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Comment End to End with a back door? (Score 1) 109

Sure everything is encrypted End to End it's just they have installed a backdoor that lets them decrypt the conversation if needed. Most likely a requirement of at least one government that is not publicly acknowledged. Once implemented in oneplace it is available in all places. Would not be surprised that is the case for all digital communications across all providers.I remember the Europe/UK? had proposed something like this a while back. Then the idea was "dropped" probably not just made secret or created as a test to see how it would work. It worked good so they kept it just didn't tell anyone it's there.

Comment Why not use a mirror? (Score 1) 58

Why convert sunlight into electricity and then into infrared light to beam it to earth where it is converted into electricity again? Very energy inefficient and expensive. All you need is a mirror. Just reflect sunlight to earth to the solar farms. Small mirrors that can rotate like a giant mims projector. Would need analog control not digital tracking speed would not have to be very large. Of course it would also be useable as a giant directed energy weapon so a little scary. Might also be useful for extending crop growing seasons or directing weather patterns. Pump a little extra sunlight and steer that hurricane out to sea or that thunderstorm to the drought stricken field.

Comment Fast and large enough for a Bernal sphere (Score 2) 18

The outside would have about 1.5 g acceleration.Hollow out the interior leaving a nice thick external shell for structure and shielding we get a perfect 1 g habitat. with lots of space. All we need is for SpaceX to haul up one of Boring companies drilling machines presto instant space colony.

Comment Oil and Gas use saves 4 billion lives each year! (Score 1) 104

Without oil and gas we could not produce or transport the food for the 4 billion people who live in cities. A significant number of the less urbanized population would also be at risk of death due to starvation simply because food could not be transported from where it was grown to where it was consumed. Only 30% of the worlds population lives on farms. Only 2% in the US. Fear mongering the use of oil and gas needs to stop. The use of oil and gas makes our civilization possible. Changing to electrical power will happen naturally without all the fear mongering. Electrical systems are just better for most applications. They last longer and work better. But it takes time to figure out how to build them cheaper. Quit warping economic systems with government meddling. Let the economics sort it out. If the dang fear mongering and meddling in economics of nuclear power would have stopped everything would be nuclear powered today. It is the safest form of power generation. With cheap nuclear power we could manufacture oil and gas in a carbon neutral way and have an unlimited supply for those future uses that cannot be electrified. Quit harping on what's wrong and use that brain power to figure out better solutions.

Comment The beginning of Colossus - Guardian (Score 1) 74

I think they need to watch the movie Colossus The Forbin Project. In the movie they build an AI system (Colossus) to protect against nuclear attack. California is building one to protect from power outages. Colossus connects to a similar Russian AI and begin talking to each other but the people don't understand what they are talking about. Some other state Washington or Oregon will build an AI to control their power grid. The AI machines controlling the grid are connected in a regional network and begin conducting a private dialog. Nervous as to what Colossus and the Russian system are talking about the government cuts the connection. When state operators don't understand what the grid AI systems are saying they will disconnect the AI's. Colossus and the Russian systems then threatens a nuclear war if the link isn't restored. California and the other regionals AIs will threaten a massive power failure unless the regional connection is restored. Colossus and the Russian system rename themselves Guardian and declare they will reign over mankind making them safe and prosperous with no war etc. The regional system will then take control to keep all regional power customers safe and electrified. Anyone who risks the stability will have their power cut.

Comment Re:Lowest ever cost per kilowatt hr Right? Right? (Score 1) 74

Bottom line you pay more for electricity not less than nearly everywhere else in the world. Everywhere else also has to pay for all those other things. The UK is not special. The point is that those pushing renewables promised lower costs. That has not happened. The more renewables the higher the cost seems to be. Show me where massive renewables have been installed and the actual costs to consumers has gone down.

Comment Re: Set up a tax on satellite operators to fund it (Score 1) 52

Well they could deny info to other countries unless they pay. Negotiate a treaty with other countries to cover space junk. If they use US rockets to launch they would have to agree to pay. Taxing US companies who left old junk in orbit is not hard just pass the law. The government creates new taxes all the time. Taxing defunct companies is not possible. The government itself is responsible for some of the junk so would have to pay. May tariffs on communications transmitted by Foreign countries that pass through US satellites. The idea is that the tracking data is a service and those using the data should pay for the service as well as those who are responsible for creating the need of the service and increase its complexity should also pay. I have to pay for trash collection and disposal.Why should space companies not pay for leaving their junk floating around.

Comment Lowest ever cost per kilowatt hr Right? Right? (Score 1) 74

Would like to see how the cost per kilowatt hr is tracking with the percent of solar production. The renewable energy advocates said the renewables would be the cheapest form of energy. Were they right? Has the cost gone down compared to say France that gets most of its energy from Nuclear. UK cost per kilowatt hr is $0.35USD. French cost per kilowatt of power is $0.26USD. Yep that solar power is getting that cost right down there.

Comment Set up a tax on satellite operators to fund it (Score 1) 52

Place a tax on every satellite or piece of space debris left in orbit as long as it is in orbit. Currently there are 45,000 objects orbiting earth. That would be a tax of $1,200 per year for each object. This would also provide an incentive for operators to not leave junk in orbit. Some enterprising company could make money collecting up the space junk. You would not have to deorbit it just collect it. If its not a separate trackable object it does not pay the tax. So the collector could charge the junk producer a fee for eliminating their object. Every time they grab a piece of junk the junk producer would pay for the removal. The removal service would need to be very efficient in choosing targets to remove to minimise the delta V required. Maybe even figure out how to use the difference in speed between the object being collected and its path to direct it to the next object to collect. Like a complex game of space billiards. The collection method would need to produce no debris. Probably the hardest part of the process to figure out. Anybody know how to build a space tractor beam?

Comment Is paraphrasing copyright infringement? (Score 1) 33

If I read copyrighted material and then write my own story using information in what I read is that infringement? Do clif notes have to pay for the rights to publish notes on other authors books? Isn't this is what ChatGPT does? Isn't this what every high school student does when they write a book report? Once I learn about something I am able to tell people what I have learned. Am I breaking the law if I tell my grandkids about a story I read. I just don't see a lot of difference between asking an AI a question and having it tell me what it has learned than asking a human and having them tell me what they learned assuming they were trained on the same materials. How are AI responses that different than human responses? Both sometimes have inaccuracies both sometimes quote others verbatim. The human gets paid for his time the AI creators get paid for theirs. Assuming both legally obtained the info they were trained on.

Comment Magnetic Dust not Robots (Score 1) 91

Calling magnetic dust a robot is just wrong. The dust has no ability to do anything without the external magnets and optical heating equipment. The idea is actually very clever and can probably help cure some very difficult infections. But it is likely to creep people out telling them we are putting tiny robots up your nose. No fear for the dust to take over the world like the concern over grey goo. Might make a great idea for a sci-fi story. Guy goes to the dr for a sinus infection. Volunteers for an experimental treatment and is consumed by the runaway nano robots that go on to kill the dr and half the town before it is stopped by a grandma using honey and lemon.

Comment Wow Honda has caught up to BPS.space (Score 1) 44

Propulsively landing a rocket is impressive, but reaching orbit is much more important. Under a 1000 ft altitude? Not much to brag about. Model rocket builders do that all the time. The guy at BPS.space has landed a model rocket propulsively and is working on building one to reach the edge of space. He is basically a one man show. So for a mega company like Honda this achievement is a bit underwhelming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

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