28 FEB 2021 by ideonexus
Gravity is Energy
The laws of thermodynamics decree that each quantity of en^rgy has a characteristic quaUty called entropy associated with it. The entropy measures the degree of disorder associated with the energy. Energy must always flow in such a direction that the entropy increases. Thus, we can arrange the different forms of energy in an "order of merit," the highest form being the one with the least disorder or entropy. Energy of a higher form can be degraded into a lower form, but a lower form can never... 1 
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notes28 FEB 2021 by ideonexus
Humanity is Fortunate to Have a Variety of Energy Sources...
Humanity is fortunate in having such a variety of energy resources at its disposal. In the very long run we shall need energy that is unpolluting; we shall have sunlight. In the fairly long run we shall need energy that is inexhaustible and moderately clean; we shall have deuterium. In the short run we shall need energy that is readily usable and abundant; we shall have uranium. Right now we need energy that is cheap and convenient; we have coal and oil. Nature has been kinder to us than we h... 1 notes
notes22 SEP 2017 by ideonexus
Civilization is About Capturing Energy
Civilisation, like life itself, has always been about capturing energy. That is to say, just as a successful species is one that converts the sun’s energy into offspring more rapidly than another species, so the same is true of a nation. Progressively, as the aeons passed, life as a whole has grown gradually more and more efficient at doing this, at locally cheating the second law of thermodynamics. The plants and animals that dominate the earth today channel more of the sun’s energy thro...Folksonomies: energy
Folksonomies: energy
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notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Energy Needed to Power Civilization
The numerical results of my calculations show that the quantities of energy required for permanent survival and communication are surprisingly modest. For a society with the same complexity as the present human society on Earth, starting from the present time and continuing forever, the total reserve of energy required is about equal to the energy now radiated by the Sun in eight hours. The total energy reserve contained in the Sun would be sufficient to support forever a society with a compl... 1 notes
notesThere is an overabundance of energy in the universe.
26 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The Problem of Energy
As a child, I read Friday by Robert A Heinlein, which portrayed a future in which energy needs are addressed by energy storage devices called "Shipstones", which are described as a way to pack more kilowatt-hours into a smaller space and a smaller mass than any other engineer had ever dreamed of. To call it an "improved storage battery" (as some early accounts did) is like calling an H-bomb an "improved firecracker."
In the novel, the Shipstone's eponymous inventor realised "that the problem... 1 notes
notesIsn't that is isn't plentiful. The sky is raining energy. It's that we have to collect it into buckets for use.
These are partial direct quotes, the direct quote is from a hacker news comment.
26 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The Physics of Fusion
The basic physics of thermonuclear energy is seductively simple. Fission produces energy by atomic fracture, fusion by tiny acts of atomic union. Every atom contains at least one proton, and all protons are positively charged, which means that they repel one another, like identical ends of a magnet. As protons are forced closer together, their electromagnetic opposition grows stronger. If electromagnetism were the only force in nature, the universe might exist only as single-proton hydrogen a... 1 notes
notesAnd why it's so difficult to accomplish on Earth.
25 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The ITER Project
Years from now—maybe in a decade, maybe sooner—if all goes according to plan, the most complex machine ever built will be switched on in an Alpine forest in the South of France. The machine, called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or iter, will stand a hundred feet tall, and it will weigh twenty-three thousand tons—more than twice the weight of the Eiffel Tower. At its core, densely packed high-precision equipment will encase a cavernous vacuum chamber, in which a s... 1 notes
notesDescription of a multi-national effort to produce a fusion reactor. Something some refer to as a "non-optional" technology for the human race to survive.
18 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Cosmic Accounting
Only cosmic costing accounts for the entirely interdependent electrochemical and ecological relationships of Earth's biological evolution and cosmic intertransformative regeneration in general. Cosmic costing accounts as well for the parts played gravitationally and radiationally in the totality within which our minuscule planet Earth and its minuscule star the Sun are interfunctionally secreted. Cosmic costing makes utterly ludicrous the selfish and fearfully contrived "wealth" games being r... 1 notes
notesThere is more energy coming from just our one star than anyone will ever need, there is no scarcity of energy for our planet.
17 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Fire is Unwinding the Sun's Energy from the Trees
Nobody is bom a specialist. Every child is born with comprehensive interests, asking the most comprehensively logical and relevant questions. Pointing to the logs burning in the fireplace, one child asked me, "What is fire?" I answered, "Fire is the Sun unwinding from the tree's log. The Earth revolves and the trees revolve as the radiation from the Sun's flame reaches the revolving planet Earth. By photosynthesis the green buds and leaves of the tree convert that Sun radiation into hydrocarb...
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1 Every year the trees store the sun's energy in a ring. When we burn the tree, we are unwrapping that energy.
16 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
How the Computer Will See the World
We find all the no-life-support-wealth-producing people going to their 1980 jobs in their cars or buses, spending trillions of dollars' worth of pe¬ troleum daily to get to their no-wealth-producing jobs. It doesn't take a computer to tell you that it will save both Universe and humanity trillions of dollars a day to pay them handsomely to stay at home.
History's political and economic power structures have always fearfully abhorred "idle people" as potential troublemakers. Yet nature neve... 1 notes
notesMillions of people wasting energy, driving to jobs that serve little purpose when they could be much more productive at home
