Talk:Lightcraft

Untitled
This idea is essentially dead now isn't it? It was a neat trick, but I suspect it was very litle more than that. Page needs an update.--Deglr6328 06:41, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Whatever happened to this project? It's 7 years since their homepage was updated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AndersFeder (talk • contribs) 18:39, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Not dead.... Disruptive!
I don't think any new idea for a potentially useful technology can ever be "essentially dead". It's not the way these things work. Check out the theme behind James Burke's Connections. Things like Lightcraft can't be done at the time of conception because key technologies, market factors, and confidence are lacking. As time goes on 1) needed technologies come into existence, 2) unforeseen new market needs develop parts of the original idea as solution to a need unrelated to the original idea, and 3) Historic events occur that change mindsets and cause the public and engineers (and investors!) to realize "Ah!, Of course it can be done! It's not crazy after all!" (as happened in the wake of Spaceship One).  Lightcraft sits in the gestation period.  The first two things are indeed happening for Lightcraft.

You might have said in Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's time, that since his rocket ideas didn't come to fruition over a 25-year span, rockets were "essentially dead". I'm not saying that Lightcraft as conceived now are in the near future, but we can't say something is dead simply because presently it is "just a neat trick". Electricity was just a neat trick in the early 1800's. The article should not present lightcraft as defunct, but rather as a disruptive technology with potential to do interesting things as yet not thought of! :-)

--Gummer85 (talk) 17:14, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I made a few changes to try to "smooth out" what I saw as a nay-saying (unencyclopedic) point of view in a few sentences. I tried to write essentially the same thing, but with a neutral framing. I made a one (minor) substantive change: I implied that the "bottom up" laser-supported detonation form of LP described was only one form of LP used on one type of lightcraft. I know there are other conceptual forms of LP (top-down, etc.) and other conceptual craft using combinations of these that would also be called "lightcraft", that's why I made the change.

Although, I think now that the changes I made in the opening sentence may be over-broad. I was thinking of an "expansive" definition including things like laser powered photovoltaic electric propeller airplanes. I now think this is too expansive a definition for "lightcraft". I just wanted to get away from the idea of a Lightcraft as a vehicle under development (as if there is some sort of ship being built somewhere) and try to put it in terms of a vehicle with a type of propulsion... with the type of propulsion being in the early (fits and starts) stage of development and not in some kind of official, active, well-funded development program with schedules and operational requitements and so on.

--Gummer85 (talk) 02:11, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

I tried to fix the problem I created (over-broad definition). It's better, but imperfect. Help anyone? :-)

--Gummer85 (talk) 03:00, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 22:00, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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