From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Mar 15 1999 - 13:40:19 MST
hal@rain.org writes:
> Michael S. Lorrey, <retroman@together.net>, writes:
> > Well, yeah, but I've already got a solution for that too. Thermal superconductors
> > built into the sturcutre of sky-hooks will conduct excess heat out of the
> > atmosphere and allow it to be radiated away in space.
>
> Is there such a thing as a thermal superconductor? I've seen references
> in SF but I don't know if such things really exist.
I think they are a myth, caused by Larry Niven in _Ringworld
Engineers_. He seemed to assume that electrical superconduction imples
thermal superconduction (and did some fun stuff with that idea), but
I'm fairly sure he is wrong.
I wonder if there are thermodynamic problems with thermal
superconductors? Somehow I get the feeling that disordered phonons
cannot be transferred without causing secondary phonons in the
material. But it is not obvious to me.
> I suppose you could
> use a heat pump, in any case. How much heat could you really pump out
> in this way though? A sky hook is pretty small compared to an atmosphere.
Actually, waste heat might be a small problem since the increased
temperature will cause more radiation to escape into space. The reason
the greenhouse effect is so important is that it alters the amount of
IR-energy retained within the atmosphere; more heating will likely
just be a local problem.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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