The Obscene Energy Demands of AI

a reply to: TinfoilTophat

Like everyone was supposedly to have rocket packs by now. Possible doesn’t equate practical nor economically feasible.

But there’s a catch: In order to breed tritium you need a working fusion reactor, and there may not be enough tritium to jump-start the first generation of power plants. The world’s only commercial sources are the 19 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, which each produce about 0.5 kilograms a year as a waste product, and half are due to retire this decade. The available tritium stockpile—thought to be about 25 kilograms today—will peak before the end of the decade and begin a steady decline as it is sold off and decays, according to projections in ITER’s 2018 research plan.

www.science.org...

originally posted by: TinfoilTophat
Ladies and gentlemen, we have fusion.

www.energy.gov...

Fusion + Quantum Computing + A.I. = Future

Take a chill pill George Jetson, we made it.

Very cool!

Getting more energy out of a system than what was put in, is the holy grail.

Looks like we're on our way with the DOE's National Labs breakthrough.

originally posted by: Lazy88
a reply to: TinfoilTophat

Like everyone was supposedly to have rocket packs by now. Possible doesn’t equate practical nor economically feasible.

But there’s a catch: In order to breed tritium you need a working fusion reactor, and there may not be enough tritium to jump-start the first generation of power plants. The world’s only commercial sources are the 19 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, which each produce about 0.5 kilograms a year as a waste product, and half are due to retire this decade. The available tritium stockpile—thought to be about 25 kilograms today—will peak before the end of the decade and begin a steady decline as it is sold off and decays, according to projections in ITER’s 2018 research plan.

www.science.org...

Like most other paradigm changing discoveries, what's not practical or feasible today is trivial tomorrow.

Give it a little time.

originally posted by: SchrodingersRat


Like most other paradigm changing discoveries, what's

Tim Wilson Debuts "Where the F Is My Jetpack"

Shrugs…

7) The Helio-Motor: "Are Steam and Electricity Doomed?"

Invented by Dr. William Calver in the 1900, the Helio-Motor was inspired by an age-old desire to recreate the legend of Archimedes' heat ray — when the scientist supposedly lit a ship on fire using mirrors to concentrate sunlight.

Calver believed he had "solved the use of the sun's rays" by concentrating sunlight using mirrors. In his Helio-Motor, flat mirrors moved according to the sun's position in the sky, and then stored reflected heat in bricks or water. The goal was to heat the world and generate enough power to replace electricity. Commentators believed Calver's Helio-Motor was "Archimedes' Dream Realized," and rich investors lined up to help the effort. Leland Stanford, founder of the university that bears his name, told Calver, "The steam engine made a great revolution and this will make another."

Of course, the Helio-Motor didn't become the next big thing in electricity because it was too hard to convert and store all that energy. Even if it worked well, it wasn't better than the existing sources like coal.

But the Helio-Motor may not be dead yet. Thanks to more efficient ways for using that reflected heat, the Helio-Motor sounds a lot like modern-day concentrated solar power. It's entirely possible that Calver's invention could go from potentially world-changing, to unwanted device, to world-changing again. Part of the fun is figuring out what else might do the same.

www.vox.com...

A solar powered Stirling engine is a heat engine powered by a temperature gradient generated by the sun. Even though Stirling engines can run with a small temperature gradient, it is more efficient to use concentrated solar power.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: Lazy88
a reply to: TinfoilTophat

Like everyone was supposedly to have rocket packs by now. Possible doesn’t equate practical nor economically feasible.

But there’s a catch: In order to breed tritium you need a working fusion reactor, and there may not be enough tritium to jump-start the first generation of power plants. The world’s only commercial sources are the 19 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, which each produce about 0.5 kilograms a year as a waste product, and half are due to retire this decade. The available tritium stockpile—thought to be about 25 kilograms today—will peak before the end of the decade and begin a steady decline as it is sold off and decays, according to projections in ITER’s 2018 research plan.

www.science.org...

Too much freedom. They decided against it.

originally posted by: ARM19688

originally posted by: Lazy88
a reply to: TinfoilTophat

Like everyone was supposedly to have rocket packs by now. Possible doesn’t equate practical nor economically feasible.

But there’s a catch: In order to breed tritium you need a working fusion reactor, and there may not be enough tritium to jump-start the first generation of power plants. The world’s only commercial sources are the 19 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, which each produce about 0.5 kilograms a year as a waste product, and half are due to retire this decade. The available tritium stockpile—thought to be about 25 kilograms today—will peak before the end of the decade and begin a steady decline as it is sold off and decays, according to projections in ITER’s 2018 research plan.

www.science.org...

Too much freedom. They decided against it.

Or the fact they are impractical and only hold enough fuel for 10 minutes of fight? So how many rocket fuel stations would have to be stationed around the land? How many rocket fuel refineries. And the distribution problems. And the cost.

You could make the packs larger to hold more fuel, but they would have to burn more fuel to creat more lift. At that point, might as well be in an aircraft.

originally posted by: Lazy88

originally posted by: ARM19688

originally posted by: Lazy88
a reply to: TinfoilTophat

Like everyone was supposedly to have rocket packs by now. Possible doesn’t equate practical nor economically feasible.

But there’s a catch: In order to breed tritium you need a working fusion reactor, and there may not be enough tritium to jump-start the first generation of power plants. The world’s only commercial sources are the 19 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, which each produce about 0.5 kilograms a year as a waste product, and half are due to retire this decade. The available tritium stockpile—thought to be about 25 kilograms today—will peak before the end of the decade and begin a steady decline as it is sold off and decays, according to projections in ITER’s 2018 research plan.

www.science.org...

Too much freedom. They decided against it.

Or the fact they are impractical and only hold enough fuel for 10 minutes of fight? So how many rocket fuel stations would have to be stationed around the land? How many rocket fuel refineries. And the distribution problems. And the cost.

You could make the packs larger to hold more fuel, but they would have to burn more fuel to creat more lift. At that point, might as well be in an aircraft.

Unless they ran on hydrogen like the hydrogen fuel cell cars.

Hydrogen weighs nothing. I'm sure they can come up with a very light fuel cell made of extremely strong/durable material while remaining relatively light weight.

Hey, come to think of it, there's a billion $$ idea and business in there somewhere.

originally posted by: SchrodingersRat

originally posted by: Lazy88

originally posted by: ARM19688

originally posted by: Lazy88
a reply to: TinfoilTophat

Like everyone was supposedly to have rocket packs by now. Possible doesn’t equate practical nor economically feasible.

But there’s a catch: In order to breed tritium you need a working fusion reactor, and there may not be enough tritium to jump-start the first generation of power plants. The world’s only commercial sources are the 19 Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors, which each produce about 0.5 kilograms a year as a waste product, and half are due to retire this decade. The available tritium stockpile—thought to be about 25 kilograms today—will peak before the end of the decade and begin a steady decline as it is sold off and decays, according to projections in ITER’s 2018 research plan.

www.science.org...

Too much freedom. They decided against it.

Or the fact they are impractical and only hold enough fuel for 10 minutes of fight? So how many rocket fuel stations would have to be stationed around the land? How many rocket fuel refineries. And the distribution problems. And the cost.

You could make the packs larger to hold more fuel, but they would have to burn more fuel to creat more lift. At that point, might as well be in an aircraft.

Unless they ran on hydrogen like the hydrogen fuel cell cars.

Hydrogen weighs nothing. I'm sure they can come up with a very light fuel cell made of extremely strong/durable material while remaining relatively light weight.

Hey, come to think of it, there's a billion $$ idea and business in there somewhere.

Rockets? Hydrogen is a rocket fuel. And the weight of hydrogen needed to crate lift for a rocket is significant. How do you create lift with a hydrogen fuel cell for rocket pack.

The first hydrogen-powered planes are taking flight
Aircraft retrofitted with hydrogen fuel cells could slash CO2 emissions from small planes — and potentially pave the way for hydrogen jets, new study shows.

www.canarymedia.com...