Comments on: The Future We Almost Know http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/ Firedoglake weblog Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:03:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: ssmith http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1439405 ssmith Sun, 11 May 2008 20:07:41 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1439405 <p>Clemens: “Young lady, I come from a time when men achieve power and wealth by standing on the backs of the poor, where prejudice and intolerance are commonplace and power is an end unto itself, and you’re telling me that isn’t how it is anymore?”</p> <p>Troi: “That’s right.”</p> Clemens: “Young lady, I come from a time when men achieve power and wealth by standing on the backs of the poor, where prejudice and intolerance are commonplace and power is an end unto itself, and you’re telling me that isn’t how it is anymore?”

Troi: “That’s right.”

]]> By: Gkar http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1439015 Gkar Sun, 11 May 2008 11:00:19 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1439015 <p>The future isn’t what it used to be.</p> The future isn’t what it used to be.

]]> By: VJBinCT http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438856 VJBinCT Sun, 11 May 2008 05:48:57 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438856 <p>For a glimpse at futures past, <a href="http://www.paleofuture.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.paleofuture.com/</a> is a wonderful site. It has archives organized by decade, so you can see how visionaries’ ideas of the future progressed over the years. Highly recommended.</p> For a glimpse at futures past, http://www.paleofuture.com/ is a wonderful site. It has archives organized by decade, so you can see how visionaries’ ideas of the future progressed over the years. Highly recommended.

]]> By: BobMunck http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438726 BobMunck Sun, 11 May 2008 04:39:25 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438726 <p>Quite right. I should have said dense, portable, and storable. I suppose moving energy on high-tension wires or in a pipeline is a kind of mass transit for energy. The trouble with electrical energy is that we aren’t good at storing it.</p> <p>I’m a huge fan of the Supergrid concept: an underground pipeline carrying liquid hydrogen that cools a superconducting cable at its center. Energy is moving both as hydrogen and as electricity. It also turns out that a long Supergrid segment is storing a gigawatt or so of energy in the hydrogen and generated magnetic field. Cost will probably be about $1M/km.</p> Quite right. I should have said dense, portable, and storable. I suppose moving energy on high-tension wires or in a pipeline is a kind of mass transit for energy. The trouble with electrical energy is that we aren’t good at storing it.

I’m a huge fan of the Supergrid concept: an underground pipeline carrying liquid hydrogen that cools a superconducting cable at its center. Energy is moving both as hydrogen and as electricity. It also turns out that a long Supergrid segment is storing a gigawatt or so of energy in the hydrogen and generated magnetic field. Cost will probably be about $1M/km.

]]> By: Ian Welsh http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438708 Ian Welsh Sun, 11 May 2008 04:26:54 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438708 <p>Concentrate and store/move.</p> Concentrate and store/move.

]]> By: Ian Welsh http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438707 Ian Welsh Sun, 11 May 2008 04:26:24 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438707 <p>Most interesting. Thank you.</p> Most interesting. Thank you.

]]> By: BobMunck http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438703 BobMunck Sun, 11 May 2008 04:25:43 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438703 <p>Little quibble: <em>energy</em> isn’t the problem, <strong>dense energy</strong> is. As you said, the sun is blasting us with a lot of energy, but it’s too diffuse to be useful for most of our needs. You can’t bake bread with it unless you concentrate it — make it denser. That could be what you’re visualizing, a parabolic mirror that focuses it directly. Thinking more generally, <em>petroleum</em> is a mechanism for concentrating energy: solar energy from long ago, converted into chemical energy by photosynthesis and then stored underground until we came for it. Indeed, most of our sources of energy are concentrated sunlight: fossil fuels, hydro, wind-power, solar cells. Nuclear and geothermal energy are tapping other concentrated sources. What we need is a <em>really, really cheap</em> way to concentrate solar energy. We don’t have it yet; the best candidate might be very cheap photovoltaics.</p> <p><em>The future arrives sooner than you expect … and in a different order.</em></p> Little quibble: energy isn’t the problem, dense energy is. As you said, the sun is blasting us with a lot of energy, but it’s too diffuse to be useful for most of our needs. You can’t bake bread with it unless you concentrate it — make it denser. That could be what you’re visualizing, a parabolic mirror that focuses it directly. Thinking more generally, petroleum is a mechanism for concentrating energy: solar energy from long ago, converted into chemical energy by photosynthesis and then stored underground until we came for it. Indeed, most of our sources of energy are concentrated sunlight: fossil fuels, hydro, wind-power, solar cells. Nuclear and geothermal energy are tapping other concentrated sources. What we need is a really, really cheap way to concentrate solar energy. We don’t have it yet; the best candidate might be very cheap photovoltaics.

The future arrives sooner than you expect … and in a different order.

]]> By: xaxnar http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438661 xaxnar Sun, 11 May 2008 03:56:33 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438661 <p>The article by Ligon - The World’s Simplest Fusion Reactor Revisited, has a postscript for developments in 2008. I’m quoting from it here.</p> <p>“Robert W. Bussard obtained funding in August 2007 for continued work on a small-scale Polywell, similar in size and configuration to WB6. After a lengthy battle with cancer, he passed away on October 6, 2007. Knowing his condition, he enlisted two noted physicists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rick Nebel and Jaeyoung Park, to head the new work. Joining them were three talents from the WB-6 work, mechanical engineer par excellence Mike Skillicorn, and brothers Mike and Kevin Wray. Working with incredible efficiency, they had WB7 basically up and running in January of 2008, announcing “first plasma”. This first step is far from full operation, and as of this posting Dr. Nebel has reported they are awaiting equipment to<br /> allow full power operation.”</p> <p>MSNBC had a brief report about progress; it can be found about halfway down through the article here:<br /> <a href="http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/09/566532.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com.....66532.aspx</a></p> <p>There’s a place where donations can be made to help keep the research going, through the EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation:<br /> <a href="http://www.nmcf.org/?page_id=135" rel="nofollow">http://www.nmcf.org/?page_id=135</a></p> <p>I wrote up a five part series on this over at Daily Kos; there was some good discussion and links in the comments. Roger Fox in particular has been on top of this for some time over there. Part 5 of the series I wrote can be found, with links to the first four installments here:<br /> <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/26/0025/57752/42/500332" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailykos.com/story/...../42/500332</a></p> The article by Ligon – The World’s Simplest Fusion Reactor Revisited, has a postscript for developments in 2008. I’m quoting from it here.

“Robert W. Bussard obtained funding in August 2007 for continued work on a small-scale Polywell, similar in size and configuration to WB6. After a lengthy battle with cancer, he passed away on October 6, 2007. Knowing his condition, he enlisted two noted physicists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rick Nebel and Jaeyoung Park, to head the new work. Joining them were three talents from the WB-6 work, mechanical engineer par excellence Mike Skillicorn, and brothers Mike and Kevin Wray. Working with incredible efficiency, they had WB7 basically up and running in January of 2008, announcing “first plasma”. This first step is far from full operation, and as of this posting Dr. Nebel has reported they are awaiting equipment to
allow full power operation.”

MSNBC had a brief report about progress; it can be found about halfway down through the article here:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com…..66532.aspx

There’s a place where donations can be made to help keep the research going, through the EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation:
http://www.nmcf.org/?page_id=135

I wrote up a five part series on this over at Daily Kos; there was some good discussion and links in the comments. Roger Fox in particular has been on top of this for some time over there. Part 5 of the series I wrote can be found, with links to the first four installments here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…../42/500332

]]> By: behindthefall http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438653 behindthefall Sun, 11 May 2008 03:50:45 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438653 <p>I’ve left you a message. However, it’s time to crash on this coast.</p> I’ve left you a message. However, it’s time to crash on this coast.

]]> By: Ian Welsh http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438623 Ian Welsh Sun, 11 May 2008 03:34:33 +0000 http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/10/the-future-we-almost-know/#comment-1438623 <p>Anyone working on it who has funding?</p> Anyone working on it who has funding?

]]>