Source: Tech News World - "Rebuilding Ukraine: 3D Printing and the Metaverse Could Help Create the Cities of Tomorrow" by Rob Enderle.

Rob Enderle discussed with Apis Cor, one of the winners of the NASA competition for autonomous building on the moon. The technology it has developed to build structures on the moon could be adapted to rapidly build structures on Earth.

Eventually the war in Ukraine will come to an end. These technologies could help Ukrainian cities to become wonders of the world in terms of technology adaptation and use focused on creating a better life for Ukrainians who want to return home when the war is over.

Let’s talk about how the metaverse, AI and large-scale 3D printing could transform a post-war Ukraine into one of the new wonders of the world by using technology being developed to create the first lunar base.

The Metaverse
A lot of people seem to think that the metaverse is a fraud and that eventually folks will figure that out and move on to the next false, sparkly thing.

Many thought the same of the internet. I get that part of the problem are those that overhype where the metaverse is and suggest it will replace the internet. It could, but that outcome is doubtful in the near term.

Like the internet was during the time of AOL and CompuServe, the metaverse is not a thing so much as a bunch of things that are currently largely unconnected. It is a simulation of parts of the world and those simulations exist in three primary areas: online games, training simulations (for both people and AIs), and simulations of things like office buildings and factories where companies want to optimize the structure while limiting the number of change orders during the creation process.

At GTC, Nvidia will talk about Earth-2, its global-scale simulation to help fight climate change and predict the weather more accurately. But this will be a simulation, so it could also create variants to showcase how changing large areas of human development could positively impact the environment.

Were the project to start with Ukraine, Earth-2 could provide a template for that country to create safer, more sustainable, and more defensible cities of the future. We could explore concepts like arcologies which would be vastly less vulnerable to weather events, pandemics, or attackers.

In short, they could build a virtual Ukraine Utopia and allow the displaced citizens of that country access so they could experience the future, gain hope for that future, and provide feedback so that once construction starts, that better future is far more likely.

AI Assistance
Another big part of Nvidia’s GTC is AI which, properly used, will enhance human endeavor, providing a force multiplier where one worker, assisted by one or more AIs, can do far more than possible before.

Applied to Ukraine, AIs could model more advanced public transportation, roads where electric cars were charged while being driven by an AI, and automated defensive capabilities that would more aggressively protect Ukrainian assets and citizens from attacks.

These AIs could help guarantee the optimal use of resources, eliminate waste, and provide a decision assistance structure assuring those future decisions were increasingly well-founded and would result in positive outcomes.

Given the timing, Ukraine could become a showcase of how AI technology can be applied to create a better, safer, more sustainable world for its citizens — and one that is more resistant to foreign attack. Of course, with this would come the potential to do much of the AI development and manufacturing to come in-country.

Read full article HERE.