Ralph Merkle
Ralph Merkle
Ralph C. Merkleis a computer scientist. He is one of the inventors of public key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker of cryonics...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth2 February 1952
CountryUnited States of America
computers function given launching lighter pound
Lighter computers and lighter sensors would let you have more function in a given weight, which is very important if you are launching things into space, and you have to pay by the pound to put things there.
area cannot food people shipped
Food is available, but it cannot be shipped into an area, so the people in that area suffer the consequences.
address build directly molecular root surgical technology tools
A molecular manufacturing technology will let us build molecular surgical tools, and those tools will, for the first time, let us directly address the problems at the very root level.
treatment symptoms proven
What we refer to as 'death' is just a set of symptoms that have proven resistant to treatment.
ill-health tools levels
Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level, yet todays surgical tools are too large to deal with that kind of problem.
california example certain
There are certain things that are inherently scarce. For example, there is only a certain amount of beachfront property in California. It is going to be scarce, it is going to be expensive.
agriculture limits acres
Because of technological limits, there is a certain amount of food that we can produce per acre. If we were to have intensive greenhouse agriculture, we could have much higher production.
happy-life careers healthy
If you look at the human condition today, not everyone is well fed, has access to good medical care, or the physical basics that provide for a healthy and a happy life.
giants needs machines
Manufacturing takes place in very large facilities. If you want to build a computer chip, you need a giant semiconductor fabrication facility. But nature can grow complex molecular machines using nothing more than a plant.
yield looks acres
It looks as though yields of over 10 times what we can currently grow per acre are feasible if you control the CO2 concentration, the humidity, the temperature, all the various factors that plants depend on to grow rapidly.
machines environment function
Machines built by human beings they will function correctly if we provide them with a very specific environment. But if that environment is changed, they won't function at all.
attempt describe known laws physics possible predict within
We don't attempt to predict what will happen. We can describe what is possible within the laws of known physics. Physics is well understood.
afford primary question rather valuable
The primary question shifts to, what do we want? What is it that we find valuable intrinsically rather than what is it that we can afford to make?