5 ms·
You can easily do periodically transmissions for infinitely long with a finite power source, as long as you transmit less often than 1/t. I imagine the tricky b
by andbberger 6y ago
You can easily do periodically transmissions for infinitely long with a finite power source, as long as you transmit less often than 1/t. I imagine the tricky bit would be making a power source with no parasitic losses. Maybe a high-temperature super conducting loop.
- the_pwner224 6y ago> You can easily do periodically transmissions for infinitely long with a finite power source, as long as you transmit less often than 1/t. What does the 1/t part mean? As far as I can understand it means if your power source lasts 10 years, you need to transmit not more than every 1/10 = 0.1 years. Which doesn't make sense. More generally, periodic transmissions forever will emit infinite power so how could a finite power source power that?
- wongarsu 6y agoI think GP is trying to construct a geometric series by doubling the wait time after each transmission. Of course that doesn't work: If your battery holds 100kWh and each transmission takes 1kWh then you can make 100 transmissions, no matter how you space them out. However in the same spirit you could do periodic transmissions, but half your transmission power each time. Assuming no losses anywhere in the system that would allow you to make an infinite number of transmissions with a finite power source (since 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... = 2). Of course if you half your transmission power each time the transmissions quickly become pointless, so this is of somewhat limited use.
- plasticchris 6y agoIt's not infinitely divisible, quiescent power draw will limit you in any case.
- andbberger 6y agoJust a shorthand to indicate that it needs to decay faster than the harmonic series
- treeman79 6y agoSimple solution, Create a probe that travels to another star, harvests resources, self replicates, sends our pulse, continue on to next star. Should have the whole galaxy covered in a few billion years. I think some bit von-Bobby wrote some books on it.
- Cyphase 6y agoVon Neumann probes (self-replicating): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft#Von_Neumann_probes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft#Vo... Bracewell probes (~strong AI communication probes): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracewell_probe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracewell_probe
- treeman79 6y agoI making reference to Bobiverse. A book series about a programmer who is uploaded to a Von Neumannn probe. Good series
- Cyphase 6y agoAh, I wasn't aware of that series; I'll add it to my potential list. I did catch the "von" part of von-Bobby though. :)
- causality0 6y ago90% great series. The last 10% is the author very clearly being sick of writing it and invoking a deus ex machina to instantly solve the big problem.