Space Exploration and Artificial Intelligence are the two most exciting fields of science which are under active research and development. Both seem to be an important part of the future of humanity. Here I would talk about the idea of keeping space exploration at a higher priority than AI and robotics (until a time). First we discuss briefly the problems that Robots could pose to earth. So, What do We Aim to Create?When we talk about artificial intelligence, the first thing that comes to our mind is 'Robots'. They are the most important application of AI. Creating robots that can actually think like at least animals is so exciting! We could even create something that could mimic a human and his emotions! We could in future create a new complete living species (able to survive on its own). But that poses a problem. Our Ecosystem is Not Prepared For The New Life FormWe are creating a new living species! And these aren’t a part of the natural process of evolution. They are created by us and is a new form of life. The life on earth and the ecosystem isn’t prepared for working with such a new form of life. The robots we build operate on electricity. And the sources of electricity are things that are harmful for the biological life on earth. We could create cleaner and greener sources of energy. This could possibly solve the energy problem. But the problem doesn’t end here. The materials that we use to create robots is bad for nature. We create robots from metal, plastics etc. That aren’t biodegradable. In case of any damage to a robot (its death), its residuals would just remain on earth, without getting decomposed. They would remain on earth as garbage and would pollute the ecosystem. As the population of robots increase, this garbage would continuously increase and keep killing the nature. We can’t let robots kill our mother earth so easily! Could we? We already are worried about Overpopulation. Then why do we create even more people?We now face a serious problem of overpopulation. The resources that we need to keep humans alive are depleting very fast. And the population of humans is increasing. Many people can’t get enough food to eat daily. Even more don’t get a good place to live. Even more have to live in really bad conditions. Even more don’t get a happy life and the list of problem goes on. There are just a few humans that get a good satisfactory life. The reason – overpopulation. Problems such as poverty persists due to unemployment. Robots would take up the jobs of humans in future and humans would suffer even more problems due to this! We already have many people and not all of them are working for humanity. Making robots multiplies the problem. Also they could make us physically inactive and lazy. Eventually this could make us unfit for expansion of humans in the galaxy. Read more about this HERE. We know about these problems. But What is its relation with space Exploration? Space exploration could help us solve these problems as well as develop robots in the future. How? Let’s see. We are making progress in space exploration and striving hard to get to Mars. If in the future, we are able to go to Mars and colonize it, it would help us reduce the burden on earth. If we are lucky enough that we create Mars as a habitable place, we would have several problems solved. We would even try colonizing other planets we could reach in the future. Here I would discuss about colonizing mars and a similar theory could be applied to colonizing multiple planets. We could have much more spaceWe today require a lot a space for building several structures essential for the human society like houses, farms, factories, hospitals etc. To build these, we cut trees on a very large scale to get more space. This in turn pollutes the earth and damages our ecosystem. If we colonize mars, we would be able to build these structures on Mars and reduce the burden on earth. We would then be able to plant more trees on earth and reduce the pollution on earth. In future we might see earth much more beautiful than today. You might have a question in this context. Even if we build buildings on Mars, we would still need them on earth. Then how does it solve the problem? There are two answers to this –
We would have better chances of survivalWe are under a threat of extinction. Our population is increasing too fast. Soon we will be running out of space, out of food. We our destroying the earth. We are going to die! Why? Because we are too many! Earth can’t support such a large population of humans. We all need too many buildings to live. We cut trees to get more space and pollute the earth. Soon the earth would be unable to support life after we have killed it with our poisonous gases. Not just that. We can anytime go extinct. There are so many natural hazards ready to kill us. An asteroid might smash onto earth and kill us all. A gamma ray burst pointing straight towards earth might vaporize all the life on earth. These are just few of examples. There are so many ways we can all go extinct. The only way we can prevent this is spread ourselves to different parts of the universe so that we have a better chance of survival. This makes space exploration even more important. And doing it as quickly as possible is what we should do. This is because we will soon run out of resources and food. Making investments in space exploration would help us find more ways to survive. We can even create a planet of robotic lifeOnce we have a good way of travelling through the universe fast and quickly, we can find a planet to support robotic life. It should have enough sources of energy for our robots to survive. We could send a bunch of robots there and create a new form of life! A planet full of robotic life! Isn’t it exciting? We our creating a real life Cybertron! This idea seems to be unnecessary because creating robotic life on a planet is in no way beneficial for us. But if you think in a broader perspective, we might be able to preserve our signs in the universe this way. We might even become a ‘God’ sort of species by creating an entire species of life. This might be the way our gods created us. Another perspective would be that we could in future transfer our consciousness to these robots and continue to survive. Robots are able to survive in much worse conditions than us. They don’t need Oxygen to live. They just need energy in any form. Robots have a better chance of survival with a human brain inside it. Once we have solved these problems, We have space as well as time to develop RobotsOnce we have solved the problems of the human civilization, we would have time to develop robots. We would then have enough space for accommodating robots as a part of our society. Also, we would have time to develop robots as we are no more afraid of going extinct. Then, robots could help us a lot to explore the Universe and expand human race even further. Creating robots at such a large extend that we wish to would be very unsafe on earth. It would create many more problems on earth (as discussed earlier). But doing so when we have colonized multiple planets wouldn’t create any problems and would help us expand our civilization in the universe. This gives the reason why I say that space exploration should be our first priority. Let me know what you think about it by commenting below. Thanks for Reading! Do share and comment.
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Graphene is tougher than steel - about 200 times stronger than the toughest steel and is just 1 atom thick !! The toughest material is just 1 atom thick? This is just mind blowing. It has incredible properties for real world applications -
These properties of graphene can be used to make different things. But first, how is it made? Pencil + Sticking Tape = Graphene!The title seems to be crazy, but its true! All you need to build graphene is a pencil and a tape. Stick some graphite from the pencil to the tape, then stick another layer of tape to it and then pull the layers apart. Now, put another layer of the tape on it and pull apart. Repeat this several times and you will end up with graphene. Though this graphene layer would be small and almost impossible to be practically used, but this is it - its graphene. Now, how does it work? The Pencil lead is made up of graphite and graphite is nothing but several layers of graphene stacked up together. So, when you pull apart the 2 layers of tape, you actually pull apart the layers of graphene from graphite. When you have separated the several layers of graphene, you finally get a single layer of graphene. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of University of Manchester, UK won the Nobel Prize for Physics 2010 for the discovery of Graphene using this super simple method! Graphite leads are easily broken. Then how can graphene be so tough? When you break the graphite leads, you are separating the layers of graphene apart. Those layers are bonded with each other with weak bonds and so, separate easily. You can't actually make graphene at a big scale with pencil and tape method. So, we need a better method to make it. We need an industrial method to make graphene. Chemical Vapour DepositionIn this process, hot gaseous carbon is sprayed onto a copper (or some other specific metal like nickel) plate. When the gaseous carbon comes in contact with the hot plate in a furnace, a solid film of graphene is deposited over the copper plate. But there is a problem with this. Once the graphene film is formed over the copper plate, it is then very difficult to extract it without contaminating it. There are some modifications to this that make extracting graphene easier. The copper plate is placed over a silicon substrate. Now, like the above process, graphene is grown on the copper plate. The copper is then just etched away using wet-etching process. The graphene film is then left over the silicon. These techniques are good but expensive. We are still developing different processes to produce graphene in bulk quantities and have been able to reduce the costs till a certain extend, but not very much. A Battery that Charges in Seconds!!Graphene's conductive properties has great applications. One of it is that it can be used to create super capacitors that can store a great amount of charge for a long time. This super capacitor can be used to replace batteries. And it can hold a lot of charge similar to your smartphone batteries. So, what is so special about it when compared to batteries? It is the fact that capacitors charge really quickly and due to graphene's high conductivity, it gets charged even quicker. How quick is it? It charges within seconds. Now no need to wait forever to charge your smartphone batteries! This isn't the only benefit. It is even eco-friendly! The graphene batteries (the super capacitor) would be made only of carbon and nothing else. So, it would be biodegradable (Yay! Biodegradable Batteries!) When your batteries go waste, put them into you plants and it will make the plants live longer (make the soil more fertile). These batteries have zero polluting effects and are better to use than ordinary batteries. There is no reason not to use them. Get a Shatter Proof ScreenGraphene has super incredible conducting properties. It is also super transparent. Because of this, it can be used in creating touch screens for smartphones and different devices. The conducting layer of the touch screen can be replaced with a graphene layer. This will make the screens really efficient. Also, we earlier had discovered that graphene is 200 times tougher than steel and so, the screens made from graphene would be 200 times stronger than steel!! Creating Tougher MaterialsGraphene is very strong and light. It can thus be used in combination with other materials to form ultra-strong composite materials. These materials would prove useful in creating strong aircraft or spacecraft parts. Space crafts of the future would need to be strong to be able to survive in the dangerous environment of space and graphene could be the key to create ultra strong space materials. Filtering The Dirtiest WaterGraphene layers can be used for ultrafiltration processes to filter out pure water. Graphene allows water to pass through it while doesn't allow almost any other molecule to pass through it. It doesn't even allow helium molecules to pass through. So, it can be used to filter out water from all other things. The Graphene layer is very thin, which means lesser pressure has to be applied for ultrafiltration than the current ultrafiltration processes. We can hence easily filter even the dirtiest water on earth. All water on earth would be drinkable. Creating Better Solar PanelsToday's solar panels are silicon based. These are very expensive to produce. Silicon panels also aren't very efficient. They loose much of the energy gained from sunlight in form of heat. They absorb only specific wavelengths of light to produce electricity. Graphene helps in overcoming these limitations. Almost all the energy gained from sunlight is converted to electricity. They can absorb all wavelengths of light to produce electricity from them. But it has a limitation that it can only absorb a small fraction of light incident on it (about 2.7% of the white light). Besides this, it is very thin, light and flexible. These solar panels could be fitted almost anywhere. It could be placed on your clothing to charge your phone. Graphene is transparent and so Graphene solar panels could be placed on your windows. It could prove useful in creating solar panels. ConclusionGraphene is an incredible material and has promising properties for using in various commercial applications. It is even biodegradable and eco-friendly. The only limitation to it is the lack of a good industrial method to make graphene in large quantities. Thanks for Reading! Do share and comment. |
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AuthorAnish Sharma - A Student and the owner of this website. Archives |