Current limitations on skyscraper heights are economic, not structural. Heights of several miles could be reached with current construction technology.
You want to centralize the dirty stuff in one object
Kinda like Windows, huh? Concentrate all the flaws in one company, then when the revolution comes we only have to blow up one place.:-)
Seriously, your analogy with OOP is grossly inadequate. Consider:
1) The most clean and efficient fossil fuel to electricity conversion plants available today are "neighborhood" size fuel cell plants. Combined cycle efficiency up to 80%, near zero emissions. Still too expensive for you & me, but prices are bound to come down with mass production.
2) Likewise, wind, solar, wave, geothermal, and other renewable generation technologies are efficient, and much less intrusive on the landscape, at "neighborhood" sizes. Hydroelectric and nuclear are the only ones left where large power plants make sense on efficiency grounds, at the cost of their associated environmental problems.
3) As you may have noticed lately, the electric distribution grid is severely overstretched, and due to NIMBY new high voltage lines are getting almost as hard to get approved as nuclear power stations. The obvious answer is to generate the power closer to where it's needed.
4) Do you know just how long the planning, approval, and construction cycles are for large power plants? Market forces (assisted by judicious selective taxation and subsidies) can create a million small new-technology power plants MUCH faster than you can build a single centralized Gigawatt monster.
And yes, the analogies to the open source movement are striking. Free Power Foundation, anyone?
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine taller skyscrapers.
Current limitations on skyscraper heights are economic, not structural. Heights of several miles could be reached with current construction technology.
- nic
And when the first LiIons start dying on you, you can get a few hundred cheap refurbished laptop batteries on ebay!
You want to centralize the dirty stuff in one object
:-)
Kinda like Windows, huh? Concentrate all the flaws in one company, then when the revolution comes we only have to blow up one place.
Seriously, your analogy with OOP is grossly inadequate. Consider:
1) The most clean and efficient fossil fuel to electricity conversion plants available today are "neighborhood" size fuel cell plants. Combined cycle efficiency up to 80%, near zero emissions. Still too expensive for you & me, but prices are bound to come down with mass production.
2) Likewise, wind, solar, wave, geothermal, and other renewable generation technologies are efficient, and much less intrusive on the landscape, at "neighborhood" sizes. Hydroelectric and nuclear are the only ones left where large power plants make sense on efficiency grounds, at the cost of their associated environmental problems.
3) As you may have noticed lately, the electric distribution grid is severely overstretched, and due to NIMBY new high voltage lines are getting almost as hard to get approved as nuclear power stations. The obvious answer is to generate the power closer to where it's needed.
4) Do you know just how long the planning, approval, and construction cycles are for large power plants? Market forces (assisted by judicious selective taxation and subsidies) can create a million small new-technology power plants MUCH faster than you can build a single centralized Gigawatt monster.
And yes, the analogies to the open source movement are striking. Free Power Foundation, anyone?
- nic