Reply To: Physics Nobel to Big Bangers

[Brian H]

tcg wrote: T
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I hope we may see a chance to expand the horizon with new opportunities which we have yet to visualize. I have already described one which I am sure will be huge in my part of the country. In the Southwest we mostly don’t get rained on. We must import our water, stealing it from some one else to fill our needs. Cheap power for water purification of brackish or salt water would be an enormous breakthrough. For example, factories which can’t be built now because of the need for large amounts of water would be feasible creating jobs. Our biggest industry, agriculture, could be doubled if we had more water. This is just one narrow slice of the spectrum of possibilities.

How many more opportunities will we see through an expanding horizon?

Preszakly. Not only known limits to growth imposed by lack of affordable power, but others of which we yet know naught, will be removed. There are many potential plans and projects which never make it even to the “what if” stage because the power inputs required are just too overwhelmingly expensive currently.

Check with a macro-economist about what the effect would be of suddenly cutting power costs by 95%, and making it readily available in currently inaccessible locales and regions. The water purification issue is key, too, as that is a limiting factor in any number of micro- and macro-economies.