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Civilisation is to a large extent constrained by available energy, which is why new energy sources have lead to industrial revolutions. As long as you're not sp
by the8472 8y ago
Civilisation is to a large extent constrained by available energy, which is why new energy sources have lead to industrial revolutions. As long as you're not spending other resources on it excessively any massive amount of energy surplus can be put to good, previously uneconomical and fantastical-seeming uses.
Given enough energy you could regulate the entire biosphere by brute force.
And if you ever want to get serious about colonizing space a stupendous amount of energy has to be spent just lifting people and materials into orbit.
- DoctorOetker 8y agoI totally agree with you, but if any of the many variations of space elevator becomes possible, you can balance the energy and momentum of mass moving up, by mass going down perhaps returning tourism or valuable materials mined off earth
- polaritron 8y agoWhich is also awesome, but not an argument against installing massive, terawatt capacity photovoltaic solar arrays across a desert.
- DoctorOetker 8y agodid it occur to you ... perhaps I wasn't arguing against terawatt capacity PV solar arrays across desert? ;)