Nuclear power...
So something that has bothered me recently:
We seem to have gotten less creative as a species as of late.
Granted, there is still new technology being invented... but the truly impactful technology that comes around is just an adaptation of previous work. For example, first, there were records that spun with a "needle" reading the vibrations to create sound. We then moved to tapes and 8 tracks (a step forward!) but then we moved on to cd's... which uses the same premise as records just with newer technology. And since then, we've moved to laserdiscs then dvd's, computer harddrives and now "blu-ray"s which are just another type of dvd with more storage. Now each of these mediums works differently (hence the difference in names and storage space/functionality) but at the end of the day, they are based on the same concept. And granted, it's a damn good concept that is definitely working. But what if there was some other way of doing it? Some way that is COMPLETELY different? I mean, the idea that a small laser reading data off of a thin fragile disc spinning incredibly fast produces SOUND seems pretty far-fetched if you think about it. But we don't, because it's so taken-for-granted.
Along the same vein is Electricity. We keep coming up with new ways of producing electricity, especially now with everyone "going green". But at it's core, we haven't significantly changed the way we create electricity. When it comes down to it, you have source A (Coal, Oil, Wind, Water,HEART) influencing source b (usually steam) to move a turbine and create electricity. Hell, even nuclear power plants work off of this principle. All the dangers of nuclear power, but people still risk it because it's "cleaner and more efficient" than coal or oil... and at the end of the day, all they are doing is using fission to heat up metal which they then cool down in water creating STEAM which moves a turbine.
I just cannot believe that man, in all of our combined years of technological growth, can't do better than this. It's like they are going about the problem in the wrong way.
Instead of asking the question "how else can we create electricity without moving steam through a turbine", they are asking "how else can we create steam to move the turbine?". It's just ass-backwards. I wanna find the guy who found out that a potato can light a lightbulb. That guy was on the right track.
I'm not saying I have the answers... just saying that we are getting lazy and just depending on the work of previous people.
We seem to have gotten less creative as a species as of late.
Granted, there is still new technology being invented... but the truly impactful technology that comes around is just an adaptation of previous work. For example, first, there were records that spun with a "needle" reading the vibrations to create sound. We then moved to tapes and 8 tracks (a step forward!) but then we moved on to cd's... which uses the same premise as records just with newer technology. And since then, we've moved to laserdiscs then dvd's, computer harddrives and now "blu-ray"s which are just another type of dvd with more storage. Now each of these mediums works differently (hence the difference in names and storage space/functionality) but at the end of the day, they are based on the same concept. And granted, it's a damn good concept that is definitely working. But what if there was some other way of doing it? Some way that is COMPLETELY different? I mean, the idea that a small laser reading data off of a thin fragile disc spinning incredibly fast produces SOUND seems pretty far-fetched if you think about it. But we don't, because it's so taken-for-granted.
Along the same vein is Electricity. We keep coming up with new ways of producing electricity, especially now with everyone "going green". But at it's core, we haven't significantly changed the way we create electricity. When it comes down to it, you have source A (Coal, Oil, Wind, Water,HEART) influencing source b (usually steam) to move a turbine and create electricity. Hell, even nuclear power plants work off of this principle. All the dangers of nuclear power, but people still risk it because it's "cleaner and more efficient" than coal or oil... and at the end of the day, all they are doing is using fission to heat up metal which they then cool down in water creating STEAM which moves a turbine.
I just cannot believe that man, in all of our combined years of technological growth, can't do better than this. It's like they are going about the problem in the wrong way.
Instead of asking the question "how else can we create electricity without moving steam through a turbine", they are asking "how else can we create steam to move the turbine?". It's just ass-backwards. I wanna find the guy who found out that a potato can light a lightbulb. That guy was on the right track.
I'm not saying I have the answers... just saying that we are getting lazy and just depending on the work of previous people.