full of'em, too.
// a dull witted bipedal farm animal that eats, shits and procreates. //
The certain goal of the Democratic party since the day of its founding.-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2018 //Intelligence is a feature, like plates on the back of a dinosaur, that may or may not be useful in the future as environments and circumstances change.//
I'd have to disagree. The point about intelligence is that it allows you to cope with changing circumstances, unlike the dinosaur's plates which solve a specific and peculiar purpose. Thanks to our intelligence we can cope with changes in food, changes in predators, changes in diseases, changes in climate... Intelligence isn't a guarantee of success, but it does give you the equivalent of near-instantaneous adaptability.
For instance, we don't have claws, but we "evolved" them in the form of knives. We don't have wings, but we "evolved" aircraft. We can't see in infrared, but we "evolved" night vision goggles. We don't have gills, but we "evolved" SCUBA. We don't have a tough exoskeleton, but we "evolved" clothes and body armour... Intelligence is the ability to evolve any desirable trait on demand.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 09 2018 //The certain goal of the Democratic party since the day of its founding.//
Hey man, there's big money in moron farming.
Was reading a list of old, dead words that should be brought back like "kakistocracy": government by the least qualified or worst people or "fudgel": pretending to work while actually doing nothing.
Has anybody charted the decline of vocabulary in our culture? I'm curious to see if the average of 20,000 to 35,000 words is going down. Supposedly 8 year olds know about 10,000 words and they communicate most situations perfectly well. In our increasingly automated world I'm not sure words like "surreptitious" or "philanthropy" will survive as they'll simply never be used. Maybe they'll survive in some monastery like facilities the way knowledge was preserved during the dark ages.
Or we'll just suddenly turn it around and we'll all get really smart for some reason.
Max, I agree that this feature of intelligence is the bestest feature life has ever come up with for adaptation and survival, however it's still subject to one factor, that of "requirement".
Been a lot of talk about our systems (AI) growing and taking on a "life" path of their own and possibly deciding they don't need or like us. There's also the possibility of a kind of merger of the two systems, us and our computers such that the computers take over the role formerly performed by our brains simply because they do it better.
Don't you wonder when you see a group of kids all staring at their iPhones is this is the beginning of a merger of man and machine?
The rate at which these AI systems will evolve is going to be very fast. What will they replace? Why would you ever ask Doctorremulac3 a question about anything? He's a biological, they're as smart as a hamster compared to the universal AI monster brain thing.
I'm pretty fond of the idea that we're not going to turn into animals that only react to the sound of a can opener signaling dinner, but even if we don't all turn into walking eating machines, splitting into two paths is a very possible thing that might happen. Dummies and smarties. Evolution's been hedging its bets for a very long time, creating two different paths and saying "On your marks...get set...GO!" and not caring who crosses the finish line of evolutionary success.
Or not. Like I said, maybe we all just get magically smart for some reason, the so called "Flynn effect" which sounds like flat Earth science to me, but I could be wrong.
I think I'll stop saying "I could be wrong" twenty times per post. Let's just say that goes for everything I write to save some time.
Really would like to see that vocabulary chart if there is one. I didn't see anything when I asked the Godlike Overlord Of Guided Learning Education.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 09 2018 Of course there's that weird evolutionary left turn of physical merger of man and machine.
You CAN ask Doctorremulac3 anything about any subject and he'll give you the answer because he's got that neural implant, but why would you? You've got one too.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch my entire life savings turn to ashes as the stock market collapses. Someday I'll look back on this and laugh. Hysterically. In a padded room wearing a strait-jacket. (If I can afford it.)-- doctorremulac3, Feb 09 2018 // that weird evolutionary left turn of physical merger of man and machine. //
Harrrumph ....
<meaningful glare>
Thankyou for explaining that - now you have made it clear that you have a yearning to carry your teeth round in a paper bag instead of having them fixed in your jaws, we are in a position to offer immediate assistance.-- 8th of 7, Feb 09 2018 I think what Max was saying was that after life tried all sorts of various tools to walk, climb, swim, fly, eat, and protect itself it finally came up with the "Swiss Army Knife" of evolutionary features: intelligence. This can replace all of these things as necessary and much more effectively than waiting around millions of years for evolution to figure out a solution to the problem.
He's saying "Why would this amazing product ever fall into disuse? It replaces all the things life has been striving for for millions of years."
Unless it gets replaced itself.
And what if we're not just getting dumber, what's to keep us from growing to 3, 4 stories tall? Women like tall men.
Here's an alternate picture to contrast with cities in the sky and flying cars: four stories tall and the brain of a squirrel.
In my youth I might have used that as the title of a song. Maybe a rap/metal vibe. (Sung percussively with a stupid caveman style articulation)
"FOUR-STOR-IES TALL AND-THE BRAIN-OF-A- SQUIRREL!
MONGO BITES! MONGO BITES!"
Although we probably wouldn't have names.
Plus the only thing I could think of that rhymes with "squirrel" is "epidural" which would be pretty hard to fit into the story line. Sometimes songs just die on the operating table.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 09 2018 Oh this looks like fun...
FOUR STORIES TALL AND THE BRAIN OF A SQUIRREL!
MONGO BITES! MONGO BITES!
SMELL SO BAD MAKE YOU WANNA HURL!
GONNA GET WITH ALL THE GIRLS...
WATCH ME DO A BICEP CURL...
GOT A MOM HER NAME IS PEARL...
LIKE TO WATCH THE POTTY WHIRL...
(Used without permission)-- RayfordSteele, Feb 09 2018 Hey, that's pretty damn good. Frank Zappa would be proud. (jealous actually)
Made me laugh.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 09 2018 Sp. Straitjacket
What was that about vocabulary decline?-- pertinax, Feb 09 2018 //watch my entire life savings turn to ashes as the stock market collapses//
Commiserations. I sold everything on Wednesday. If it all bounces back next week, you can point at me and laugh.-- pertinax, Feb 10 2018 The Gia-tron matrix, a giant living mechanized omega molecule. Our designed/engineered systems as a natural symbiotic part rather than a colonizer/plasterer. A true Earthship.
Complexity approaching it's limiting factor.-- wjt, Feb 10 2018 //with "squirrel" is "epidural"//
So, no murals of Tyrol or the Wirral?-- pertinax, Feb 10 2018 Have you a link to this Gia-tron matrix, [wjt]?-- pertinax, Feb 10 2018 Rather more than a link; we have an unpleasant suspicion that the "Gia-tron matrix" and [wjt] are one and the same.
This would mean that [wjt] is a complex multicomponent intelligence, and possibly an aggressive hegemonizing swarm - meaning that we see here not only a competitor, but very likely an adversary and a potential threat.
Preemptive action is indicated, and it sure as hell won't be sending a singing Valentine's card.-- 8th of 7, Feb 10 2018 [pertinax] No link. Just trying to imagine a concept beautiful Earth, if we could keep evolving in dynamic balance all the nature, reproducing, shitting ,designing and engineering in a holistic way.
A death star with bluer than blue oceans, green lush trees and icy white polarcaps.
[8th of 7] The high orders may develop intelligence with more dimensions but I would still only be, if assimilated, a lowly individual.-- wjt, Feb 10 2018 // death star //
Told you. Told you. I'tll be the black cloak and the respirator mask next ...
// I would still only be, if assimilated, a lowly individual. //
That's exactly what you won't be. Not individual, anyway.-- 8th of 7, Feb 11 2018 A Star Wars Death Star was only the simple design fraction of the possible. It's never assimilated the leaf and hence natures intricate systems. A Star Wars Death Star with a Dagobah swamp continent and the complexity may just start to get interesting.
[8th] put it this way, assimilating me won't allow access to any higher levels I currently have or are a part of. I may be an assimilated cell in Gia and wouldn't even know it.-- wjt, Feb 12 2018 So, is Gia any relation to Gaia? Or Chia?-- pertinax, Feb 12 2018 Gaia, we think. Human isn't [wjt]'s first language.-- 8th of 7, Feb 12 2018 random, halfbakery