The REAL obstacle to SPSS

Mike Combs has already responded, but let me make a few notes too:

>
> The real obstacle to SPSS is that they deliver energy in the wrong
> form for most purposes [...]

Actually, you have this backwards. Energy in the form of electricity is
the most interconvertible type of energy we have. You can transmit it
instantaneously hundreds of miles with essentially no losses; you can
convert electric energy to mechanical with 90+% efficiency (in typical
usage today); you can convert electric to up to 3 times as much energy
in the form of heat (heat pumps); you can use electric energy to provide
cooling, lighting, essentially all household devices, even
electrochemistry (manufacture of aluminum, for instance, is a heavy user
of electricity). Electricity is widely used in transportation when it
comes to mass transit. Without oil we can at least walk and bicycle;
without electricity we'd be literally in the "dark ages" again.

The only problem with electric energy is it's very hard to store.
Batteries could be a lot better. But there's no physical limitation on
that; research in chemistry seems to be making some interesting progress
there.

> [...] there is
> no reason to believe that SPSS electricity will be substantially
> cheaper than electricity today.

It likely won't; why do you need it cheaper? What it will provide is a
source of energy not based on fossil fuels, critically important to the
modern world. And, relative to useful work you can get out of it (miles
traveled or equivalent), electricity is already far cheaper than gasoline.

>
> I once pointed out in another post that even if electricity from space
> was completely free, the 'transmission' cost is still about 10 cents
> per kilowatt in my area, and is much higher in others.

Huh? Where do you compute that? Transmission itself only eats a few
percent of production, and the costs of transmission lines are tiny
compared to the costs of power plants and fuel. There's lots of overhead
and profit to the companies providing the power to you of course, but
that's there with all "retail" energy sources (do you know where your
$3.00/gallon of gas is going?)

Arthur