[ExI] bees again

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of John Clark
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:46 AM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] bees again

 

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

 

>> Another idea that is actually being worked on is to make bio-luminescent
plants.a medium sized tree would be as bright as a streetlamp

 

>. Hmm. . a 10x10 meter tree will have a total output in your direction of
24 Watts. The weakest street-lights reach about 18 Watts. Anders 


>.You're right! I got that .02 percent figure from a New Scientist article
but, as you point out, if you think about it a little it's obvious that it
can't be even close to being correct. Sorry. Street lights are out, maybe
decorative mood lighting?  John k Clark

 

Sure, but the idea isn't totally busted.  Consider that there are more trees
than street lights, and furthermore we should really look at why we
illuminate streets with the absurd levels of light that we currently use.  I
can think of two reasons: crime prevention and because we can.  

Taken in reverse order, it isn't clear to me that we will always be able to
spray energy in all directions all night.  We can now, but let us anticipate
a future in which a larger portion of our energy needs will be met by ground
based solar panels.  Currently nighttime electric power is cheap because
demand goes down faster than the supply can be ramped down.  But if we have
more of the load carried by PVs, night time power will be more expensive
than daytime power.  If we ease off on nighttime demand, we enable ground
based solar.

Crime prevention: we have better ways to do that now.  I have infrared
detector cameras on my house.  They can make pictures in total darkness,
reflections from infrared LEDs, but the resolution is lousy.  We could
alternately have those systems emit a short high intensity flash when some
prole comes to your door at night, or is anywhere near your Detroit for
instance.  These cameras are cheap, and the image storage is instant and
safe on the internet, so stealing or covering the camera will not help the
sleazy perp.  We could use those at a fraction the cost of street lamps,
which are not particularly effective in reducing crime anyway.  Better than
nothing I suppose, but not as good as something else.  Increased use of
flashing digital cameras would reduce crime, cost less and most important of
all:

It would make the night skies easier to observe for the local astronomy
fans.

Conclusion: if we could create trees that emit 20 watts, that might be just
the ticket.

spike






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