6 ms·

You're thinking like a modern resident, not like someone living a decade after a global extinction event. Turning water into electricity requires significant in

by yodon 5y ago

You're thinking like a modern resident, not like someone living a decade after a global extinction event. Turning water into electricity requires significant infrastructure for making motors and generators and bearings and permanent magnets and transmission lines and the like (even if in principle the math/physics is easy)

chmod775 5y ago
1. Bootstrap a smithy 2. Make incrementally better tools. You don't need to get to the level of medieval clockmakers, just as long as you're not hitting metal with a rock. 3. Make a draw plate. 4. Make lots and lots of copper wire. 5. Build a water wheel whichever way you want. 6. Attach bigger wheel (TM) and connect to smaller wheel (TM) with a rope drive. 7. Use copper wire to build a power generator attached to smaller wheel (TM). Unless humanity got completely wiped off the planet with no artifacts left behind, most of the above should not be necessary though.
- yodon 5y ago
  It's all well and good to be optimistic, I'm a MacGyver too, but when society only gets one roll of the dice to restart after a mass extinction event I don't think it's advisable to discount the difficulties and challenges society will face trying to restart, with access to accessible energy sources being a major component of those challenges.
- bilbo0s 5y ago
  Maybe my brain's groggy, but how are we achieving self-excitation in this scenario? (I'm assuming there's no magnet in your setup as it's not explicitly called out.)
  - chmod775 5y ago
    No. Of course you need a magnet if you don't want to build a more complicated self-excitation design (building that would be quite the feat given the circumstances) or want to use a smaller dynamo to bootstrap an electromagnetic dynamo or even alternator. But it's better to start with a magnet and stick to easy-to-debug stuff that can be eyeballed start to finish.
- vkou 5y ago
  > 1. Bootstrap a smithy I would recommend learning about what is involved in this step, before moving on to step 2. https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-mining/ https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-... This process is incredibly difficult, made moreso by the lack of easily accessible surface ore/coal. Also, keep in mind that when agricultural productivity is in the pits (Due to a lack of tooling, chemical feedstock, massive infrasturcture projects), and when you don't have the ability to make synthetic clothing (Which leads you to working with natural fibers, which is an incredibly labour-intensive process[1]), you aren't going to have the spare calories, or the hours in your day to 'just bootstrap a smithy'. [1] https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collections-clothing-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-high-fiber/ https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collections-clothing-how-did-t...
- roca 5y ago
  Where do you get the copper ore in this scenario? Existing natural easy-to-access ores have been mined out already. Would it be possible to mine the detritus of our civilization to get these ores?
  - politician 5y ago
    In this scenario, the world would be covered in easily accessible metal scrap.

by yodon 5y ago

chmod775 5y ago

1. Bootstrap a smithy 2. Make incrementally better tools. You don't need to get to the level of medieval clockmakers, just as long as you're not hitting metal with a rock. 3. Make a draw plate. 4. Make lots and lots of copper wire. 5. Build a water wheel whichever way you want. 6. Attach bigger wheel (TM) and connect to smaller wheel (TM) with a rope drive. 7. Use copper wire to build a power generator attached to smaller wheel (TM). Unless humanity got completely wiped off the planet with no artifacts left behind, most of the above should not be necessary though.

yodon 5y ago
It's all well and good to be optimistic, I'm a MacGyver too, but when society only gets one roll of the dice to restart after a mass extinction event I don't think it's advisable to discount the difficulties and challenges society will face trying to restart, with access to accessible energy sources being a major component of those challenges.
bilbo0s 5y ago
Maybe my brain's groggy, but how are we achieving self-excitation in this scenario? (I'm assuming there's no magnet in your setup as it's not explicitly called out.)
- chmod775 5y ago
  No. Of course you need a magnet if you don't want to build a more complicated self-excitation design (building that would be quite the feat given the circumstances) or want to use a smaller dynamo to bootstrap an electromagnetic dynamo or even alternator. But it's better to start with a magnet and stick to easy-to-debug stuff that can be eyeballed start to finish.
vkou 5y ago
> 1. Bootstrap a smithy I would recommend learning about what is involved in this step, before moving on to step 2. https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-mining/ https://acoup.blog/2020/09/18/collections-iron-how-did-they-... This process is incredibly difficult, made moreso by the lack of easily accessible surface ore/coal. Also, keep in mind that when agricultural productivity is in the pits (Due to a lack of tooling, chemical feedstock, massive infrasturcture projects), and when you don't have the ability to make synthetic clothing (Which leads you to working with natural fibers, which is an incredibly labour-intensive process[1]), you aren't going to have the spare calories, or the hours in your day to 'just bootstrap a smithy'. [1] https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collections-clothing-how-did-they-make-it-part-i-high-fiber/ https://acoup.blog/2021/03/05/collections-clothing-how-did-t...
roca 5y ago
Where do you get the copper ore in this scenario? Existing natural easy-to-access ores have been mined out already. Would it be possible to mine the detritus of our civilization to get these ores?
- politician 5y ago
  In this scenario, the world would be covered in easily accessible metal scrap.