That should have happened from the get go (thorium reactors), except that a bomb cannot be made from thorium.
On Sat, Sep 15, 2012 at 11:07 PM, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Sat, Sep 15, 2012 at 3:11 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> I'm giving a talk Monday on why we should be building molten-salt thorium >> reactors to replace the burning of fossil fuels for electrical power. >> > > Brent, > > That sounds awesome. Where will this talk be, will the presentation be put > online? > > I think the move from fossil fuels to Thorium reactors will have a > stabilizing effect on world politics. The U.S. would have little interest > in the middle east if not for its concern over energy resources. There is > 10X the energy in the Thorium contained in coal than we get from burning it, > and the release of radioactive Thorium (from burning coal) leads to the > deaths of untold thousands each year. > > I think if humanity can survive the next 50 years without destroying > ourselves, or setting ourselves back into a new dark age, we will be in the > clear, having surpassed what Carl Sagan called a civilizations technological > adolescence. In 50 years from now, it is likely (given current trends) that > the computational power necessary to emulate a human brain will be very > cheap and very efficient (more efficient than our current brains which > require 20 watts of food energy). > > Yet, if we can power brains directly with energy (bypassing the > photosynthesis cycle), we move from needing 1 acre of farmland per person, > to a 6 by 6 inch square worth of sunlight to power each human brain. > Instead of using 40% of the Earth's photosynthetic capacity, we would use a > fraction of a percent, and we would live richer lives than any billionaire > does today: we could experience anything that anyone might imagine. > Regenerative medicine (the ability to re-grow tissues and organs) is > predicted to become mainstream by 2025, so those that can survive the next > 10 - 15 years could survive for eons. > > Jason > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
