7 ms·

We are slaves of electricity

15 points by doc4t 14y ago

chime 14y ago
It's not electricity. It's energy. Electricity is just a medium for transferring energy from source to destination. The amount of usable energy at our disposal is proportional to the level of technological advancement. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale
- jel 14y ago
  My sentiment exactly! We are dependent on energy itself. Numerous projects have proven themselves feasible for generating energy in a cheap & clean fashion. However, with all companies out to "make a buck", such innovations often get swept under the carpet. Example? Think back to the decision of the motor vehicle industry's choice to offer hydrogen-powered vehicles instead of water-powered ones.
  - mikeash 14y ago
    Water-powered vehicles? WTF?
    - bgilroy26 14y ago
      Boiled water, rather
      - rprospero 14y ago
        Ah, okay, steam powered cars I've seen before. Of course, they're not so much water powered as they are wood powered. The steam car is no more water powered than my car is axle powered. Still, now I'm wondering about the fuel efficiency of a steam powered station wagon. How much wood would a wood-Woody burn if a wood-Woody would burn wood?
        mikeash 14y ago
        Steam engines generally have terrible efficiency, at least at small scale. At large scale they do well (lots of power plants are basically steam engines), but smaller scale means higher output temperature, less equipment to capture energy, etc. Wikipedia says that an engine that exhausts the used steam to the atmosphere will be 1-10% efficient, as compared with ~25% for a normal gasoline engine and 40-50% for electrical generation engines.
  - rprospero 14y ago
    Interesting. I hadn't heard of a successful, water powered car. Are they converting the water into a lower energy state, a la Ice 9? Or are they reacting the water with some other material, like cesium? Though I guess that make it more of a cesium powered car than a water powered car.
  - jel 14y ago
    Regarding water-powered vehicles, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car
- cdjarrell 14y ago
  Solar power will bring us from a Type I society to Type II... eventually
seagreen 14y ago
"Just for a moment, suspend your scientific beliefs and imagine that electricity suddenly ceased to exist. Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast." Uh, I'm not a scientist, but I imagine you would just die instantly.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  You, and the rest of the universe, as your body and everything else disintegrated into various neutrally-charged subatomic particles, the universe becoming a black expanse of floating nuclei. I think that part of suspending your scientific beliefs means assuming that only the power grid failed, not the entirety of electromagnetics, and relevant physical laws.
- run4yourlives 14y ago
  Yeah, I kind of thought it was funny he missed that too...our entire body operates on electric impulses.
- mkr-hn 14y ago
  Does this pedantry add anything worthwhile? This isn't like someone saying "my food has no chemicals in it," which reflects a problematic and easily manipulated misunderstanding. No one's trying to sell electricity-free food.
  - seagreen 14y ago
    Fair criticism. Maybe not, but I find the "what if foo was missing" arguments emotionally manipulative and so worth making fun of. It's like going up to someone in 1935 and saying, "What if there wasn't any metal? Your life would totally suck!" Well, duh. If your point is "the industrial age depends on metal" or "the information age depends on electronics" go ahead and say it, but don't pretend like it's a novel idea. (Though as pavel_lishin pointed out I totally missed the "suspend your scientific beliefs" part of the quote, I, uh, quoted. Oops. At least his deadpan response is funny.)
EzGraphs 14y ago
The article goes on to focus on the need for advancement in battery technologies. Although the specific examples in view were mobile devices, I think that is one of the most interesting aspects of the work Tesla(TSLA) is doing. They are extremely motivated to make breakthroughs. Their business depends up on it.
notJim 14y ago
I really hate this link-baity title. We are not slaves to electricity. It is a useful tool, and like all tools, it shapes the way we live our lives. I really wish people wouldn't upvote this stuff. It's about 70% flowery, overwrought generalities about electricity, and 30% hand-wavey press-releases about battery technology. Admittedly, the battery technology bit could be interesting, but I'd really rather read something substantial about it.
billswift 14y ago
And another Carrington event could fry all electronics, and possibly all electrical equipment depending on how powerful it is, at any time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_event http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_event
Arelius 14y ago
> Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast. Your car wouldn’t start (or brake, or steer, or do anything really). Trains, without signaling, would be dead weight. Automatic doors at the entrance to your office, school, or favorite coffee shop would remain resolutely shut. Your PC, your DVD player, your wireless router, your digital camera, your smartphone — all computers everywhere would be dead. I feel that he's trying to overstate the role of modern electrical activity in our lives. Using myself as a counterexample: * I, along with many other people, wake up without an alarm clock of any sort. And Mechanical alarm clocks exist, and are completely suitable. * I do actually have a gas grill, along with most self-respecting cooks, it's a superior heating element. (I also cannot eat toast) and other than the starter, that continues to work without power. * I do not take a car to work, an average car, while technically uses "electricity" it is never connected to the electrical grid, and afaik, the only reason it needs a battery is for the starter, which there are other ways around. Additionally, very few of the fundamental properties of a car are dependent on electricity. In fact many cars on the road today will continue to function (however poorly without power steering and the like) without electricity. * The fact that signaling for trains is electrical, is a symptom of convenience, not a fundamental requirement. * None of the doors I encounter frequently are automatic, not at my home, my office, or any of the coffee shops, or stores I frequent. Other than large department stores, automatic doors seem to be the exception. * Yes, all my electrical devices would be dead, but seriously mentioning "DVD Player" as if it's important. Then he goes on to completely skip the most noticeable life-changer when electricity goes out, Lighting. Modern electrical lighting has to be the most significant way that electricity affects our lives, and completely transforms the night. That's not to say removal of electricity won't cause problems, specifically the "Instant" removal of electricity, but our fundamental dependence on it seems exaggerated.
voodoochilo 14y ago
no, we're slaves of our pointless fight against entropy.

15 points by doc4t 14y ago

chime 14y ago

It's not electricity. It's energy. Electricity is just a medium for transferring energy from source to destination. The amount of usable energy at our disposal is proportional to the level of technological advancement. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

jel 14y ago
My sentiment exactly! We are dependent on energy itself. Numerous projects have proven themselves feasible for generating energy in a cheap & clean fashion. However, with all companies out to "make a buck", such innovations often get swept under the carpet. Example? Think back to the decision of the motor vehicle industry's choice to offer hydrogen-powered vehicles instead of water-powered ones.
- mikeash 14y ago
  Water-powered vehicles? WTF?
  - bgilroy26 14y ago
    Boiled water, rather
    - rprospero 14y ago
      Ah, okay, steam powered cars I've seen before. Of course, they're not so much water powered as they are wood powered. The steam car is no more water powered than my car is axle powered. Still, now I'm wondering about the fuel efficiency of a steam powered station wagon. How much wood would a wood-Woody burn if a wood-Woody would burn wood?
      - mikeash 14y ago
        Steam engines generally have terrible efficiency, at least at small scale. At large scale they do well (lots of power plants are basically steam engines), but smaller scale means higher output temperature, less equipment to capture energy, etc. Wikipedia says that an engine that exhausts the used steam to the atmosphere will be 1-10% efficient, as compared with ~25% for a normal gasoline engine and 40-50% for electrical generation engines.
- rprospero 14y ago
  Interesting. I hadn't heard of a successful, water powered car. Are they converting the water into a lower energy state, a la Ice 9? Or are they reacting the water with some other material, like cesium? Though I guess that make it more of a cesium powered car than a water powered car.
- jel 14y ago
  Regarding water-powered vehicles, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car
cdjarrell 14y ago
Solar power will bring us from a Type I society to Type II... eventually

seagreen 14y ago

"Just for a moment, suspend your scientific beliefs and imagine that electricity suddenly ceased to exist. Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast." Uh, I'm not a scientist, but I imagine you would just die instantly.

pavel_lishin 14y ago
You, and the rest of the universe, as your body and everything else disintegrated into various neutrally-charged subatomic particles, the universe becoming a black expanse of floating nuclei. I think that part of suspending your scientific beliefs means assuming that only the power grid failed, not the entirety of electromagnetics, and relevant physical laws.
run4yourlives 14y ago
Yeah, I kind of thought it was funny he missed that too...our entire body operates on electric impulses.
mkr-hn 14y ago
Does this pedantry add anything worthwhile? This isn't like someone saying "my food has no chemicals in it," which reflects a problematic and easily manipulated misunderstanding. No one's trying to sell electricity-free food.
- seagreen 14y ago
  Fair criticism. Maybe not, but I find the "what if foo was missing" arguments emotionally manipulative and so worth making fun of. It's like going up to someone in 1935 and saying, "What if there wasn't any metal? Your life would totally suck!" Well, duh. If your point is "the industrial age depends on metal" or "the information age depends on electronics" go ahead and say it, but don't pretend like it's a novel idea. (Though as pavel_lishin pointed out I totally missed the "suspend your scientific beliefs" part of the quote, I, uh, quoted. Oops. At least his deadpan response is funny.)

EzGraphs 14y ago

The article goes on to focus on the need for advancement in battery technologies. Although the specific examples in view were mobile devices, I think that is one of the most interesting aspects of the work Tesla(TSLA) is doing. They are extremely motivated to make breakthroughs. Their business depends up on it.

notJim 14y ago

I really hate this link-baity title. We are not slaves to electricity. It is a useful tool, and like all tools, it shapes the way we live our lives. I really wish people wouldn't upvote this stuff. It's about 70% flowery, overwrought generalities about electricity, and 30% hand-wavey press-releases about battery technology. Admittedly, the battery technology bit could be interesting, but I'd really rather read something substantial about it.

billswift 14y ago

And another Carrington event could fry all electronics, and possibly all electrical equipment depending on how powerful it is, at any time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_event http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_event

Arelius 14y ago

> Waking up, your alarm wouldn’t work. Unless you have a gas grill, you can say goodbye to your morning toast. Your car wouldn’t start (or brake, or steer, or do anything really). Trains, without signaling, would be dead weight. Automatic doors at the entrance to your office, school, or favorite coffee shop would remain resolutely shut. Your PC, your DVD player, your wireless router, your digital camera, your smartphone — all computers everywhere would be dead. I feel that he's trying to overstate the role of modern electrical activity in our lives. Using myself as a counterexample: * I, along with many other people, wake up without an alarm clock of any sort. And Mechanical alarm clocks exist, and are completely suitable. * I do actually have a gas grill, along with most self-respecting cooks, it's a superior heating element. (I also cannot eat toast) and other than the starter, that continues to work without power. * I do not take a car to work, an average car, while technically uses "electricity" it is never connected to the electrical grid, and afaik, the only reason it needs a battery is for the starter, which there are other ways around. Additionally, very few of the fundamental properties of a car are dependent on electricity. In fact many cars on the road today will continue to function (however poorly without power steering and the like) without electricity. * The fact that signaling for trains is electrical, is a symptom of convenience, not a fundamental requirement. * None of the doors I encounter frequently are automatic, not at my home, my office, or any of the coffee shops, or stores I frequent. Other than large department stores, automatic doors seem to be the exception. * Yes, all my electrical devices would be dead, but seriously mentioning "DVD Player" as if it's important. Then he goes on to completely skip the most noticeable life-changer when electricity goes out, Lighting. Modern electrical lighting has to be the most significant way that electricity affects our lives, and completely transforms the night. That's not to say removal of electricity won't cause problems, specifically the "Instant" removal of electricity, but our fundamental dependence on it seems exaggerated.

voodoochilo 14y ago

no, we're slaves of our pointless fight against entropy.