Post 77402 by cosine@anticapitalist.party
 (DIR) More posts by cosine@anticapitalist.party
 (DIR) Post #77400 by freakazoid@retro.social
       2018-09-18T15:59:15Z
       
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       Wireless power transmission as Tesla envisioned it is impractical for far more important reasons than the fact that it would be difficult to charge money for. To avoid requiring line of sight, we would have had to reserve a huge swath of RF spectrum that's far more valuable for communications use. And there would have been huge losses as energy got absorbed by the atmosphere and natural features.
       
 (DIR) Post #77401 by freakazoid@retro.social
       2018-09-18T16:03:37Z
       
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       Transmitters within hundreds of miles of one another would have had to operate on different frequencies to avoid interfering with one another, though simple reflections would interfere as well, creating "dead spots" and areas where there was extra energy.We also don't have a good idea what long-term exposure to high-power RF does to people and animals. If a practically sized antenna can pull enough power to run a house, some power will also get absorbed by your body.
       
 (DIR) Post #77402 by cosine@anticapitalist.party
       2018-09-18T16:10:27Z
       
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       @freakazoid i always figured we'd use it for something niche, some big spread out array of electrical devices with no human contact for miles
       
 (DIR) Post #77403 by freakazoid@retro.social
       2018-09-18T16:13:14Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @cosine Nowadays electronics tend to be low-power enough and solar (and even thermoelectrics) cheap enough that such things tend to get their energy from the environment. Which is another area Tesla explored. IIRC he figured out how to collect energy (from the Sun?) using big copper sheets insulated from the ground (possibly by air).