What I’ve learned from reading Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku:
One note I had from my reading was on energy use, which is becoming more and more critical to us today. In the very distant future, like if you read my last post, if we every became a full type 1 civilization, going toward a type 2–we could build what is called a Dyson sphere around the whole planet that could absorb and use all the energy coming from the sun (most sun energy is lost in the atmosphere, which is good because otherwise we would fry).
As we develop new, more powerful sources of energy, we have to be careful, though. There is always a possibility that we will completely destroy all the life on our planet. According to the laws of physics, creating a lot of energy gives off a lot of heat (equal and opposite reaction). We thought global warming was bad now? If we become mega energy producers and don’t find a way to deal with the heat we would completely burn ourselves up.
As scientists look for life on other planets they actually look for planets that give off heat as a sign that something there has reached a high level of energy production. So far they haven’t found any.
I have hope for us. I think we’ll figure something out. And if we don’t…well, I’ll be dead anyway.
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