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Someday "everything" will be powered by...

by davido (Cardinal)
on Jan 12, 2006 at 17:38 UTC ( [id://522760]=poll: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Vote on this poll

NiMH
[bar] 4/2%
NiCad
[bar] 0/0%
Lithium Ion
[bar] 3/1%
Hydrogen fuel cells
[bar] 41/16%
Alkaline
[bar] 1/0%
Zinc / Magnesium
[bar] 1/0%
Methane
[bar] 12/5%
Lemon juice
[bar] 21/8%
Wind
[bar] 6/2%
Sunlight
[bar] 62/24%
Tidal forces
[bar] 7/3%
Diesel
[bar] 1/0%
BioDiesel
[bar] 5/2%
Gasoline
[bar] 1/0%
Natural Gas
[bar] 2/1%
Greenhouse gasses
[bar] 10/4%
Camels
[bar] 83/32%
260 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by TimToady (Parson) on Jan 12, 2006 at 19:41 UTC
    Obviously we should just try all of them in the "everything" engine and see what works the best. Though we might have to settle for least worst...
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by Mago (Parson) on Jan 12, 2006 at 18:19 UTC
    I think that everything will be powered by beer and girls !

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use pub; my $me; my $home = "My House"; my $fun = pub->new(); while ($me < 20) { $me += $fun->getBeer("Super Bock"); print "$me talking to Girls"; } $fun->exit(); exit $home;



    Mago
    mago@rio.pm.org


      Can't locate pub.pm in @INC (@INC contains: all sorts of stuff) at line 3.

      too bad for my not being able to locate a pub. =(

      On topic: Sunlight it is, or even

      • Bio-ethanol (alcohol ;-) applied this way it makes the future look brighter)
      • Manpower (because it's getting cheaper =( every day)

      Cheerio, Sören

      why the heck do you always have to think the same way as i do?! =P

      now, let's be honest: girls will definitely rule the world.
      but the 'camels' option is also very interesting.
      =)


      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      grrr.... argh!
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by abcde (Scribe) on Jan 12, 2006 at 22:44 UTC

    The way to do this is to solve this logically: going through the options one by one and eliminating the ones that do not work.

    • NiMH and NiCad: Great for small things, but powering a whole planet could get a bit out of hand
    • Lithium Ion: Just the one?
    • Hydrogen fuel cells: Hydrogen is not even an energy source!
    • Alkaline: Similar scalability problems
    • Zinc / Magnesium: Needs other things (such as lemon juice).
    • Methane: A good supply due to cows farting, although collection could prove difficult.
    • Lemon juice: Sure, why not? You'd just need lemons the size of a small moon (and a plate of zinc to match)
    • Wind (Not including Methane): Environmentally friendly and cheap but disliked by a lot of people (they don't look nice!) Then again, since when have Perl programmers cared about things being pretty? ;)
    • Sunlight: This presumes that we don't move far away enough from our Sun that we can't get enough watts.
    • Tidal forces: Ditto, re non-Earth.
    • Diesel: More energy than petrol, this may in fact work (if we build enough machines to counter its side-effects)
    • BioDiesel: Possibly! It depends if it catches on enough or not.
    • Gasoline: We'll either run out of it or develop something better in time
    • Natural Gas: Supplies will run out before it gets the chance to run on everything.
    • Greenhouse gases: Ditto
    • Which leaves...

    • Camels: Camels can turn rotary wheels without needing much of their own energy. Oh, and they can have a nice desert where they can roam around in and code Perl. Hooray!

    Personally I think that it'll be some sort of nuclear. Fusion power will be invented in about 50 years if SimCity is correct. After that, a matter+antimatter combination, when it becomes readily available (don't ask me when)

      Hydrogen fuel cells: Hydrogen is not even an energy source!

      That would be the "cold fusion option", appoximately 2H2 + 3H2 -> 24He2 + energy.

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 12, 2006 at 20:04 UTC
    I thought Everything was powered by Perl, MySql and Apache...
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) on Jan 12, 2006 at 23:05 UTC

    Dilithium crystals!
    <Cheesey Scottish Brogue>
    "Aye cap'n! She cano stan' th' strain! She's gonna blow any minit now! "
    </Cheesey Scottish Brogue>

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by tirwhan (Abbot) on Jan 12, 2006 at 18:14 UTC
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by merlyn (Sage) on Jan 12, 2006 at 18:21 UTC
      Extending the argument - Someday, everything will be powered by the mother of invention (since "Necessity is the mother of invention")
        mother = female.

        there goes my theory again, that everything will be eventually powered by girls.
        =)

        (j/k!)


        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        grrr.... argh!
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by wolfger (Deacon) on Jan 12, 2006 at 18:51 UTC
the Perl 6 option
by wolfger (Deacon) on Jan 12, 2006 at 20:17 UTC
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by gloryhack (Deacon) on Jan 12, 2006 at 18:19 UTC
    Look deeply enough and you will find that everything is powered by sunlight already. :)
      Actually, that isn't true. There are a few (experimental) power station that get their power from the temperature gradient of the earth crust - usually by making use of hot water. The inner earth isn't heated by the sun - it's hot because of gravity and tidal forces (and tidal forces are caused by gravity as well). And if you look deep enough, than sunlight is caused by gravity as well. So, everything is powered by gravity. ;-)
      Perl --((8:>*
        Generating electricity from nuclear fission is also non-solar and has progressed beyond the experimental stage.
        There are a few (experimental) power station that get their power from the temperature gradient of the earth crust
        There are more than "experimental" - In Nuclear Free New Zealand we've been seriously using the Wairakei Geothermal power station since 1958, and we are currently increasing the amount of geothermal electricity we generate.

        It's a "sustainable" resource, but it's sadly not a renewable one.

        Remembers... Hmmm Wairakei and Perl are linked for me... I first learned Perl in a tutorial at a Uniforum conference in the hotel at Wairakei (just around the corner from the powerstation) :o)

      Tidal forces will remain after the last star burns out.

      -QM
      --
      Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by tbone1 (Monsignor) on Jan 12, 2006 at 20:10 UTC
    What, no "soylent green" option?

    Actually, you could say 'solar', since everything derives from the sun, or the radioactive decay of heavy elements produced in other suns. But then fusion of hydrogen atoms, which were produced when the expanding universe cooled to the point where ... and the expansion was caused by the Big Bang, which was caused by ...

    Ugh, I need a drink. I'll assume that everything will be powered by pints of Harp. I know I'm wrong, but at least I'll get to perform some happy experiments.

    --
    tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub)
    And remember, if he succeeds, so what.
    - Chick McGee

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by TedPride (Priest) on Jan 12, 2006 at 21:14 UTC
    You left out the most important choice - nuclear power. Nuclear power has a bad rep, but it's both inexpensive and significantly less polluting than the other alternatives of comparable cost. I don't think cold fusion is coming any time soon, however.

      most important choice - nuclear power

      That's a slogan from the sixties and needs an update:
      While the post-industrial countries nowadys rely heavily on nuclear power -- and it's certainly a very important source of energy at the time being -- our planet's raw material uranium is running out even quicker than it's running out of fossil resources.

      Cheers, Sören

        "our planet's raw material uranium is running out even quicker than it's running out of fossil resources"

        At least partly because breeder reactors and spent fuel reprocessing are frowned upon

        emc

        " When in doubt, use brute force." — Ken Thompson
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by zentara (Archbishop) on Jan 12, 2006 at 20:58 UTC
    Pure thought? Ok then, maybe 12V trees? Although all the extension cords would be ugly. :-)

    I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by trammell (Priest) on Jan 12, 2006 at 20:02 UTC
    • Fusion
    • Fission
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by blazar (Canon) on Jan 12, 2006 at 17:57 UTC
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by rdm (Hermit) on Jan 13, 2006 at 02:10 UTC
    (*) leading questions.

    -Reality might not get out of Beta today. (O.Timas, "Bot")
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by ww (Archbishop) on Jan 12, 2006 at 19:58 UTC
    ... on the one hand, one might nominate "dark energy"

        but on the other:

    Why not "the everything engine" itself
     
            (... except that, as this was written, The Everything Bible was returning a 404).

    For those considering running everything on "stress" or "worry," it has since returned <G>

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by Discipulus (Canon) on Jan 13, 2006 at 08:24 UTC
    if we still to be so energetically crazy, warfriendly and money driven may be Someday "everything" will be powered by..

    HANDS

    and maybe not OURS..
      Yes, I'd heard that many hands make lights work ..
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by kulls (Hermit) on Jan 13, 2006 at 05:45 UTC
    In future,
    Human Genes! which is made by silicon chips or ICs.
    -kulls
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by gregor42 (Parson) on Jan 13, 2006 at 15:20 UTC

    Since convergence is the main issue with getting everything running on the same stuff - I'm going to assume that this isn't going to take place until well into the future. (It's actually far better to use more diverse sources of energy to prevent general scarcity issues, but that's another conversation.)

    Therefore going into the future we look at sci-fi since engineers need to get their ideas from somewhere. Thus by canon we have:

    • Star Trek : sustained Anti-Matter reaction (It doesn't RUN on the dilithium crystals, they're more like a part that wears out a lot)
    • Stargate SG-1: Zero-Point Module/artificially created singularity i.e. a black hole in a can/crystal/whatever
    • Final Fantasy : Biological Batteries - glowing jelly - don't forget to feed your laptop a spoonfull of sugar before bed
    • Battlestar Galactica : They're usually pretty vague about this stuff AFAIK - but there's references to nuclear technology in there.
    • Star Wars : The Force - duh
    • The Matrix : Thermal People Farms and "a limited form of fusion"
    • Soylent Green : also People, oops - spoiler..
    • MIB : "The Galaxy"
    • Foundation : Human Thought

    Interesting that none of them picked up on the work of Nikola Tesla who suggested that the Earth's magnetic field could be tapped to supply almost limitless amounts of electricity. True or not, it would have made for interesting stories.


    appended:
    • Star Blazers - 'Wave Motion' engine
    • Dune - The Spice Melange


    Wait! This isn't a Parachute, this is a Backpack!

      I thought the crackers were made out of people in Soylent Green.

      The book (Make Room, Make Room, by Harry Harrison, was better than the movie)

      fixed some formatting

      emc

      " When in doubt, use brute force." — Ken Thompson
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by swampyankee (Parson) on Jan 13, 2006 at 21:35 UTC

    Nobody has mentioned my two favorites: caffeine and anti-matter

    emc

    " When in doubt, use brute force." — Ken Thompson
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by eric.foxx (Novice) on Jan 13, 2006 at 20:41 UTC
    Has someone said Shipstones? Heinlein is the man.

    Step 1:
    Make a breakthrough in 'battery' technology, called Shipstones.
    Step 2:
    ?
    Step 3:
    Profit!
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by jcoxen (Deacon) on Jan 13, 2006 at 21:17 UTC
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by sub_chick (Hermit) on Jan 14, 2006 at 23:08 UTC
    Someday "everything" will be powered by...

    THE MIND!



    Es gibt mehr im Leben als Bücher, weißt du. Aber nicht viel mehr. - (Die Smiths)"
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by pingo (Hermit) on Jan 14, 2006 at 22:30 UTC
    BikePower.

    Am I the only one who's seen "Les Triplettes De Belleville"?
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jan 15, 2006 at 04:45 UTC

    Hydrogen producing algae


    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by john_oshea (Priest) on Jan 12, 2006 at 18:01 UTC

    Ruby on frickin' Rails...

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by Brutha (Friar) on Jan 14, 2006 at 18:20 UTC
    Camel Power has multiple aspect - leave Perl aside. One use I will never forget.

    Some years ago, we made a desert tour in Egypt some days around New Year's eve. It is terrible cold in a desert, when the sun is gone. You are glad for everything to warm yourself (no petting with camels in mind). A hot tea would be great. We stopped between some bushes and one Egyptian showed us some small, brown egg-shaped pieces, we should collect. We did, made a small fire with them, boiled some water to have some tea. That was a great experience.

    Thanks to camels (dromedars in Egypt) I learned that even if you have to collect sh*t with both hands, the result can be the top of a great experience.

    My vote is energy from Camel-droppings.

    And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: "Psst!"
    (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)

      Thanks, but I'd prefer the power of Camel Toe.
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by rir (Vicar) on Jan 14, 2006 at 22:54 UTC
    "The Power of Love"

    Be Well,
    rir

Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by PerlBear (Hermit) on Jan 14, 2006 at 19:37 UTC
    Left out one option:
    Someday "everything" will be powered by....
    Antimatter
    :)
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by AJRod (Scribe) on Jan 15, 2006 at 03:58 UTC
    ...flatulence
Re: Someday "everything" will be powered by...
by rdm (Hermit) on Jan 16, 2006 at 01:02 UTC
    Take two...
    I thought Everything was already powered by camels!
    So in the future, I assume it will be powered by parrots.

    -Reality might not get out of Beta today. (O.Timas, "Bot")

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