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Let's take a look at some other technology used in atmospheric studies.
originally posted by: MagicWand67
a reply to: DenyObfuscation
Is this currently feasible?
I don't know. My guess is YES
If so , is it being used now?
I don't know. My guess is it's still in R&D
originally posted by: network dude
originally posted by: MagicWand67
a reply to: network dude
That's not correct dude.
There are different kinds of MEMS.
You're mixing up two of them and thinking it's the same one.
I am not sure, you posted this picture:
Where is plainly states that the size of these are planned to be a speck of dust, but are now quarter sized. Is your source wrong? Or am I missing something?
edit to add: From your snopes paper:
We have not yet seen any mention of such "smart dust" technology having GPS capabilities or being able to survive in a functional state after being ingested, however.
Read more at www.snopes.com...
Source
The two figures above represent where we are and where we'd like to be.
On the left is where we hope to be in July of '01 - a cubic millimeter device with a sensor, power supply, analog circuitry, bidirectional optical communication, and a programmable microprocessor. Click on the figure to get more detail.
On the right is where we are now (July '99) - a (currently) non-functional mote with a volume of about 100 cubic millimeters. There are two silicon chips sitting on a type-5 hearing aid battery. The right chip is a MEMS corner cube optical transmitter array - it works. On the right is a CMOS ASIC with an optical receiver, charge pump, and simple digital controller - it doesn't work (we violated some of the design rules in the 0.25 micron process, but the next one should work).
The latest chip, which still has no name, is 60 times smaller than the Mu-chip but can handle the same amount of information, which gets stored as a 38-digit number, according to Hitachi.
One catch is that the new chip needs an external antenna, unlike the Mu-chip.
The smallest antennas are about 0.16 inches — giants next to the powder-size chip.
There are no plans yet to start commercial production of the new chip, Takeuchi said.
Invisible tracking brings to mind science-fiction-inspired uses, or even abuses, such as unknowingly getting sprinkled with smart-tag powder for Big Brother-like monitoring.
"We are not imagining such uses," Takeuchi said, adding that the latest chip is so new — and so miniature — Hitachi is still studying its possible uses.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
originally posted by: mrthumpy
originally posted by: MagicWand67
Can I just point out...
The Atmospheric Tracer Technology, employed by the Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) Field Research Division (FRD), involves a small amount of a stable, non-toxic, invisible, odorless, and easily detectable substance (known as a tracer) that is released into the air. The air in the surrounding area is then sampled and the concentration of the tracer is measured. By combining the concentrations with meteorological information, ARL scientists can develop and test theories and models of atmospheric transport and dispersion. Current capabilities include continuous analyzers, time integrated sampling, and automated tracer release mechanisms.
Source
The Risks of Climate Engineering
If SRM climate engineering could be implemented (which is a big question, for reasons explained above), it would have the following benefits:
A reduction in surface air temperatures, which could reduce or reverse some of the negative impacts of global warming, including floods, droughts, stronger storms, sea ice melting, land-based ice sheet melting, and sea level rise.
An increase in plant productivity.
An increase in terrestrial CO2 sink.
Beautiful red and yellow sunsets.
Unexpected benefits.
But I have identified at least 26 possible risks of stratospheric SRM:
Drought in Africa and Asia.
Perturbation of natural ecology and farmed vegetation with more diffuse radiation.
Ozone depletion.
Continued ocean acidification.
Impacts on tropospheric chemistry.
Whiter skies.
Less solar electricity generation.
Degradation of passive solar heating.
Rapid warming if stopped.
An inability to stop effects quickly.
Human error.
Unexpected consequences.
Commercial control.
Military use of the technology.
Societal disruption, with conflicts between countries.
Conflicts with current treaties, such as the UN Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
Whose hand would be on the thermostat? (How could the world agree on a climate that would satisfy all?)
Effects on airplanes flying in the stratosphere.
Effects on the electrical properties of the atmosphere.
The environmental impacts of implementation.
Degradation of terrestrial optical astronomy.
Impacts on stargazing (no more Milky Way).
Impacts on satellite remote sensing.
More sunburn.
Moral hazard: The prospect of it working could reduce drive for mitigation.
Moral authority: Do we have the right to do this?
We need more research to understand the risks of SRM compared with the risks of not doing SRM so that society can make informed decisions in the future about implementation. But how should we do this research? I support indoor research, using computer models of the climate system and studying the impacts of past volcanic eruptions and of ships on clouds. But outdoor research needs strict governance to prevent dangerous pollution in the name of science. And such a governance system does not now exist.
originally posted by: MagicWand67
Let's take a look at some other technology used in atmospheric studies.
Sprinkle enough of this stuff around and you can generate 3D maps of the environment and even track moving targets. Kinda spooky if you ask me.
Source
The year is 2035, and Sgt. Bill Traverse and his team of commandos are performing a “sweep and clean” operation through a portion of the war-torn Mexico City. Their job is to find any hidden pockets of resistance and flush them out and back through the neutral zone or eliminate them. The drones that provide surveillance overhead cannot offer much support in the twisting alleys and passageways of the sprawling metropolis and the helmet-based HUD systems that soldiers are equipped with are useless in a city where all technical infrastructure was destroyed years ago.
Sgt. Traverse isn’t navigating blind, though. He and his team use Dust, portable packets of sensors that float in the air throughout the entire city and track movement, biometric indicators, temperature change and chemical composition of everything in their city. The Dust sensors send information back to their HUD displays through a communications receiver carried by a member of the team. Traverse can tell, from the readings that Dust gives him, if there are people around the next corner and if they are holding weapons. His team can then proceed accordingly …
This scene of Sgt. Traverse and his merry men is a fiction. The concept of Dust is not.
This scene of Sgt. Traverse and his merry men is a fiction. The concept of Dust is not.
Most possible applications require some faith that the micro-motes will improve over time. The researchers present their swarmputers as the next stage in overall processor evolution, from desktop to laptop to cell phone to bloodstream. And yet, these computers are limited by both processing power and communication, relaying information to one another only over very small windows, like deep space satellites. This does not seem to lend itself well to distributed computing. Samsung’s proposed graphene micro-antennae might offer some hope here, but even these function only on the centimeter scale. This would work for a tightly clustered network of chips, but how many applications will actually see these things bound closely together?