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I like to think they're saying "We'll make contact when they realize they don't have to build a fusion reactor because there's already one in their sky."
by dreamcompiler 4y ago
I like to think they're saying "We'll make contact when they realize they don't have to build a fusion reactor because there's already one in their sky."
- arlort 4y agoIt's interesting how you're assuming that a species which obviously has been navigating way past the point where any useful power can be extracted from their star would not see the utility of developing fusion power
- krsdcbl 4y agodepending on the tech our hypothetical aliens employ, we might argue they solved hyperefficient power storage before fusion?
- sva_ 4y agoFusion sounds like hyper effective power storage/retrieval to me.
- lagrange77 4y ago> past the point where any useful power can be extracted from their star I guess, if a species used a Dyson sphere for so long, they will certainly have colonized other solar systems, which each have their own star to milk.
- dreamcompiler 4y agoI'm assuming that such a species would themselves have fully exploited the energy output of their local star(s) before they embarked on building an artificial one. And that they would view any species trying this in reverse order as unintelligent.
- HereIGoAgain 4y agoThat's assuming a lot I think. Having the ability to create a large amount of power on demand is a lot more useful than it's popular to think these days.
- concordDance 4y agoHave you come up with some cheap form of electricity storage or are you advocating geosynchronous orbital solar?
- dreamcompiler 4y agoI think the human race is about 100x closer to cheap electricity storage than we are to building a useful fusion plant.
- HereIGoAgain 4y agoOn a lower end medium time scale maybe.. but the kind of power we're talking about here and needed by society, is still a few discoveries and a few decades away from actually being, let alone being practical on a large scale. And the worst part is that only then does the discussion even begin about adopting, using and manufacturing/installing it at scale. Large scale HUGE capacity electricity storage is a LOT further away than a lot of people and interests are willing to... well.. as we see in europe.. allow for. We are going ahead with the first half of a system that isn't even complete in theory.
- pfdietz 4y agoLarge scale electricity storage is just waiting for the economic conditions that would justify rolling it out. Once those conditions arise, storage will pop up like mushrooms after a hard rain, and will move down experience curves, and become cheap. The biggest open question with grid storage is which of the many competing technologies will come out on top.