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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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 Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 4:05 pm Post subject: Re: H20 |
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| hermes.trismegistus wrote: |
We've got table-top-sized fusion reactors. |
No. We don't have those. |
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buster brown
Joined: 26 Aug 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Since this thread's been hijacked as an alternative-energy thread...I read yesterday in Newsweek about micro-wind turbines that can be installed on houses or businesses. Here's the link: http://207.46.150.51/id/12321430/site/newsweek/ Can you imagine the possibilities for this technology? If I ever become a homeowner, you can bet I'll have some form of wind and solar energy installed. Like a previous poster said, if you don't like our dependence on oil...quit driving your car! If you have to drive somewhere, why not buy a motorcyle or take public transportation? |
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hermes.trismegistus
Joined: 08 Sep 2005
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 9:32 pm Post subject: Re: H20 |
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Yes, I've seen that. But you miss the key part:
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| "What we have done is nowhere near the efficiency needed to use it as an energy source. What we have done is produce highly compact neutron generators which could conceivably be useful for handheld cameras or tiny X-ray sources that could be put into the body to deliver X-rays locally to destroy tumours." |
It's along way from creating something that takes a lot of energy and creates a little fusion for an x-ray type device to creating a self sustaining reactor that can be used as a power source.
Japan, seems to me, is the ultimate counter argument to the notion that there are all these free energy devices out there that have been crushed by the oil companies. Japan has no oil. It's 99.99% beholden to foreign oil. It's no coincidence Japan is first out with hybrid cars and fuel efficient cars. Japan even gave cold fusion a chance long after Western scientists attributed findings to experimental error. Japan would, I think, in a second switch its industry over to some "cold fusion" economy if it was out there. It would enjoy a huge advantage over China and revitalize its entire economy. That it's not using cold fusion or any of these crackpot free energy devices, leads me to believe reasonably they plain just don't work. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2006 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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| buster brown wrote: |
| Like a previous poster said, if you don't like our dependence on oil...quit driving your car! If you have to drive somewhere, why not buy a motorcycle or take public transportation? |
Not driving is not always fully an option. But as you suggest, drive smart. When it's time to buy a new car, get either a hybrid or the most fuel efficient cars out there. Problem, of course, with hybrids or conversion kits, even with record high gas prices, you won't see break even on the high cost outlay for years.
Barring government regulation, the only way industry changes if it suspects there's a market and a profit. KIA and Hyundai are doing remarkably well in the USA because as people are replacing their 10 year old gas guzzlers they're really looking at cheap, fuel efficient transportation.
The problem is it's a chicken/egg dilemma. The auto companies really would make cheap hybrids if it really believed there was a market. The first few generations are expensive but once the auto companies throw their minds behind the problem, things get cheaper. Look at the price of RAM. The problem is getting people to create the market in the first place. This is where, I think, government regulation comes in. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 12:01 am Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| buster brown wrote: |
| Like a previous poster said, if you don't like our dependence on oil...quit driving your car! If you have to drive somewhere, why not buy a motorcycle or take public transportation? |
Not driving is not always fully an option. But as you suggest, drive smart. When it's time to buy a new car, get either a hybrid or the most fuel efficient cars out there. Problem, of course, with hybrids or conversion kits, even with record high gas prices, you won't see break even on the high cost outlay for years.
Barring government regulation, the only way industry changes if it suspects there's a market and a profit. KIA and Hyundai are doing remarkably well in the USA because as people are replacing their 10 year old gas guzzlers they're really looking at cheap, fuel efficient transportation.
The problem is it's a chicken/egg dilemma. The auto companies really would make cheap hybrids if it really believed there was a market. The first few generations are expensive but once the auto companies throw their minds behind the problem, things get cheaper. Look at the price of RAM. The problem is getting people to create the market in the first place. This is where, I think, government regulation comes in. |
Yeah, and also Al Gore:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/gore.html
If only he had been president. He should run in 2008. |
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hermes.trismegistus
Joined: 08 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:02 am Post subject: Re: H20 |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| It's along way from creating something that takes a lot of energy and creates a little fusion for an x-ray type device to creating a self sustaining reactor that can be used as a power source. |
I never said the technology was ready for widescale implementation. I merely suggest that the Singularity will steadily increase the options available.
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| Japan even gave cold fusion a chance long after Western scientists attributed findings to experimental error. Japan would, I think, in a second switch its industry over to some "cold fusion" economy if it was out there. It would enjoy a huge advantage over China and revitalize its entire economy. That it's not using cold fusion or any of these crackpot free energy devices, leads me to believe reasonably they plain just don't work. |
We have even more potent options than cold fusion available. Cold fusion, like modern nuclear reactors, loses too much energy. Essentially, it can be viewed as a really inefficient and expensive method of boiling water. We can do much better than that.
If Japan were to roll-out a sustainable energy solution, it would cause a fiscal collapse the likes of which the world has never seen. With so many US dollars in cash reserves, why would Japan want to cause such a ripple?
I wouldn't suggest that this technology sits in wait for us. I would suggest that the fundamental basis of the technology has been demonstrated, on several fronts, and if there was a wide-scale demand for the technology, it would be available for use in a fraction of the time/money of the Manhattan Project.
The recent demonstration of a powerful piezoelectric effect using nanowires offers great promise. Spray-on solar panels that transfer and store energy, with the potential to capture 30% of radiant energy - including infrared - offer more. I could probably drag out another half-dozen sustainable energy technologies just itching to burn the rich.
But, like MNT, sustainable energy solutions revoke the legitimacy of fiscal economics, and that certainly won't be embraced by a world dependent on disparity and poverty.
Namaste. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 4:21 pm Post subject: Re: H20 |
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| hermes.trismegistus wrote: |
If Japan were to roll-out a sustainable energy solution, it would cause a fiscal collapse the likes of which the world has never seen. With so many US dollars in cash reserves, why would Japan want to cause such a ripple? |
How would that happen, exactly? |
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hermes.trismegistus
Joined: 08 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:46 pm Post subject: Re: H20 |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| hermes.trismegistus wrote: |
If Japan were to roll-out a sustainable energy solution, it would cause a fiscal collapse the likes of which the world has never seen. With so many US dollars in cash reserves, why would Japan want to cause such a ripple? |
How would that happen, exactly? |
Think about it. The entire global economy rest on several key factors. If the trade of oil were based on the euro, the dollar would collapse.
The national debt (well over $8 trillion) does not include state debt, which pushes the actual debt well over 12 trillion. The US doesn't have the capacity or intention to pay back that debt. A fiat economy loses its grip when people see through the illusion - this influenced Kennedy's decision to move to a silver standard, which probably contributed to his assassination.
The US depends on several countries, mostly Japan (who has the largest US dollar reserves) to prop up the illusion. If petrol trade were conducted in euros, the bottom would fall out of the dollar, because it would finally become apparent that a fiat economy simply can't be sustained.
If Japan were to implement sustainable energy solutions that threatened their dependence on petrol, the world would take notice. Others would jump on the bandwagon. The petrol/dollar would collapse. There simply cannot be a good example of a sustainable economy. Same as the insistence against a good example of a communist/socialist economy. The capitalists, oligarchs, and plutocrats simply will not allow it to happen... yet.
Sustainable solutions will not come without a total collapse of the status quo. Dozens of prominent Extropians and Singulitarians have written extensively on the "growing pains" implicit in sustainable solutions.
For the time being, a "limited hangout" has been accepted. Certain limited advances in efficiency can be allowed, but massive paradigm-shattering energy solutions cannot be... for the time being.
The Singularity renders so many of these archaic systems obsolete, but the global paradigm depends on disparity and poverty, and resists these sustainable solutions. With integral paradigms in place, the new commodity becomes information, and there hasn't been enough consolidation of information (and information access) to ensure that the present-day ruling class continues to maintain power.
Again, all this has been discussed by scores of researchers. Even Kurzweil devotes a sizeable amount of print to the issue in three of his books.
Namaste. |
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Cheonmunka
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Man, I love that signature clip Mithridates! |
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hojucandy
Joined: 03 Feb 2003
Location: In a better place
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| Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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one of these run your car on water scammers managed to suck in the infamous premier of queensland, joh bjelke-petersen way back in the 70's. joh actually gave the fellow state government support and was trying to convince the federal government to get behind the technology.
very embarassing for him when it all came out! |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:49 am Post subject: |
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Forget about combustion engines, it's antiquated technology. There's now a car that runs on compressed air.
http://theaircar.com/ |
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