"Rand Simberg" wrote in message ...
On Fri, 22 Oct 2004 10:50:52 -0700, in a place far, far away, Hop
David made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

We might be able to get it on-topic by mentioning the need for alter-
native energy and things such as solar power satellites as opposed to
the invasion of politically unstable places full of oil.

One of Kerry's goals is less dependence on oil. I don't know that he
supports the notion of SPS, though.

If he does, he's certaintly never mentioned it.


It isn't important so much whether he supports the SPSs themselves but
whether he supports the technologies leading up to them--the hydrogen
economy, ensuring that we can produce motor fuel out of fossil fuels
other than oil but also out of water and electricity, i.e. any energy
source--renewable or not.

SPSs, if they ever become possible and economical one day, aren't so
much about ensuring America's continued supply of cheap energy.
They're about enabling the rest of the world to live in the same kind
of abundance, energy-wise, as so far only the industrialized world
could.

As far as supplying America with enough power is concerned you don't
need to go into space. They have enough uninhabited deserts for solar
energy to be produced to run everything. What is required in the
field is technological breakthroughs and a change of infrastructure to
make that energy useful for providing cheap mobility, the same way
cheap gasoline has done so far.


The problem you have today is that you have people in power who both
come from the oil industry, who know solutions to the nation's prob-
lems only in the context of oil supply, and who therefore have no in-
terest in solving it in any other way than in securing the one region
of the world where oil is still going to be available for decades to
come, long after it has run out anywhere else.

This is not going to get us into space. The only context they see
space in is defense--for spy satellites and missile defense systems--
or in the context of basic science and exploring, but not in the con-
text of energy supply. Yet it is the latter that is going to be the
true economical breakthrough eventually--finding a resource up there
that we actually need down here--getting more out of going into space
than we put into it...


Maybe they'll eventually turn around, now that they've discovered just
how hopeless it is to secure the Middle East region for themselves--in
much the same way Bill Gates first tried to compete with the internet
and then embraced it and invested all his resources in getting a foot-
hold there. If they are visionary they would do that with alternative
energies.

Yet if they are not then they might wind up like Germany, which sud-
denly found itself left out in the game of colonization and dividing
up the world, which tried to create a great empire like Britain's mil-
itarily instead, and which eventually failed and was crushed misera-
bly--ironically at a time when colonies had already lost their import-
ance and profitability and were given up by the very nations it
fought for a bigger piece of the pie.


America might use up more and more of its resources securing the Mid-
East for itself while more and more competing with and fighting other
powers in the world and, just like Germany before, it couldn't possi-
bly fight them all, no matter how strong it is. Eventually it would
lose in a war about a region that by the end of the conflict might
have lost all the strategic importance that led up to the war in the
first place--just like naval supremacy and the idea of being wealthy
and powerful through expansion...

You can tell how futile the struggle was by seeing how wealthy the
nations of Germany and Japan became once again after they gave it up.

The oil in the Middle East might peak forty years hence if the coun-
tries of China and India weren't growing as fast as they are and grow-
ing as thirsty as they are. But they are, and that's why we'll proba-
bly see the resources of the region used up in our lifetime, unless
something truly disastrous happens to throw those nations back or un-
til alternative sources of power and wealth are developed...


Because there is so much more power in space and so much more room to
tap into it it's the only solution to giving the whole world an abun-
dance of energy as only 10% have enjoyed up to now. But you won't
find it on Earth--not in the form of renewables and certainly not in
the form of fossil fuels...

Still, renewables on Earth would be the first step towards renewables
from space, and it would certainly be enough for the US to be as self-
sufficient as they once were if they used their deserts for the pur-
pose...


First the deserts. First the technology and the infrastructure down
here. Then space will inevitably follow...



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