[ExI] Double-Earth (Was: kepler study says 8.8e9 earthlike planets)

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2013-11-27 07:26, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> If yield is effectively infinite you no longer can make assumptions 
> about optimal placement, and just watch the hotspots.

Shovelling lithium deuteride is not that easy. The bottlenecks have 
always been getting access to isotopes (and to some extent high 
precision explosive control), never access to optimal placement.

Still, even if you have a ridiculous amount of fusable material thinking 
about where to put the charge matters. You cannot easily make up for 
distance to the target by upping the yield. (You need to quadruple your 
power to go twice as far, roughly speaking)

-- 
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University