Stored Sunshine

I like to imagine what our existence would look like if energy supply was unlimited both in amount and accessiblity. Imagine the ubiquity of air, but with readily convertible energy. Not the meager combustion-based energy sources we use today, but something orders of magnitude more powerful. Think controlled fusion, matter-antimatter annhiliation, or simply harnessing the energy output of the sun. Such forces are common in the universe—perhaps even ubiquitous. We only lack the means to tap them.

If we did tap them, we would conceivably enter a post-scarcity society. One way of looking at human activity, and our struggles, is to see it in terms of energy needs. Food is energy supply. Transportation is the conversion of an energy source in to kinetic energy. Energy supply governs manufacturing, which produces our buildings, healthcare equipment, and infrasturcture. Space travel is severely limited by energy demands.

With some reflection and imagination, you can develop a list of constructive pursuits that would grow in exciting ways if way more energy was available.

Richard Feynman had a knack for providing accessible explanations of complex subjects. The video above is one of my favorites, in which he describes what’s going on at the molecular level in a campfire. This one lodged in my head. The energy source for nearly all our activities traces back to sunlight.

• Our bodies. This energy works just like the campfire in the video above, but slower, and with some more steps in the chain reaction. But we’re basically just unlocking the energy of sunlight which plants captured.
• Hydro electric. The sun evaporates water, increases its elevation, and the water eventually flows downhill through a generator.
• Wind farms. Sun adds energy to the air, and the air moves around.
• Solar panels. I don’t know how these work! But the sun is right there in the name.

When an issue at hand is too complicated or troubling to absorb, my mind now deconstructs it in terms of its energy profile. This happens to me all the time. Elevators, coffee machines, computer networks, conferences. What is their energy budget, where did the energy come from, and what were all the various paths of its flow to reach the result?

• Orbital mechanics. How much mass is involved, what’s the velocity it needs to reach, and what’s the enegy source for making changes? With unlimited energy, we could go anywhere.
• War in the Ukraine. Where will they get the energy needed to move people, and materiel? How densely can they store energy in propellants and explosives?
• Superhero movies. Where do Superman or Cyclops get the energy for their eye lasers? Did they carb load at breakfast? Do they make nuclear fusion in their faces?

What could we do with unlimited energy?

I recently learned that it’s theoretically possible to create a “baby universe” ¹. It would detach from our universe, and then continue on its own course, with its own laws of physics, forever separate and unreachable to us. It’s estimated that this could require as little energy as the equivaent of about 10kg of matter. Even though we’re nowhere near having the technology to accomplish such a thing, 10kg of matter seems surprisingly cheap for making a universe.