Theoretical Unlimited Energy Supplies, how would they change society?

[CarlManvers2019]

This is something I’ve been thinking, what if somehow a design for a real cheap and easy to make borderline unlimited eco friendly energy source was made that would make stuff like coal, gasoline, oil, wood, solar, nuclear, steam etc to be unnecessarily expensive?

I’m thinking of a period where there is a mad scramble to transform or remove many power plants that would ruin economies

 

[Chaos Marine]

There would be testing up the wazoo for it. Other energy companies would either try to destroy it or bog it down in so much red tape that it'd never get off the ground.

If that's not going to be an issue, who ever controls that source of energy is going to potentially create a stranglehold on energy and you should hope that they don't do a Google down the line because once every other energy fails because they can't compete or have the societal penetration to really challenge them, whoever controls the unlimited energy is going to have a monopoly of incredible proportions. Kinda like Comstar actually.

If it's going to be something that everyone can free create/access, expect people to weaponize it.

While unlimited power is something that could potentially help out the entire human race for obvious reasons, I'm not sure we're developed enough use it responsibly.

 

[Scottty]

It's called nuclear power, and both the rabid enviro-crazies and the Big Coal people oppose it.

 

[Human Primacy]

Depends how it functions. Does this change anything on the individual end? Does this grant access to large amounts of power to the average person? There'll be blood on a corporate level, expect red tape, attempts to keep it out of use, etc, as already mentioned. But dangerous effects of these changes might be delayed to the general public, if it doesn't immediately change the impact on homes and businesses.

Another factor would be what other technologies does this enable. Near limitless power is great in itself, but I suspect the biggest changes would come from the technologies that are held back by having greater energy demands that are currently available.

I'm not sure we're developed enough use it responsibly.

What would "developed enough" mean or look like to you? I ask because I've seen this sort of talk about a species being "developed" or "mature" enough, and I don't really think that's a thing. There's cultural behavior, but every new person is an individual, vulnerable to the same faults as the rest of us, and we're always like two generations from reverting to caveman shit if everything goes really, really wrong. So I don't see how we could get to a point where the behavior of the people themselves will prevent the chance of anyone doing something catastrophic and stupid.

 

[Scottty]

There are other problems - energy does not vanish when used, it simply goes to a higher entropy state. So giving people unlimited power sources means waste heat building up like crazy.

 

[Chaos Marine]

*Snip*


What would "developed enough" mean or look like to you? I ask because I've seen this sort of talk about a species being "developed" or "mature" enough, and I don't really think that's a thing. There's cultural behavior, but every new person is an individual, vulnerable to the same faults as the rest of us, and we're always like two generations from reverting to caveman shit if everything goes really, really wrong. So I don't see how we could get to a point where the behavior of the people themselves will prevent the chance of anyone doing something catastrophic and stupid.

We have people who believe that by blowing themselves up, they'll enter heaven to bone their own private harem of virgins. Not just a few people, a lot of them. We have a bunch of people who think some guy with a bad tan is "literally Hitler" or worse than Hitler and these people are the ones who are one-hundred and ten percent they're the right side of history and you're a whole host of -isms if you disagree with them with a shitload of widespread media and social reach to push the narrative that they're correctm about this. We have people shrieking about how words are violence and if you're not a communist or leaning towards communism, you're a fascist, Nazi etc-etc. Hell, if we were back in the 90s, I'd feel more comfortable about an unlimited source of energy being freely available because there weren't so many extremist nutjobs howling about the world ending in twelve years and a large enough audience nodding their heads as if it's true.

 

[Human Primacy]

Yeah, but my point is, what makes you think that there's some advancement in society that would make those sorts of people not exist?

 

[Emperor Tippy]

It changes everything.



That is a decent overview, and note that it isn't actually unlimited energy.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

@Human Primacy

This talk reminds me of lines from Mass Effect fics from the Council about how X Race is not “mature” enough for such highly advanced technology that is more advanced than theirs, by virtue of their people only having been a spacefaring civilization for a century or less

@Chaos Marine
Kind of an update to the whole, we’re too immature for technology as we’re likely to use it for big wars or nuclear weapons and destroy the environment sort of complaints I see on fiction

 

[CarlManvers2019]

There are other problems - energy does not vanish when used, it simply goes to a higher entropy state. So giving people unlimited power sources means waste heat building up like crazy.

So global warming is actually manmade and goes into overdrive or some machinery becomes in danger of exploding by being allowed to operate for too long?