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Ask Slashdot: How Would Room-Temp Superconductors Affect Us?

Posted by timothy on from the I'd-care-more-about-electric-cars dept.

Bananatree3 writes "While we have sci-fi visions of room temperature superconductors like in the movie Avatar, the question still remains: How would the discovery of a such a material impact our everyday lives? How would the nature of warfare change? How would the global economy react? What are the cultural pros and cons of such a technological shift?" And just as important, in what contexts would you want to see it first employed?

1 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Perspective, people, perspective by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Therefore, a superconductor which would allow us to eliminate the massive amounts of wastage in our electrical infrastructure "

    The wastage in the electric infrastructure, on a whole, is about 7% in the US. Speaking of long-distance transmission only, it's closer to 3%

    There's not much to fix here, so unless the new superconductor is also free, I don't think you'd see the massive uptake people imagine.

    The main upside would be size, not cost. Assuming it has higher current density, piping power into urban areas becomes easier.