[ExI] Dark Matter

[Eugen Leitl]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 10:55:09AM -0800, Adrian Tymes wrote:

> Indeed, a more viable product for all this electricity might well be simple
> desalinated water.  At least if the energy production was near the coast.

Apropos desalination near the coast:

http://news.sciencemag.org/asiapacific/2013/11/desert-farming-experiment-yields-first-results

Not the first time mentioned here, but this is a very
recent newsitem, and notice where it's published.
 
> That doesn't require radical new technology.  In fact, it's somewhat
> boring.  But if you could make the numbers work, it would be a viable first

Large scale seawater desal is anything but boring. In fact, it's an
unsolved problem. Both in term of the energetics of the fundamental
process as well as sheer logistics. If you want to grow a gigaton
of vegetables, the numbers get big, fast.

> step toward this sort of scheme.  Further, this step could quite readily
> attract large private investment - if and only if the data and projections
> are believable to said investors.