Comment How about... (Score 1) 51
...a collapsed ring system?
...a collapsed ring system?
The things have more uses than space elevators. A thinner stronger cable is always going to have uses even if it's only a few metres.
If we could fab them cheaply (and they don't turn out to be as carcinogenic as irradiated super-death-asbestos or anything), we'd probably use carbon nanotubes in everything. All sorts of neat thermal and electrical properties, strong as hell, just replace fiberglass with engineered carbon and feel the strength!
However, (aside from the pure sci-fi value) I think the reason that space elevators get the attention is that, unlike many other things that are entirely doable with lesser carbon fiber, fiberglass, aramid, etc. but would be X% better with nanotubes; the going consensus seems to be "If you want to stretch a rope from earth to orbit, it has to be This Strong, and that really narrows the options down to carbon nanotubes and, um, um...
The question of whether what we build with carbon fiber composites today will be better tomorrow is interesting; but its a 'difference of degree not of kind' sort of thing. 'Space elevator' vs. 'Haha, huddle in your gravity well like pitiful ants!' is a much more dramatic matter.
Closed source is hazardous in many ways. Along with being more frequently targeted, the NSA revelations showed that Microsoft worked with the NSA when deciding how quickly to close some holes. Another hazard is the threat of being attacked and/or sued by companies whose products were found to have problems.
No question the heartbleed thing is a huge and embarassing problem. But you know? It's actually kind of hard to count the number of high-profile vulnerabilities in F/OSS software as not a whole lot come to mind. On the other hand, the list is enormous for closed source from large companies... also hard to count but for another reason.
It does highlight one important thing about F/OSS, though. Just because a project has enjoyed a long, stable and wide deployment, code auditing and other security practices are pretty important and just because it's a very mature project doesn't mean something hasn't been there a long time and had simply gone unnoticed for a long, long time. People need wakeup calls from time to time and F/OSS developers can be among the worst when it comes to their attitudes about their territories and kingdoms. (I can't ever pass up the opportunity to complain about GIMP and GNOME... jackasses, the lot of them.)
Amazon, in its majestic equality, requires both code monkeys and senior executives to pay for their own upgrades.
It beats the alternative of providing the upgrades for free to the people who can most easily afford them, in the service of maintaining a good, solid, hierarchy.
Gee, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.