Neal Stephenson, some years ago, wrote a prescient novel called "The Diamond Age," about a time in the near future when diamonds are, literally, cheap as dirt. Stephenson, who is arguably the best novelist of the past fifty years with respect to taking emerging technology trends and crafting intriguing storylines around them, imagined a world where even the most common of objects could be made from diamonds--kitchen knives, as an example, that are much sharper than razors but never need to be sharpened because of the, well, diamond-hard edge.
If it sounds far-fetched, think again. A company in Florida has been making gem quality diamonds for years, as one example. And industrial diamonds (much smaller than gems used in jewelry) are used everyday in mundane equipment like the saws used to cut slits in asphalt for traffic light control cables and telecom cables. Remember that diamonds are just a special form of carbon, one of the cheapest and most widely available materials on earth.
Now, some American scientists have developed a process to use diamond dust to create new, cheap, large screen flat TVs, using nanotechnology manufacturing techniques. These new TVs and monitors are probably several years away from production, but Stephenson's prophecies are beginning to emerge.
How about your community or region? Have you assessed current businesses for the emerging potential of the Diamond Age? Think it's so far-fetched that it's not even worth a little consideration? Remember that the raw material of diamonds is carbon. What's the most convenient and prolific source of carbon in the world?
Coal......have any coal mines in your area?