The collapse of a ceiling tile in the Big Dig brings to light that humanity may possess the technology and resources to complete huge projects, yet cannot because of the final human link to use the technology correctly, and manage its finances and workers. We know how to apply epoxy to a bolt to anchor it into concrete, but we failed. It makes the successful construction of the pyramids 5000 years ago even more impressive. How did Cheops manage an army of probably uneducated not very motivated slaves to build a perfect pyramid with internal rooms and such?
Humanity faces many huge future projects: travel to and colonization of oceans, the moon, planets, and stars, other infrastructural, environmental, and big science projects. Can we do them?
Yes, with robots and softbots. Semi-intelligent autonomous agents constantly buzzing around to monitor finances, attend meetings, watch construction. Speech recognition, vision, etc. to make sure the epoxy is being applied correctly.
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