RCS: One of the most promising technologies in the world is being developed by our most mortal enemy

The AI boom is here, but if we want to continue the trend we need to continue to make computing more efficient. There are lots of technologies being developed to make computing more efficient, but many of them are still in the research phase and at least 5-10 years from coming to market.<br><br>The holy grail of computing is going to space. Space based solar power means that there's enough energy to run unlimited computing, and all of the computing infrastructure can be designed without being subject to any of the restrictions that come with building things on Earth.<br><br>Right now the only major players in space computing are the US and China. The US is making great progress in designing the actual computing hardware, but China is running major laps around us when it comes to space infrastructure, and is projected to open up the first space station in 2025.<br><br>If China is the first player in space computing, that means that we will be deeply dependent on them for computing, and they will likely be able to throttle that supply to manipulate our country politically. Now presumably we could continue to mine, but we're already encountering supply chain issues with Indonesia and The Congo, and at some point they're going to stop allowing us to mine for the raw materials that we need.<br><br>When that happens, we'll be completely at China's mercy, and I don't think any of us can trust them to keep us powered up while we develop better computing to compete against them.<br><br>The only way we survive this is if we are able to innovate faster than them and build computing infrastructure that doesn't depend on rare earths or raw materials for computing. The best technology to this end out right now is molecular computing, but it's still at least 10 years away.<br><br>Let's hope we can avoid being cucked out of our computing needs.