Post B2HSCbv0zk94Ag2A8O by h4890@alive.bar
 (DIR) More posts by h4890@alive.bar
 (DIR) Post #B2FDTjn163YHsR57SK by amerika@annihilation.social
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       Overview plans to use less-dense, wide-field infrared waves. Existing utility-scale solar farms would be able to receive the beamed energy just like they receive the sun's energy during daylight hours. It marks the first step toward space-based solar power satellites that could someday transmit energy from orbit to existing solar farms on Earth.https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/26/01/13/049230/researchers-beam-power-from-a-moving-airplane
       
 (DIR) Post #B2G9S8jBCWprz2EHj6 by h4890@alive.bar
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       @amerika How old is this idea? Wasn't it first thought of by some russian guy in the 40s or 50s? (space based solar power beamed to earth)
       
 (DIR) Post #B2GA6jgjCbQqCJRMqu by amerika@annihilation.social
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       @h4890 I remember a lot of discussion in sci-fi generally about things like this, space elevators, ringworlds, etc.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2H8xGmfOOgd9O6HeS by h4890@alive.bar
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       @amerika Yes, exactly! I think those are all old ideas. Older than one might expect.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2H9Kx5CIBlkzy3oLQ by amerika@annihilation.social
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       @h4890 Alternate take: technology hit a plateau back in the 1920s and we are just working through better versions of what we had then.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2HSCbv0zk94Ag2A8O by h4890@alive.bar
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       @amerika I disagree. Space technology did not exist then, neither did genetic engineering. Unless you want to "collapse" that into physics and medicine, in which case you are right, but it also becomes quite a pointless discussion.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2HSMdoomklmxZuzpY by amerika@annihilation.social
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       @h4890 Rockets existed then, and science fiction writers wrote about them taking us off the planet; adding machines and early computers existed; selective breeding existed. We have slightly improved versions.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2HtLdPlV2u6BBwcYi by h4890@alive.bar
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       @amerika I think the difference in kind and level are more than enough to justify saying that the technology did not exist then. Equating satellites with "things that fly through the air" I think risks collapsing into uselessness, since basically everything can be reduced to "matter".
       
 (DIR) Post #B2HtNRCVsgqssWbcS8 by amerika@annihilation.social
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       @h4890 That's a bit of a false dichotomy there, wouldn't you say?Satellites and spaceships were described even before H.G. Wells and Buck Rogers.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2JCQEE0fqsnn4JHSi by h4890@alive.bar
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       @amerika Yes, but the fact that something is described, vs, something that science has realized are two distinct things. I do agree that it is a bit too much to talk about "matter", but to be clear, my point is that if we generalize too much, the concept loses its value when it can be extended to almost everything.
       
 (DIR) Post #B2JCUeQZCBjWDMIB4i by amerika@annihilation.social
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       @h4890 Spectra are with us always. That is, saying we have "objective" "truth" might work better "2+2=4" than complex understandings of gravity, management science, or metaphysics, for example.