Cement... Where is my space elevator?! When I first heard about graphene ~20 years ago, I was promised a space elevator, and I'm still waiting.
The article actually mentions a company called Levidian. Apparently, they produce thousands of tonnes of graphene per year already. I'm sure they are not the only one. Somebody is buying that stuff and using it for something. A core usecase for this company seems to be carbon capture. The founders of this company were involved with the ground breaking research that lead to discovering how to produce graphene.
Also, that's less than 20 years ago. They were messing around with sticky tape and graphite in 2004. The people that did that got their Nobel price in 2010. From there to thousands of tonnes produced per year in the space of 18 years is actually kind of impressive.
> Also, that's less than 20 years ago. They were messing around with sticky tape and graphite in 2004. The people that did that got their Nobel price in 2010. From there to thousands of tonnes produced per year in the space of 18 years is actually kind of impressive.
If anything, it's a pre-millennial attitude - the 20th century was the era when people got used to astonishing advances every few years, and the space race was preeminent in this.
1957: Sputnik 1 1969: Moon landing 1981: Space shuttle 1986: Mir space station
To a layman who has seen the above, 20 years to develop a space elevator sounds perfectly reasonable and even conservative.
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Personally I enjoyed the politics and the society building and didn't care much for endless descriptions of rocky landscape.
to me, the hilariously boring part was the convention where they deliberated over the constitution. too accurate. also the constant repetition of people getting lost in the wilderness and having a vision of Hiroko...
it took me almost a year and a half of quitting blue mars before i finally finished. he just really needed a more judicious editor.
hah, just noticed your username. i put off dune forever until finally watching the movie... half way through god emperor now. i think the politics and philosophy of dune are even more interesting than mars, though obviously different in scope/plausibility.
Agreed. I also took some time to go through all the books and did it in the end partly out of a sense of duty.
> hah, just noticed your username
:D Initially it was meant to be a throwaway account, but I didn't want to go with the usual throwaway1234 pattern that is common on hn.
> the politics and philosophy of dune are even more interesting than mars, though obviously different in scope/plausibility.
Also agreed. It's not easy for me to say which of the two conveys more insight into the human condition and human societies. Dune is certainly grander and bolder in vision, with lots of surprising speculation. Otoh, Mars credibly captures the anarchic dynamics that would arise were we to ever actually colonize the planet.
In the end they both have something to offer, though for me Dune remains the greater series.
I didn't continue. If that isn't the case I will gladly try again.