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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

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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

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[–] [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.