Make It So - Energy Science Fiction Becoming Science Fact

[oilguy]

It's no secret that Gene Roddenberry's venerable "Star Trek" metaseries has inspired the imagination of millions since it first debuted in 1966. Strange worlds, compelling characters, and more techno-babble than you could shake a stick at have always been hallmarks of the series. But Star Trek has also been noted on many occasions throughout the series for seemingly predicting (or perhaps inspiring) the progression of technology.

While we're certainly not cruising the galaxy in starships trying to pick up green women, a lot of Trek tech seems to have not only become commonplace but in some cases even obsolete and antiquated. Taking the original series as a key example, the flip-style wireless communicators seemed space-age during the show's run. Today if your phone isn't a touch-screen equipped slate-style smartphone, it's practically an antique. Modern communications equipment is more in line with Trek's famed tricorders than it is with a simple communicator.

So what does this mean for the world of energy? Quite a bit, if the trend seems to follow. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of "Star Trek" and virtually all other forms of science fiction knows that a vessel capable of interstellar travel never stops at a gas station or tries to get by with "putting five bucks in." Unless you count Lone Starr's space Winnebago from Mel Brooks' “Spaceballs," but that's beside the point. In the realm of sci-fi, traditional energy sources like fossil fuels have been largely abandoned in favor of presumably more efficient and abundant energy sources.

Granted, we aren't exactly harvesting dilithium crystals for our warp cores just yet, but science is slowly and surely crawling its way towards a new era of energy production. Even the staid alternative, solar power, is seeing a new lease on life
Full article at: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gener ... -Fact.html

[woodburner]

but science is slowly and surely crawling its way towards a new era of energy production.

Physics doesn't allow it in this world. Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

[Little John]

It's no secret that Gene Roddenberry's venerable "Star Trek" metaseries has inspired the imagination of millions since it first debuted in 1966. Strange worlds, compelling characters, and more techno-babble than you could shake a stick at have always been hallmarks of the series. But Star Trek has also been noted on many occasions throughout the series for seemingly predicting (or perhaps inspiring) the progression of technology.

While we're certainly not cruising the galaxy in starships trying to pick up green women, a lot of Trek tech seems to have not only become commonplace but in some cases even obsolete and antiquated. Taking the original series as a key example, the flip-style wireless communicators seemed space-age during the show's run. Today if your phone isn't a touch-screen equipped slate-style smartphone, it's practically an antique. Modern communications equipment is more in line with Trek's famed tricorders than it is with a simple communicator.

So what does this mean for the world of energy? Quite a bit, if the trend seems to follow. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of "Star Trek" and virtually all other forms of science fiction knows that a vessel capable of interstellar travel never stops at a gas station or tries to get by with "putting five bucks in." Unless you count Lone Starr's space Winnebago from Mel Brooks' “Spaceballs," but that's beside the point. In the realm of sci-fi, traditional energy sources like fossil fuels have been largely abandoned in favor of presumably more efficient and abundant energy sources.

Granted, we aren't exactly harvesting dilithium crystals for our warp cores just yet, but science is slowly and surely crawling its way towards a new era of energy production. Even the staid alternative, solar power, is seeing a new lease on life
Full article at: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Gener ... -Fact.html

I'm afraid there really is no such thing as a free lunch.

The universe cannae take it Jim.....

[Catweazle]

Mr Spock seems to have conveniently forgotten that to propel even a grain of sand past light speed would require all the energy in the universe, I suspect that many of the other devices used would make similar demands.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

Wasn't that the point of the 'warp' in warp speed? Warping space-time rather than ploughing through it?

[madibe]

Yes, this was better displayed in Dune with the folding of space. Aparently you had to take vast quantities of drugs (spice) to do it. The unfortunate side effect of this drug use included making your eyes blue and eventually turning you into a slug.

Unfortunately we dont have any spice in order to allow us to grapple space by mind control alone. Damn.

Meanwhile....

[SleeperService]

Oh Dear I was wondering when we'd get Star Trek in here.

When the original series was being conceived Gene Roddenberry ran his tech devices past Sci Fi groups which contained, among others, employees of Rockwell, IBM, NASA et al. The ones that made it onto TV were the plausable, forseeable and the possible. Every so often something appears that seems to do everything on the series but, in reality it always falls short. Communicators have a very long range and are don't need line of sight, they also have voice recognition and automatic user ID and operate faster than light. Mobile phones are a little closer but not yet.

The pure fantasy elements were introduced for production reasons. No refuelling to save episode time, transporters to avoid planetry landings, warp drive to avoid tedious travel and replicators to avoid any other logistic restriction. There were suitabily woolly methods by which such things could happen, maybe but unlikely.

Unless you wore red it was a utopian enviroment, something to aspire towards but impossible to reach. A bit like the idea of energy from nowhere. Very alluring until people start dying because, while scientists have been dreaming, the real world has run out of cheap fuel.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

Well just but maybe not quite so far fetched. We know mass can distort space and we call the effect gravity.
Now if we only knew what it was about mass that pulled off that trick then we'd be getting somewhere.

Higgs probably has a lot to do with it, however,

The Higgs mechanism occurs whenever a charged field has a vacuum expectation value. In the nonrelativistic context, this is the Landau model of a charged Bose-Einstein condensate, also known as a superconductor. In the relativistic condensate, the condensate is a scalar field, and is relativistically invariant.

something about bus tickets?

[the_lyniezian]

but science is slowly and surely crawling its way towards a new era of energy production.

Physics doesn't allow it in this world. Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

I'd be inclined to say something about hairs and splitting here. Colloqialisms defy physics.

[kenneal - lagger]

Research also continues into yet more exotic energy sources, such as the vaunted antimatter of science fiction. Antimatter already sees use in medical imaging technologies such as positron emission tomography or PET scans. The energy released during a matter-antimatter interaction is beyond incredible, with a single kilogram each of matter and antimatter capable of producing the same amount of energy as 43 megatons of TNT. Such energy generation only falls slightly below the yield of the Tsar Bomb, the largest and most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever detonated. While antimatter faces issues of scarcity and controlling the reaction to produce stable energy instead of a flaming nuclear hell-storm, the potential is there to create an incredibly potent energy source.

Yes, now we've got fusion sorted anti matter will be the next great fuel source. Don't worry folks! Technology will save us! BAU and growth can carry on indefinitely.

[ziggy12345]

Mr Spock seems to have conveniently forgotten that to propel even a grain of sand past light speed would require all the energy in the universe, I suspect that many of the other devices used would make similar demands.

Faster than light speed travel is possible if you use the timer being propelled to measure the time taken to travel a said distance. As the object being propelled approches the speed of light local time slows. At some point its going half the speed of the observers time so speed measured on the object is double the speed calulated by the observer.

[SleeperService]

Mr Spock seems to have conveniently forgotten that to propel even a grain of sand past light speed would require all the energy in the universe, I suspect that many of the other devices used would make similar demands.

Faster than light speed travel is possible if you use the timer being propelled to measure the time taken to travel a said distance. As the object being propelled approches the speed of light local time slows. At some point its going half the speed of the observers time so speed measured on the object is double the speed calulated by the observer.

Yes but as the time dilation cuts in the amount of energy being produced by the space ship slows as it is reacting at a constant rate. So if time halves the power has to double hence to reach the speed of light requires an infinite amount of energy according to some models or more energy than the universe contains according to others.

If that seems outlandish consider this. You're driving in your car at 60mph. If you halve the speed of time in your car you'd think you'll be doing 120mph. To everybody else you're doing 60. So after an hour you think you've gone 120 miles but you drop back into reality at 60 miles. If you double your power and repeat the trip you will do 120 miles but think you've done 240 miles. This happens however you propel the vehicle (or spaceship) whether petrol engine, rocket, or warp drive creating an energy field.

[JohnB]

What about the worm hole in Deep Space 9 then?

What amuses me is how they can detect life forms on distant planets, but can lose their own crew members on the same ship, if they take off their comm badge!

I'm afraid I've been watching episodes of Next Generation and DS9 on DVD recently .