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You might be interested to know that there's two different kind of posts on this blog: "Thought of the Day" and "Normal". The "Thought of the Day" category is a once-a-day random tidbit, usually a funny video or picture, and the "Normal" is just what you'd expect from a blog like this:
Unicorn-Butterfly Soup.
--Kyle
p.s. the subscription options to the left (psst! <---- that way) reflect the same content options
Creating Wormholes? Yes, Please!
This is definitely filed under “Coolest News This Week”: it is apparently now theoretically possible to create ‘wormholes’ (ala Star Trek or Stargate) on Earth, and use them as point-to-point relays.
Oh Yeah!
Not Exactly…
If you read into the article, you may get highly disappointed. Let me save you from the trouble: we’re not talking about the ability for people to “teleport” or anything. It was made clear that the most practical application would be in the medical world, moving or inserting very small objects into certain places, or for computers’ calculation processes.
Yeah, But
Who cares, right? The fact that you could do something like this would, itself, be awesome, regardless of whether people could go through it or not. Let’s pretend that, as the article mentions, computer components could be “sent” through such a wormhole…
Instant Delivery
If every household had a small portal, or wormhole device, it would have endless uses. The most obvious? The destruction of traditional mail services! No longer would you have to wait 5-7 days for a letter to come from your grandma! No longer would you have to wait for “somewhere around the 15th of the month” for that electricity bill to show up! It would be instantaneous. Maybe even package delivery too, so you could get your shipment of steroids from Mexico faster…
Other Applications
Here’s some other applications I see coming from this:
- Really creepy things like spy on people, easier than it is now
- “Losing” something now becomes a reality if you don’t exactly know where your wormhole goes
- What if you set up two wormholes in series? Throw a ball through it… would it fall? Or go infinitely throughout the loop?
Not The Space-Time Kind, But The EMF Kind
A Long Ways Away
Anything like this is a long ways away, much like quantum computing or that invisibility cloak, but it’s cool to think about anyways. But it’d be even better if it had uses like human transportation, or interstellar space travel…
Beaming Solar Power From Space
It popped up awhile ago, but it’s back again: the idea to beam collected solar power to Earth.
There’s only a few, shall we say, minor problems with getting this to work, aside from those mentioned in the article:
- Satellite Position
- Transfer Mechanism
- Ownership
- Defensibility
Satellite Position
Modern times have made the Earth’s rotation as common knowledge, and yet something like this appears. Will the satellite be in a stationary orbit, so as to have contact with the Sun at all times? If so, how do you collect something that is always moving in relation to you? Or will the satellite be orbiting at the same speed as Earth (having a relative velocity of zero)? If so, where is this energy beamed to?
Not too close, eh?
One could imagine that, for practical and efficiency reasons, the satellite would remain in a stationary orbit so it would have contact with the Sun at all times (unless it was far enough away that Earth’s shadow was negligible… but we’ll pretend that’s impossible). How would the energy be collected?
Transfer Mechanism
Since we’re assuming the satellite will remain in a stationary orbit, the transfer mechanism to Earth would be very complicated. The most sensible method (since we can’t yet transfer power via radio waves) is a high intensity beam of energy/light, or a laser. That’s all well and good, but the Earth is rotating below the satellite…
Some solutions:
- a subset of satellites that bounces the laser around the Earth and always targets one specific location
- a network of something akin to a wireframe, on which the collection mechanism can “slide” around the Earth to receive the transfer
- a huge line of receivers that encircles the Earth, always having contact from the satellite’s laser at one point on this line
As you can see, there is no easy answer.
Energy says “Beam me down, Scotty!”
Ownership
Who would own this satellite? The U.S. Government is the one with funding interest at the moment, but what about it’s reality? Do the American energy companies, who already charge exorbitant amounts of money, add this to their energy arsenal? Is it owned by the United Nations, in an effort to be a “global society” and transfer the power around the world? Does it become temporarily “owned” by the country to which it is beaming energy at the moment?
Short of having one of these energy grabbers for each country that wants one (and maybe for each energy company), there will be huge debate, and possible fighting, over an item such as this.
Defensibility
How do you defend a giant satellite that you, as a country or corporation, may come to depend on for energy? Attack rockets and lasers-that-don’t-yet-exist to the satellite, with an auto-targeting computer? What about meteors destroying something that costs so much? What happens when, say, a Chinese satellite is unknowingly armed with missiles comes close… and attacks? Solar flares? The slight “wobble” of Earth? Ground-based attacks? Spaceships? Debris?
Me R SpaseCatz. Me eet SpaseMise!
My Point
My whole point is this: it sounds like a good idea, and is really cool to think about… but there is no way this can be designed and built without spending alot of money, and causing worldwide problems on many levels.
Maybe you should work on global warming first…
Galactic Currency? Yes, Please!
Engadget had a writeup of a Travelex press release on a new currency…
I only have one thing to say: Uh, YES!
Ok, that was a lie. I have more to say than that.
Looks cool, doesn’t it?
People are saying this is stupid, a waste of time, or unnecessary… but there are some things to consider before passing judgment.
- The Euro
- Space
- Star Wars
The Euro
Remember when Europe had a different currency in every country? Aren’t things a little better now? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I find it easier to carry one currency across a plethora of locations than having to change it out everytime you go 8 miles in any direction. Another small item for consideration: if memory serves me, the Euro stabilized the European economy a little bit… right?
Space
It’s a big place. And the arguments for why credit cards (as they work currently) won’t be acceptable are very true and compelling… think of space as one giant magnet scanner you can’t put your credit card on. For that matter, how easy is it going to be to pay for things using whatever currency you normally use… when there’s going to be more than a handful of currency options from all of the different countries?
The luxury apartments of the future…
Star Wars
I’m assuming you’ve seen Star Wars? Then you’ve realized they pay in a generic form of currency… Galactic Credits. That seems to work out for them doesn’t it?
The Bring-Together
Long story short, I think that not only is a “galactic currency” a good idea… but it’s much needed. If America were to use the same currency as China and Europe (although Europe might be upset about having to change again), things would be much different. There’d be no more talk of “the dollar is falling!” and China trying to have the Yen take over the world.
It would also potentially unite the world, to a certain extent, which is a necessary item for humanity to be successful and thriving in space. We can’t have our planetary problems carry over into space or other planets… do you really want to have to worry about suicide bombers proclaiming Jihad on the moon? How about the Chinese and Russians working together to take over some new planet, name it a Communist property, and then declare war on the non-Communists?
What we’re really trying to avoid…
Do you really think that each country can reach space independently? No. The American government is having a hard enough time as it is, how can third world countries (or even places like Germany, for that matter) make it? This is why the business sector has stepped in. But for the business sector of space to be fully functional and realized, the world economy and populace has to be behind the idea of colonizing space as a race and as a people…
Not in the name of their homeland, nation, religion, race, or otherwise social affiliation.
