[Mail Call] 2017/08/26 – US Technological Innovations

Still working on consolidating the pages and our site, but I wanted to answer one of these since questions are starting to pile up again.

I’ve noticed that Avalon base is running on some very highly advanced technologies. How would these innovations translate into other walks of life? For instance, will fairy assistants replace AI?

Haha, no on the second bit. Fairies are living organisms and they are largely autonomous. They probably wouldn’t be very good at actually doing what an AI does.

This has been answered to an extent in the Action Reports, but I can see where the question is coming from. Action Report only mentions that the creation of a lighter and stronger metal alloy as well as advances in capacitors/electronics coming out of STEC’s research, and it can be difficult to guess what sort of changes these may result.

Well, actually, capacitors are easy. Better capacitors means better electronics. It means more powerful energy storage utilities and better signal transduction. Something like a better alloy is going to be a little more complicated. After all, we have materials such as titanium, but you don’t see everyone driving cars made out of them.

In general, though, these changes represent some fundamental shifts in our ability to create and innovate. Take humanity’s transition from bronze to iron. Ironworking resulted in far wider usage of certain tools and materials, which directly increased production and allowed civilization to sustain a higher population.

Now, some sort of prototype fairy-technology derived alloy rolling out of STEC’s doors is unlikely to fundamentally change Pacific’s society at least in the near future. For instance, think back to our switch to high speed internet. That took a period of over ten years. If this material is proven popular with the public (and it may not – steelworker lobbies are powerful, and I’m pretty sure the established automobile industry don’t really want any shake-ups that could cut into their margins), it’ll take quite some time to find a practical application to it.

So, translation of applications? Slow. Like it is in real life. STEC is very careful about what sort of technology it releases to the public. It understands perhaps more than any other organization on earth about the potential for misuse.

For instance. STEC has very advanced medical capabilities. We’re talking about accelerated healing, biological stasis, genome mapping and targeted molecular interventions. If there were no Abyssals and this gets into the hands of hospitals, we can probably massively cut down on human mortality and increase lifespan significantly.

But is the current system ready for such an increase? Would our pensions work? Social security? Insurance? If this causes the human population to explode, can the planet sustain us?

All this before the Abyssals even come into the equation.

Yeah. Not exactly simple, is it. 🙂