if there was unlimited amount of electricity ?

Lucid Lounge
1

hi there

I was thinking today that if in the future someone works out how to make inlimited energy such as the idea of nuclear fission, where once it is started the nergy will never run out, what on a global or local scale would this have impact?
I was thinking about transport or travel, rather than flying on a areoplane that burns fossil fuels and pollutes the atmosphere that there is enough eletricity to transport anybody anywhere in the world at great speeds beyond what trains, planes, cars can do nowadays and get you there almost instantly or very little time, what effect this would have?

also if anybody knows of technology or ideas that are possible theoritically but because not enough energy or electricity can be produced it isn’t feasible or possible in todays world ?

I know of the idea of you been transported similiar to that of be beamed down to a planet such as in the classic star trek is theoritically possible but can’t be done as not enough energy can be produced or similiar things.

I would like to know what other people think of this idea or knowledge and whether you think it is right for human beings to be able to do this ?

thanks
samzen

2

I don’t think we need unlimited electrice…thinking about it we already have unlimited, couse we can make it etternally, unlike oil.

And the contamination that the planes make isn’t that much, it’s infinitely more the pollution that cars make.
Making something work with electricity doesn’t make it more fast as you stated, in the beggining (electrical cars and stuff already beggined) this things will be worse, but, as anything, the more you spend researching it the better it would be. Of course we aren’t researching electric power at full speed becouse there is oil yet and it’s a big industry, if suddenly all could work with electricity the world market would collapse (I guess).

3

We already have unlimited electricity, as all means to create it originate from the sun and that won’t go away for a few years at least! :wink: Electricity of course is a form of energy which we are finding new ways to extract all the time. Nuclear is our best bet at the moment, but then in the future when an even better way is invented, nuclear may become obsolete!

4

to speak at a purely physical level, it is impossible to have an infinite amount of energy. at least by what we know today. normal molecular physics does not allow for an infinite supply of energy. you can have an infinite loop of a given amount of energy, that will continuously loop without end, but you can never extract energy from any given loop, and just keep extracting it. a source of energy, no matter how great, has a limit. a kilo of uranium can only give so much energy. granted, it will last for a couple hundred years, but it is still finite. the sun also has its limits, wherein it will stop emitting light/energy.

however. the amount of energy that exists in the universe is constant, or has a constant limit. they say that a nuclear blast forces mass into pure energy, but we already have alot of it. if all matter in the universe were converted into energy, then there would be a limit to it. what we could do, is simply take better advantage of the existing supply of energy, that would otherwise be wasted. one way of doing so is to literally encapsulate an entire sun with solar panels. that should give us more than enough energy to last the rest of mankinds existance.

as for what it can be used for, i say nothing but biological engineering. before long, we will learn how to manipulate our genes to whatever state we want, and will be able to achieve immortality. we are already close to achieving that goal, as we are starting to find out most of what makes us age. we will, eventually, become so powerful that we can perform telekinetic abilities at free will. at that point, we will no longer need jobs, but will be home tutored for many years, while we learn to control our abilities, and how to manipulate matter to make the essentials of life, furniture, shelter, alloys and vehicles with only what recources we find in our surroundings. in essence, we can create whatever paradise we want, where ever we want, and change it on a whim. redecorating could be done in a second, so if you are in a bad mood, you can change your entire home to reflect this, or make it the opposite. babble about what color your curtains should be can be solved in about 3 seconds, and undone in a heartbeat. toys, tools, luxuries, all will be freely available for anyone to create on the spot. copyright laws will vanish, but the inventor/creator of an item will still be recognized for his work.

i cant wait…

5

I didn’t mean the suns energy was infinite, just that its gonna be a very long time before we aren’t able to take advantage of it. By that time the Earth will probably be a wasteland.

6

Well with fusion it might as well be unlimited, you get insane amounts of energy from something with a tiny mass. I bet they’d use it to draw adverts made out of stars or something crazy like that though. :razz:

7

Matter/Antimatter reactors :smile:
However, if there was ever an accident, a lot of people would be blown up, so I think our best bet is solar power.

8

I think if we use it right. When are we going to start switching over, and using other energy, like the sun?

9

hi everybody

I posted the post like yesterday and quite few people have replied and it is interesting what you are saying.

One thing maybe is not clear at the start is that I was wondering does anyone know of a potential source of energy used to produce more enrgy or electricity? or with this finite power can you produce it a small scale so a battery is turned into a mini fission reactor and as the size equaits turning mass into energy the battery would have huge range of 100 of years in a finite system but batteries made in large numbers to power everything, but as they last so long you could go anyway pratically.

the possibilities are endless, but it is interesting to wonder, like a dream

10

Well, like I said, matter/antimatter reaction, but that is volitile right now at our level of technology. You could get the space shuttle into orbit with a penny’s weight in antimatter, but right now, that is dangerous.

11

Hmm…if we could ever figure out cold fusion that would probably solve the world’s energy problems.

12

what is cold fusion ?

13

I was going to point out the Unified Field theory, which I think goes along with cold fusion (though I haven’t had breakfast yet–holiday in the US–so I’m too lazy to look it up at the moment).

The unified field theory is a scientific theory that Einstein had begun working on at the end of his life. I’m not too sure of the minute details of the theory, but the end goal is achieving a power source that is 100% or beyond efficient in drawing power.

Most power problems, especially with solar/geothermal/wave energy, are based on how much of the energy is lost in the machines we are using to gather it. We need so many large solar panels to power a single building, for example, because each solar power is only extracting a very minor percentage of the actual power–I want to say something less than 7%.

But what the unified field theory would do, if it is even possible, is allow scientists to build some form of generator/engine that would be equal or more efficient at generating power than at using power; in theory, we would only need to start such a device once, and (if we maintained it from natural decay) it would never stop producing power regardless of fuel.

I’m pretty sure the basic idea of cold fusion is using something called hard water (which I think is specially ionized water) to generate a fusion reaction, but am a little less sure of that than of what the basic idea of Unified Field is :smile: Oh, and one of the famous things I remember about cold fusion is about ten years ago some lab claimed that they got it working, but they unfortunately couldn’t reproduce it.

14

Cold Fusion is doing fusion but at room temperatures. Obviously it would be a problem to have a minature sun burning in your house. :smile:

15

Wasn’t there a movie about that? What was it called? Chain Reaction or something like that I think.

16

the “unified field theory”, while awesome, is not possible with our understanding of physics. at least not entirely. the theory is effectively making a machine that can run for all eternity, and to actually extract energy from it without it stopping. ever. we have probably all heard of some quack scientists wanting to make one/claiming that they have. now, disregarding discoveries that will take place in the future, such machines are theoretically possible, to a certain extent. effectively, you make such a machine, and give it an amount of power. then it transforms this energy into one or more different types of energy, and back to its original form, without losing any energy in the process. currently, the challenge is to eliminate friction between matter, so as to make energy dissipation in a machine zero. this is, in theory at least, possible. practically, it isnt so easy. HOWEVER, the problem comes when you want the same machine to be given an amount of energy to start it, and give off that same amount of energy every single second/hour/day, without stopping. this is, by our current laws of physics, impossible. thats because it implies a machine literally creating energy. almost all our current power supplies come from converting energy from other sources. actually creating energy requires matter to be converted directly into energy, like what happens in a nuclear bomb. any machine you make, will have a finite mass. it can only draw so much of its own matter, before it has destroyed itself in creating energy for us.

until we can get a good understanding of quantum physics, and the even more fundamental things that govern our universe, we can not create an eternal power supply. we can create long lasting ones, and have already made power supplies that can last for several millenia, but not eternal. the closest we can get to that now, is fusion. and its still a long ways away.