..to society and nature?

I mean you figure every major country now how essentially unlimited power. No one would care to try to convserve it, the excess heat created would harmful to the environment

1/11/2007 11:49:25 PM

are you on drugs, man?

1/12/2007 12:18:35 AM

There is no gain or loss in a closed system. The only reason we have problems with greenhouse gases now is we are adding new gases to the system that have been trapped geologically. A promising new technology called carbon sequestration might help solve that.

1/12/2007 12:21:46 AM

^but the earth and our atmosphere aren't really a closed system. in the end it's not something of concern because the savings in carbon emissions would definitely more than offset the heat produced. but if the "cheap and clean energy" comes from massive installation of, say, solar panels, there might be a nontrivial contribution from the conversion into heat of light that otherwise would have been reflected back out of the atmosphere. for someone who doesn't have an in-depth understanding of climatology, atmospheric science, and various methods of power generation, i don't think it's as dumb a question as ^^ indicates.

1/12/2007 2:03:47 AM

No, it's not a dumb question. But seriously, if we're going to have a problem would not that be the problem we would want to have?

If it ever becomes a problem we can levy a tax on all energy (to avoid backsliding to earlier technology while encouraging conservation).

Just imagine it: the middle east would return to the sand-form-whence-it-came. Some third world socialist countries would collapse. Western workers can stop working to feed the cartel and start working for themselves.

1/12/2007 10:39:46 AM

what if instead of one extreme, it just became a balance, each offsetting the other in cost, making it so energy wasnt free... and unlimited? i see that is more likely.

1/12/2007 11:03:04 AM

^ Well, we don't mean free, nothing can ever be free. Even electricity produced via fusion will require the employment of technicians, construction of buildings to house the reactor, designing by engineers, office space for them to work in, etc. All this effort by other human beings costs money, so such electricity will never be free.

1/12/2007 6:08:42 PM

what about free beer?

[Edited on January 12, 2007 at 6:34 PM. Reason : free beer is free]

1/12/2007 6:34:31 PM

hogwash, freedom isn't free. It costs a buck o five.

1/12/2007 7:22:03 PM

Free beer isn't free, someone paid for it.

1/13/2007 2:49:55 AM