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If we're now talking about blocking sunlight from space, why not block it with solar panels? The power can be beamed back to Earth to drive carbon capture devic

If we're now talking about blocking sunlight from space, why not block it with solar panels? The power can be beamed back to Earth to drive carbon capture devices, along with powering AC and everything else. I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as it can be made safe. Some have said it can here on HN. Indeed even if global warming wasn't an existential threat we should be doing that to capture more low entropy energy from the sun with solar stationary panels in the same orbit as earth. Long term we could join them together with carbon nanotube cables to make a partial dyson sphere. Why should all this energy be wasted out of the solar system?

jfengel 3y ago
You can block sunlight with nothing more than a bunch of mylar confetti. It's easy and cheap, and requires no additional infrastructure. It's a terrible idea, but it at least merits a formal study ruling it out, because we're rapidly reaching the point where the only remaining ideas are terrible. We don't need special space solar panels. Terrestrial solar panels suffice. It requires some earthbound infrastructure, but it does not require any novel inventions, just money and effort. But we're rapidly reaching the point where even a completely decarbonized economy won't suffice, and emergency measures would be needed to keep large swathes of the earth habitable. Every one of those emergency measures are stupid and dangerous. But we're busy doing stupid-and-dangerous now by pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere every year, and we may require stupid-and-dangerous ways to limit the damage.
- nuc1e0n 3y ago
  Sure, but it's predictably sunny 24/7 in space. Electricity generation would become stupidly cheap. With that you could turn all that CO2 into all sorts of useful stuff. e.g. food or building materials or indeed rocket fuel.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    I bet if you could make stupidly cheap electricity, you could sell a lot of it, but you might ask yourself why someone isn't already doing it.
    - nuc1e0n 3y ago
      Yup, I know what you mean. It's no wonder we've regressed technologically over the last 20 years with such protectionism. What happened to the disrupt capitalist mentality so praised in sillicon valley?

jfengel 3y ago

You can block sunlight with nothing more than a bunch of mylar confetti. It's easy and cheap, and requires no additional infrastructure. It's a terrible idea, but it at least merits a formal study ruling it out, because we're rapidly reaching the point where the only remaining ideas are terrible. We don't need special space solar panels. Terrestrial solar panels suffice. It requires some earthbound infrastructure, but it does not require any novel inventions, just money and effort. But we're rapidly reaching the point where even a completely decarbonized economy won't suffice, and emergency measures would be needed to keep large swathes of the earth habitable. Every one of those emergency measures are stupid and dangerous. But we're busy doing stupid-and-dangerous now by pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere every year, and we may require stupid-and-dangerous ways to limit the damage.

nuc1e0n 3y ago
Sure, but it's predictably sunny 24/7 in space. Electricity generation would become stupidly cheap. With that you could turn all that CO2 into all sorts of useful stuff. e.g. food or building materials or indeed rocket fuel.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  I bet if you could make stupidly cheap electricity, you could sell a lot of it, but you might ask yourself why someone isn't already doing it.
  - nuc1e0n 3y ago
    Yup, I know what you mean. It's no wonder we've regressed technologically over the last 20 years with such protectionism. What happened to the disrupt capitalist mentality so praised in sillicon valley?