
"When it comes to the environment, the invisible hand never picks up the check." --Kim Stanley Robinson
"..Engineering without a Cultural Context is just Gadgeteering..."
.. Our approach to ending Harmful Algae Blooms is unique. We give pond scum a market value, as paraffin, and allow Adam Smith's 'Invisible Hand' to do the rest.. we began working on this a long time ago, when the first elements of the pattern began to emerge.. these blooms have increased in size & frequency, in both fresh and salt water, to become the 'new normal'..
our predictions have been accurate
both in time & place.. we know what to do.. we are ready..
WE CAN MAKE YOUR POND SCUM GO AWAY.... AND KEEP IT AWAY
Harmful Algae Blooms are a growing problem and will remain so until we find a way to prevent them we can live with. Right now we wait until a bloom becomes intolerable and then a public agency spends millions to clean up the damage. As these blooms become larger and more frequent, as they will, this will not be a sustainable strategy. We must find a way to interrupt the blooms before they can do any damage… and we must do it continuously. The question then is “who pays for that”? The answer is, the clean-up technology itself. Our VBShdl-2m20 Mobula robots produce $327 in revenue PER DAY. That is over $98,000 PER YEAR from a robot that barely costs that much. This is over & above any fees collected from public agencies to clean and/or prevent blooms. How? They convert the biomass of the bloom into paraffin wax, which sells commercially, in bulk, for $0.45 per pound… and the market is HUGE. It is used in the chemical industry, refining, food processing, agriculture, cosmetics & pharmaceuticals… a remediation that pays for itself …
.. at a profit.
Our process was tested by an independent laboratory. Algae from Toxic Blooms in Florida were run through our process. 100% of the Toxins were removed. The nutrient load in the water column was REDUCED by 50%.. WITHOUT ANY CHEMICALS OR WASTE STREAMS WHATSOEVER. However, it isn't the nutrient load, per se, that causes the bloom. The bloom also requires CO2 in the water column. Our Manatees are the only remediation technology that also gets to the root cause. The results are available to qualified parties upon request.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wBYPjkGRdo
Our robots are powered by the wind & sun. They eat algae and turn it into paraffin like a meta-organism. One of the misconceptions about our robots is that they are like a ROOMBA.. they are not.. they actually run between 20% and 30% of the time because they 'live' off they available energy only, just like the algae does.. they move toward a bloom and then 'graze' on it .. until a larger bloom appears.. where they move again..
People ask us why we use robots and don't just 'suck it up'. We are not cleaning a swimming pool. We are cleaning living bodies of water that are hundreds of feet or many miles across. The algae is a plant. It will NOT come to us. We must go to it. Our robots are based on the concept of Heuristic Cybernetics. This is the latest version of software we originally developed to monitor and control nuclear reactors.
Algae blooms are really algae-azolla-duckweed blooms. They have a symbiotic relationship that makes them impervious to any elimination method short of those so extreme as to kill ALL life in the body of water.. It can often reproduce so fast it is growing faster than it can be removed, doubling in mass every 20 minutes....People often want to know how many robots will 'eliminate' the algae and 'what do we do when the algae is all gone'.. it will never be gone in the lifetimes of our children or great-grandchildren... it is already too late.. in the 1970s we talked about the ecological disasters that would occur if we didn't do something... well... we didn't do anything.. now they are here.. pond scum is the 'new normal'.. people trivialize the situation and treat cleaning it as something akin to cleaning a swimming pool.. it is not.. it is the world we created with indifference... we now require a remediation technology that is continuous and stays ahead of the growth so as to avoid blooms, rather than wait for them to occur, with all the problems they create..
01/18
Solaris Cybernetics, a leader in robotics and machine intelligence, announces the creation of the Ariel Lens. The company has developed a device that can ‘see’ a Toxic Algae Bloom as it is forming, BEFORE it is visible to the naked eye. The exact method is proprietary and patents are applied for or issued.
Company president, Rudolph Behrens commented, “this allows us to deploy clean-up technology BEFORE the bloom occurs and PREVENT it from ever happening. This saves millions of dollars in lost business, removal, disposal and crop & livestock deaths.”
C3-Communal Co-existence & Co-evolution:
“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
― Wendell Berry
Summary:
Not since the invention of solid-state electronics, the micro-chip and the personal computer has a technology come along that will revolutionize the way we think about machines and how we use them. This revolution is the phytogenic cyborg.
A cyborg is a CYBernetic ORGanism. This means an organism with both biological and artificial parts. A phytogenic, meaning 'from plants', cyborg is a plant-machine hybrid. Such a device can react and interact with it's environment perfectly because it's neural-net, it's 'brain', is a living thing just like the other organisms in the biota. It does this not by a complex and, ultimately, imperfect computer program but by the responses recorded in it's DNA. No amount of programming can substitute for millions of years of trial and error. The responses 'programmed' in the plant DNA tell the robot what it needs at any time, what to do with it and where to get it. Phytogenic cyborgs 'live off the land', deriving what energy and materials it needs from the surrounding biota. It is NOT an industrial process that the ecosystem hopes to survive. It is an integral part of the ecosystem, making the ecosystem more vital and productive BECAUSE of its presence.
Why do this?
Such a device interacts productively with it's environment. Such robots are used to tend crops, clean polluted areas, restore wetlands & grasslands, grow food, grow sustainable materials, grow biofuels, and clean and/or desalinate seawater. They are able to interact with their environment as if they are a part of it because they, in fact, are a part of it. Just like any life-form in an environment they will consume wastes of some species and excrete products useful to other species. Unlike purely mechanical devices they are able to the detect stresses in their environment in real time, and impose limits on themselves so as not to destroy their environment.
Such robots are introduced into damaged ecospheres and operate as the missing part, such as megaflora, megafauna, sanitizer, or restorer, all the time producing useful products and services.
A.I. Architecture:
Ecosystems respond to changes in their environment by various physical means.
These can be detected by sensors. A phytogenic A.I. consists of (1) the 'control ecosystem'which is an ecosystem the robot maintains internally under ideal conditions. A hybrid analog-digital computer (2) monitors it. The computer also senses variations in the external ecosystem (3). It continuously calculates a "stress gradient" between the 2 ecosystems and reacts based on the results.
An ecosystem is not a discrete object. It is a name we give to the interaction among multiple species from all phylums. As such the "optimum conditions" for each species varies as it is influenced by weather, season AND it's interaction with other species. Therefore, the stress gradient is continuously changing. This implies that the "optimum" conditions are always a Nash Equilibrium.
The design is based on Heuristic Cybernetics. Heuristic Cybernetics is a method of robotic design where the artificial intelligence inference engine is expressed through several media simultaneously, such as:
1. Electronically
2. Electrically
3. Hydraulically
4. Pneumatically
5. Mechanically
6. Biologically
7. Chemically
As such the Artificial Intelligence Inference Engine can be made of valves, or diodes; levers or proteins. In fact, the A.I. can be expressed in multiple ways inside the same A.I. This means the A.I can be congruent with the robot itself. Such a device is then self-regulating, self-correcting and autonomous.
Imagine what it would be like if we suddenly had TWO more Earths to live on.Imagine a world were everyone has access to a good living. Imagine a world where food, clean water, clean energy and ultra-strong new materials are not only available in abundance, but at a cost easily affordable by anyone. Imagine a world where these vital products are produced by intelligent machines, controlled from home, but operating in remote fields, on lakes and rivers, or at sea. Imagine these products being used directly in the community, creating new, well-paying jobs, both blue and white collar. Imagine a world where a global network of people and their robots are linked together, sharing information and reacting to each others' problems at the speed of light. We have imagined such a world and created the technology to make it a reality. The Pelagos Project will make the equivalent of two new Earths for everyone.
Aurora Ranch is not an actual ranch. It is a technology and method
to use arable land for paraffin production that is extremely profitable,
yet restorative to the soil. Depleted land, such as over-used fields,
landfills, vacant land under power lines, is planted with clover and
other self-fertilizing plants. Their roots hold the soil together,
retain moisture and add nutrients that benefit other plants. Once
the clover is established robot 'cows' graze on it, mowing it and
consuming the clippings. These clippings are fed into a tank containing
algae and other natural organisms that convert the clippings into paraffin.
Additionally, edible plants can be cultivated inside the robot.
This fuel is stored until the robot is full. The robot then connects
to a tanker truck to unload the fuel. Food can be harvested at
this time as well. When the fuel & food is transferred the robot
dis-connects and returns to the fields.
The process that converts the biomass to high quality paraffin also
produces a residue that is an extremely high quality fertilizer. This is
periodically released from the robot back onto the land, restoring
the fertility. There is an added benefit to this revived soil. It is once
again capable of capturing carbon dioxide and burying it under ground
via it's root system. This can be done, at no cost, on a large
enough scale to significantly reduce the CO2 levels in the
atmosphere.
The robo-cows move along at less than 4 feet an hour so they
can be used in the same fields as animals. Every few days the fuel is
collected. By the time they return to that spot, the grass and
clover has regrown. During the winter, dead grass and fallen leaves are
consumed and fed into the live algae tank so food & fuel
production continues uninterrupted all year.
After a few seasons, what was barren depleted soil is now enriched
and thriving. Food crops can be grown without chemical fertilizers.
The 'cows' move on to other fields, or return at the end of the
growing season to glean the field.
“if we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get fresh water from saltwater” it would dwarf any other scientific accomplishments.” John F. Kennedy
New Water Aquaculture has done that.
The most important issue of this century will be water. The need for abundant, low-cost supplies of safe water is so intrinsic to human life it is not necessary to explain the need. What is changing is the availability of safe, low-cost water. Every aspect of human life and commerce is dependent upon water. All are interconnected in our modern, technological society, but increases in population and the general level of technological sophistication all over the world has increased demand, while environmental changes and irresponsible industrial and agricultural practices have decreased the supply. In fact, a crisis of supply is imminent on a global scale.
To avert this crisis, New Water LLC has developed and patented(U.S. Patent #7750494) and tested (see below)a revolutionary technology that will provide virtually unlimited supplies of safe, clean, potable water at costs comparable to traditional ground-based sources, but with sustainability and stewardship of the Earth as the most important criteria. This technology integrates robotic, engineered biospheres into a symbiotic relationship that can provide abundant supplies of safe, clean, low-cost water in a way that is sustainable. With this technology the company will construct, sell, lease or license complete desalination systems capable of supplying entire cities.
The design is simple in concept. A planned eco-system is constructed inside a greenhouse-like structure that uses renewable energy to maintain summer conditions 12 months per year. The eco-system is based on halophytic (salt-loving) plants, with additional species to maintain the health and vigor of the halophytes. In the normal course of their biology the halophytes transpire clean, salt-free, pathogen-free, water vapor into the greenhouse environment. Circulation fans move the vapor-laden air into special condensers where the vapor is liquified and either stored or pumped into a water supply. The only power used is sunlight on the plants and some power to operate the pumps and fans.
The primary plant grows in seawater and has a natural reverse-osmosis membrane around it's roots. You could describe it as a solar-powered R/O system that is self-repairing and self-replicating.
The only expenses are amortization and some minimal labor expense, yielding a production cost of only a few cents per thousand gallons.
We provide plans for individuals & community service groups to build their own robots with materials they source locally. The plans are COMPLETELY free. Call or send an email if you want to join the fight to save the Earth.
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