Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Laser weeders?!
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2025 18:02:53 -0700
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On 6/30/2025 9:38 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote:
> kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:
>> Joy Beeson  <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>>> On Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:31:21 -0400, Ahasuerus
>>> <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 6/26/2025 8:56 AM, Tony Nance wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> What could go wrong?
>>>>>
>>>>> [snip] identify weeds with onboard computers and then kill them
>>>>> with a laser. …
>>>>
>>>> As Robert Sheckley's "Watchbird" (1953,
>>>> https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?46236) suggested, the
>>>> interesting question will be "How do you define 'weeds'?"
>>>
>>> Any plant that isn't a soybean -- or whatever else you are
>>> monoculturing.
>>
>> What we need is some way to teach goats not to eat soybeans.  Then we
>> might have something.
>> --scott
> 
> My grandfather (b. 1903) grew soybeans.  He was what today would be called
> an organic farmer - he didn't use herbicides (or fertilizers - he preferred
> crop rotation using alfalfa to replenish N2 in the soil).
> 
> That meant us kids spent summers walking the beanfields with a curved corn
> knife, whacking ragweed, lambs quarters and other undesirable growths.
> 
> Can't say it was fun.   Trained goats would be preferred - although today, robotics
> would likely be a more productive path to take.
> 
> https://farm.bot/

Goats would be cheaper I suspect.

-- 
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky 
dirty old man.