From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Jun 08 2001 - 05:49:21 MDT
fredagen den 8 juni 2001 10:56 Leonardo Gonzalez wrote:
> This is exactly the sort of idea I was envisioning: engines that produce
> power by creating entropy out of organized information. The most obvious
> source to me was DNA; ordered base pairs are very organized and quite
> readily available.
Yes, but you can get even more power out of it by simply oxidizing the whole
chain and releasing the chemical energy. Also, remember that information
power is not a renewable power source.
> I postulate that electromagnetic / mechanical power = political / military
> power...
I think that is taking analogies too far.
> How could one possibly go about revolutionizing the power industry,
> creating an inexhaustible and affordable supply of power, without getting
> killed by the oil and coal industries?
First, I think it might be a good idea to read up a bit on economics.
Remember that the big energy corporations do a lot of renewable energy
research, and not just to squelsh it: they know they can earn even more money
by developing energy sources for new applications, use them to compete with
each other and of course use them once fossil fuels become too expensive.
A Kuwait Oil engineer once told me his company would be delighted if somebody
invented a car that ran on something other than gasoline - then they could
sell their oil to the chemical industry instead, and apparently increase
their profit margins!
Second, I think you might want to check out thermodynamics too.
> My gut instinct was to develop it in absolute stealth mode. Having me as
> the single point of failure, however, could compromise the project. Also,
> the project is a formidable one and benefits from all the help I could get.
> I saw the need for a decentralized, distributed research and development
> architecture. So then, form some sort of R&D secret society that works
> behind the scenes until *WHAM*, the product is unleashed to the world at
> large? Or could the project be completely open, relying on its distributed
> architecture to protect it from sabotage? Would the full anonymity of all
> researchers and developers be required to protect their lives?
There is great romance in the idea, and it makes a lot of sense as a novel
plot or roleplaying game (see http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/InfoWar/ for my
take on it), but I seriously doubt it make any sense in reality.
First, are you sure you really have any important idea at all? The world is
filled with more or less crazy power schemes, from perpetual motion machines
over Casmir batteries to OTEC and fusion reactors. Most of these are being
developed in the open, with varying levels of success. Second, do you really
think working on your scheme is bound to draw malign attention? I think the
idea of the Powers That Be always try to hunt down the truly innovative
inventions is more of a Hollywood meme than reality - said Powers appear to
have failed completely at stopping truly disruptive technologies like
crossbows and the Internet. Third, openness is better than closedness, simply
because you can get criticism and comments which are needed for making
rational choices.
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