thatcherc

22 ms·

1. 211.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   I imagine there is also a size component involved. The Earth's magnetic field might be 31,000 nanoTesla, but it's spread over an enormous volume. This magnetic shield would have to be much smaller than a planet, so it makes sense
2. 212.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   The live stream I found only went up to 1:20:00 or so - is there a longer one?
3. 213.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   I think you're thinking of Project Snowflake which was featured more heavily in The Dark Forest . Awesome trilogy!
4. 214.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   Sounds like something straight out of Cixin Liu's "The Dark Forest"
5. 215.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   This is incredibly exciting but a few important details are missing. The first is how big does the structure need to be? I can buy a 1 Tesla magnet online right now but that's probably not what they're thinking of. Would we need a
6. 216.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   Gotta say - the projects in the book made all the difference for me. It's one thing to read their high level, notation-heavy chapters, but I found that working through the exercises really solidified everything in my mind. That said I
7. 217.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   Jack Wisdom actually uses it in his research, which is in solar system dynamics. I think he converts it to C though in order to run it faster.
8. 218.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   Presumably using light from the laser. I forget the exact numbers, but the proposed laser is on the order of hundreds of gigawatts. Even at 4 ly away, there should still be appreciable illumination from Earth.
9. 219.▲
   by thatcherc 10y ago

   It's actually one millinewton per kilowatt, which I understand is only one order of magnitude off of current Hall thrusters. It's not great, but Hall thrusters are really useful for deep-space missions, so if this works, it could
10. 220.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    The application of quantum computing that most excites me is the possibility of simulating chemical systems. In this Google Research blog post [1], the author mentions that with 100 reliable qubits, one could simulate the process by which b
11. 221.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    Just curious - is that much silica needed to power the whole planet? We've got entire deserts full of silica sand and most rocks are composed mostly of silicon. I feel like refining enough silicon to power the world via solar wouldn&#x
12. 222.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    Ah got it. I thought the author meant the disclaimer came right in the beginning of the credits. Thanks for clearing that up!
13. 223.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    'Nearly every film'? I can't think of the last film I watched where I saw a disclaimer like this. Maybe I just don't watch a lot of movies that could be interpreted as true, but this title seems hyperbolic. Edit: it&#x27
14. 224.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    Yeah, especially with the tri-solar system they're aiming at. At least our probes wouldn't be as menacing as the Droplet though!
15. 225.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    Already has! I made Terrain2STL [0] a couple years ago to do just that. It converts STRM topo data to the STL format. [0] - http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/
16. 226.▲
    by thatcherc 10y ago

    It's not exactly contour lines, but I made a site [0] that creates STL files from a global digital elevation model. You can select a region of the Earth and get a 3D printable file of its terrain. Might be close to what you're loo