by Outcast_Searcher » Sat 02 Feb 2013, 13:43:01
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '
')That being said, would the discovery of what energy is by definition other than, 'the ability to do work', necessarily be a technological thing? Was the discovery of relativity a technological thing? Neither would this kind of thing qualify as an energy source, not technically. All it would do would be to allow us to understand how to manipulate the cosmos in order to make energy from what, nothing, time, matter?
Evil, this is an excellent point. You're talking about a complete paradigm shift.
There are also partial shifts -- going somewhere between where we are now (mostly burning fossil fuels) and, say, Star Trek with "magical devices".
The integrated chip is one example. For a LONG time, leaders in computer technology like IBM were trying to make computers more and more powerful (faster) by using more POWER. The failing Josephson Junction technology was trying to essentially super-cool a mainframe to force computing to the next level. Obviously this would have used a TON of energy, been very expensive, and I have trouble even visualizing all the likely classes of maintenance issues. Instead, the microprocessor made the trick using LESS and LESS energy and shrinking things as the main goal, and lo and behold computers became much more powerful for decades.
For energy, a nice mid-point technology would be reliable hot fusion. Unfortunately, the guesses on when (or if) this will be viable, are all over the lot. But it would at a minimum buy us a LOT of time and make burning fossil fuels for energy largely obsolete, once the electric grid could be built out.
It would be ironic if we discover this only AFTER the climate is so screwed up it is obvious we are all doomed, even to the far right science denialist max-profit-at-ANY-cost crowd (which would be my guess based on how things are going), but what can you do? -- the planet is run by humans.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.