Posted by Anders Sandberg on January 14, 19100 at 18:39:15:
In Reply to: Vacuum balloons posted by Trey Palmer on January 04, 19100 at 21:51:20:
: Do the any of the folks in BIGV (particularly the New Americans) have advanced enough materials technology to make a vaccuum balloon, a la Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age?
I did not think of it, but they would definitely fit in on NA. I'm not sure about the necessary material strength, I always thought that you would need nanotech to make sufficiently light and stiff materials, but maybe it would be possible using the admittedly good engineering abilities of NA (and especially noew with nanotech spreading). I like the idea, they might be a new development that is rapidly spreading. One can imagine races in Floating California between the "vaccies" and "airers", each promoting their own kind of balloons.