Ask Lemmy

26981 readers

2345 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

221

Arthur C. Clark once said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". What technologies do we have today that would look like magic to people from the past? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 1 year ago by BarrelAgedBoredom to c/asklemmy

125 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I think lasers are pretty wack when you think about them through this lens. A small, wand-like object in your hand can make light appear from seemingly nowhere. If it's powerful enough it can set things on fire or blind people. Not to mention larger ones like laser cutters or the LLD, used to destroy missiles midflight. Thats sure to blow some feudal peasant minds

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I read somewhere that we are going to set up solar panels in space convert the electcity to radio radios, beam it to earth, then convert it back to electricty.

To anyone that wasn't Nikola tesla, that just sounds insane.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, that's not an actual plan that's being implemented. It's basically a thought experiment at this point. The problem with wireless energy transfer at that scale is that it takes a fuck ton of output power to generate a little bit of input power at a distance (inverse square law)

[–] Boddhisatva 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Correction. It actually has been done.. A prototype has successfully demonstrated proof of concept.

A space solar power prototype that was launched into orbit in January is operational and has demonstrated its ability to wirelessly transmit power in space and to beam detectable power to Earth for the first time.

You are right about the efficiency, but since the amount of energy that can be gathered in orbit is so large, the small fraction that can be received on Earth could still be significant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, a proof of concept is one thing, but scaling it up to deliver mega or gigawatts is a whole different beast. I'd be concerned about environmental impact with radio waves that strong.

[–] cone_zombie 4 points 1 year ago

I've already done that in Dyson Sphere Program though