Interesting that none of them use nuclear power.

Space/Science » in reply to Kardashev Type Civilizations

Interesting that none of them use nuclear power.

Tom Brosz — 12/18/2004 5:16:23 PM (archived)

I suppose you could stretch "mine the sun" to include fusion reactors, but a lot of this sounds like cavemen sitting around a small fire assuming that future tribes would be able to control forest fires for their own uses.

In the world of engineering, wasted energy is a bad thing. If your machines are throwing a lot more heat per power unit than pure thermodynamics calls for, it's not working as well as it could. Ditto for electronics that spit electromagnetic noise in all directions.

A very advanced civilization won't radiate anything but infrared. Very quiet.

To be sure, I came up with this line of thinking a number of years ago. I didn't see WiFi or cell phones coming down the pike any more than anyone else did. I could be wrong. Of course, someone would have to be pretty close to hear that noise.

The whole thread (30 posts)

Is it time to scrap SETI? Of course not! - LJK - 12/16/2004 4:47:52 PM
- SETI has a foolish perspective - Eric - 12/17/2004 12:42:09 AM
  - Since we only have a dataset of one known civilization... - Larry J - 12/17/2004 4:19:04 AM
  - re: SETI has a foolish perspective - LJK - 12/17/2004 2:05:34 AM
    - Oh, I can't resist.... - Gary - 12/17/2004 4:48:05 PM
      - Kardashev Type Civilizations - LJK - 12/17/2004 5:13:02 PM
        
        Interesting that none of them use nuclear power. - Tom Brosz - 12/18/2004 5:16:23 PM
        
        re: Interesting that none of them use nuclear power. - LJK - 12/18/2004 5:25:30 PM
        
        Kaku is a charlatan - Gary - 12/18/2004 7:00:00 AM
        
        How could he... - Adam - 12/19/2004 11:00:19 PM
        
        Believe it or not: There are physicists who are scumbags - Gary - 12/20/2004 1:40:24 AM
        
        re: Kaku is a charlatan - LJK - 12/18/2004 4:36:16 PM
        
        My model on civilization types - Gary - 12/18/2004 8:15:48 PM
        
        re: My model on civilization types - Jesse - 7/11/2005 10:05:45 AM
    - re: SETI has a foolish perspective - DWC - 12/17/2004 6:52:22 AM
- re: Is it time to scrap SETI? Of course not! - Arthur Smith - 12/16/2004 5:39:32 PM
  - How big does a radio telescope have to be? - Gary - 12/16/2004 6:59:47 PM
    - As far as detecting accidental messages - alcaray - 12/16/2004 9:12:44 PM
      - Very true - we live in a noisy RF environment - Larry J - 12/16/2004 9:56:47 PM
    - re: How big does a radio telescope have to be? - Larry J - 12/16/2004 7:24:35 PM
      - If the ETI are advanced enough, they won't need RF - LJK - 12/16/2004 10:53:43 PM
      - not directly beamed - Arthur Smith - 12/16/2004 9:07:28 PM
        
        re: not directly beamed - Larry J - 12/16/2004 9:49:56 PM
        
        re: not directly beamed - Arthur Smith - 12/19/2004 3:53:47 AM
        
        Escaping the energy limit - Nick Hoffman - 12/20/2004 3:33:22 AM
        
        Who says that ETI will use radio signals? - LJK - 12/16/2004 10:57:51 PM
        
        re: Who says that ETI will use radio signals? - Larry J - 12/17/2004 4:12:30 AM
        
        re: Who says that ETI will use radio signals? - LJK - 12/17/2004 1:05:07 PM
        
        Directional beaming & beaconing to emerging civs - p - 12/17/2004 3:08:08 PM
        
        As you might have guessed, I have thought about this topic - R.L. - 12/18/2004 8:43:26 AM

Recent posts

On this day in Space/Science

The whole thread (30 posts)