Sometimes even solar is about boiling water
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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Power tower?
Reminds me of a Frank Zappa song 😁
Hey there people I'm Bobby Brown!
You know, it takes 1000 Millie Bobby Brown to make just one whole Bobby Brown.
Hi Bobby! How long can you take on the Tower of Power?
I can take an hour on the tower of power, long as I gets a little golden shower!
It is well known that "dyson spheres" are pure science fiction without realistic economics or any feasible implementation possibility. The reason is because there is not enough water to boil all that energy into usable electricity.
There is a reason why Dyson spheres are science fiction. That reason is not "there's not enough water to boil". If we were to somehow have the technological capacity to build a Dyson sphere it would most likely use some direct light to energy solution, something like photovoltaics. Or if it did need to go light -> heat -> electricity it wouldn't be using water, it would be using noble gases.
You forget that we would also somehow need to be able to produce more metal that our solar system holds.
You can boil other things, like NaK. Wait, I need to look up boiling NaK now
Photovoltaics have entered the chat.
Wind turbines have spun into the chat
Wind turbines are just what the steam in the nuclear reactor turbines do without all the extra steps.
That's just solar with extra steps
Not man made steps though.
Otherwise everything is just fusion, with extra steps.
Hydroelectric also doesn't boil the water; the water itself turns things.
Even when you're boiling it, the water vapor is turning something. All energy production is making water turn things, photovoltaics, or rounding errors
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Not wrong though.
We have been the steampunk universe all along!
Without all the gears and victorian style sadly
Nuclear energy isn't new technology nor very advanced nowadays.
just very annoying and expensive to build, since its needs alot of regulatory approval as well.
we've had this discussion so many times, let's have it one more time, shall we?
electricity is the most valuable form of energy. every time you want to convert energy A into energy B, you almost always do it via electricity energy as an intermediary step.
for example, if you want to convert the potential energy of water into light energy, you go: water potential energy -> turbine rotary energy -> electric energy -> light.
so, the question is, how can electric energy be converted from/to other types of energy? important types:
- electrochemical (direct reduction, batteries, galvanic cell)
- electromechanical (motor, generator)
- photoelectric (solar panel, LED)
there are some others that i'm still thinking about how to categorize (peltier effect / seebeck effect).
these are represented by major 4 integrated circuit types:
- capacitor / supercapacitor represents battery
- coil represents motor / generator (electromagnetic coupling)
- diode represents photoelectrics
- transistor for switching
the first 2 are "linear" (described by linear theory). the last 2 are semiconductor materials.
While I agree that electricity is on top of the power food chain its nothing but steam all the way down below it.
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Certainly the development of fusion reactors will be the beginning of something new.
Once we can make those we can boil the SHIT out of water!
And here I was hoping that we could boil the HELL out of water.
No large scale holy water production in sight still?
Is there a quantifiable limit to how much water a priest can bless at once to make it holy? Is that rank based once priests level up? And, if during COVID livestreaming a mass was just as good as attending, couldn't you put an ipad above every source of potable water before it gets sent to customers and have the priest bless it once a day for a consistent flow of holy water? Could this be used to combat the terrorists putting things in water to make the frogs gay?
brb emailing this to RFK
I bet there's a rule-abusing multi-class build of cleric-wizard or something that would allow you to bless the entire Atlantic Ocean at some point.
I'm not sure though, I don't play 2nd Edition Abrahamic Religions. I was just referencing a cute little priest joke .
But given, that the pope apparently needs people to watch him on Sat-TV to spread his 'Urbi et Orbi' across the globe, there seem to be some technological restrictions.
Iirc, there's a church (I think in Italy, but I may be completely wrong, and I'm far too lazy to Google it right now), where the priest blessed the pipe that carries the water, and the church has a spigot outside for adherents to come to and get holy water whenever they want it.
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fusion
if we ever overcome the problems of getting sustainable fusion, which is not likely anytime soon.
This is the most efficient way when you're burning a fuel, any fuel, always. Otherwise the machine wouldn't capture the waste heat.
Gasoline engines capture only 25-40% of the the chemical energy in their fuel.
Well, there's always supercritical CO2 for getting a bit more spin for your heat.
It's got a pretty fabulous efficiency, pretty fabulous cost too.
You also have Stirling generator. No water needed, just heat. But they're more expensive and less efficient, so not used for commercial applications.
Or a Peltier element if you want to be fancy
The main commercial application of stirling engines is the sale of fancy little brass alcohol powered sterling engines.
And to keep me amused machining all the parts needed to make one.
A reverse kettle *
Cump dum.
Is that an actual quote from her?
I’m sitting pretty with my steamed milk reactor
they use it this way in submarines.
cunk & water 😋
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