October 9th, 02008 by Alexander Rose
Earlier in September the Millennium Clock design team had an all hands meeting at the Las Vegas Mining Expo. It is only held once every 4 years as it is so difficult and expensive for the companies to bring their machinery there. Since we are planning on using a combination of mining and quarrying techniques (as well as inventing some new rock removal methods), it seemed like a good opportunity to see the state of the mining industry. In addition Greg Baiden, our mining engineer, was showing his latest robotic scoop truck at the show that uses light pulses to transmit video and data. My three main take aways from the event:
- We all agreed that it was hands down the coolest trade show any of us have EVER attended. Sign up now for the next one in 02012 and give yourself two days to see it all.
- It is amazing to me that - with the exception of Greg’s stuff - that there was basically no robotics on display there. This is bizarre for an industry that has huge labor costs and the most dangerous work environment in the world.
- The machines we build to extract metals and minerals from the earth are the most terrifying machines in the world.
Here are some more pics:
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on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 3:51 am and is filed under Clock of the Long Now, Technology.
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October 10th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Hah. I initially mistook the article for a commentary on a form of music!
October 10th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Great point about the robotics. Drilling, blasting and mucking is tough work. Creating employment is one often a big selling point in getting local stakeholders onside with mine development. The relatively low labor costs in many areas of the world might be hampering progress on this front. Sea floor mining (Nautilus Minerals) is an area where cool technology is necessary.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Wow… It must have been amazing to see up-close such terrifying, exotic, subterranean machines…!
October 20th, 2008 at 4:20 am
[…] Long Now foundation took a field trip recently. The pictures are cool, as is the irony that they went to a trade show held once every […]
October 27th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
looks fun. gadgets on a massive scale. reminds me of kim stanely robinson’s descriptions of all the machinery that went into building his vision of the mars colony. which reminds me again of how much his book seems to be about in fact about our current efforts to humanaform our own planet.