On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Doug Jones wrote:
> Microwaves beamed in from elsewhere are less disruptive than any other
> source of zero-entropy energy; heat engines on Earth's surface release
> more waste heat than they produce electricity, and ground solar
> dramatically lowers the albedo in the regions affected. Rectennas can
> have a neutral impact on global thermal balance if they are painted
> white.
Doug, it wasn't the rectennas I was concerned with it was the waste heat
from the use of the electricity. Cities already generate their own
local weather patterns due to the fact their temperatures are higher
than surrounding land.
And yes, I agree that at current power consumption levels, it would
probably not be a "significant" problem. But as Robert Freitas points
out in Nanomedicine it only takes ~10kg of actively operating nanomachinery
per person to put us over the global hypsithermal limit. Once we have
"unlimited" off-planet to planet power sources -- are you going to limit
the size of your augmentation agents down here on Earth? One has to
realistically plan for the idea that more than X kW/person and you
have to migrate into space. Better that we start being aware of
the problem sooner rather than later. There is a side benefit that
I'm sure that some will like. The lower you keep the planetary
power consumption the greater the sensitivity you have to people
releasing uncontrolled self-replicators. So limiting the on-planet
energy consumption gives you much longer lead times with regard
to terrorists releasing self-replicating agents.
Robert
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