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All Our Energy Problems will be Solved!

Gord_in_Toronto

Penultimate Amazing
Gord_in_Toronto
Joined
Jul 22, 2006
Messages
26,457
Well maybe . . . . eventually.

A New Idea to Harness Energy From Black Holes

https://www.universetoday.com/149716/a-new-idea-to-harness-energy-from-black-holes/

But we'll need an awfully long extension cord. :(

Just you wait.

“Thousands or millions of years from now, humanity might be able to survive around a black hole without harnessing energy from stars,” said Comisso. “It is essentially a technological problem. If we look at the physics, there is nothing that prevents it.”
Click to expand...
 
tl;dr - Infalling matter does some very energetic things as it approaches the event horizon, resulting in a lot of energy being available for harnessing near a black hole. I admit I only skimmed the article, but it didn't really seem to be saying anything I didn't already assume was true.

We already know that matter falling into a black hole produces ridiculous amounts of energy, for anyone brave and tough enough to harvest it.
 
I'm sure that black holes produce lots of energy. It's just that it's probably too much to safely go anywhere near it. They emit a lot of X-rays, and too many X-rays aren't too good for us meatbags.
 
One other minor issue occurs to me: I imagine you'd need to be going very fast to get near a black hole without falling into it, right? And therefore, time dilation would become an issue.
 
theprestige said:
tl;dr - Infalling matter does some very energetic things as it approaches the event horizon, resulting in a lot of energy being available for harnessing near a black hole. I admit I only skimmed the article, but it didn't really seem to be saying anything I didn't already assume was true.

We already know that matter falling into a black hole produces ridiculous amounts of energy, for anyone brave and tough enough to harvest it.
Click to expand...

Like a waterfall.

Except a waterfall in the fabric of space. And then to get close to it you would be like a boat at the top of the waterfall, all the time. That seems safe.

I'm sure there are bigger problems, but the basics look bad enough before I even try to understand the specifics.
 
1. Orbit at a safe distance.

2. Dangle some kind of collector into the energy-rich region.

3. Robert's your mother's brother.

I'm still working on the specifics, but the margins of my notebooks are a bit small for this kind of thing.
 
I might polish up on the science of this, by watching Black Hole on Disney+.
 
Puppycow said:
I'm sure that black holes produce lots of energy. It's just that it's probably too much to safely go anywhere near it. They emit a lot of X-rays, and too many X-rays aren't too good for us meatbags.
Click to expand...

I dunno. Nuclear reactors emit a lot of gamma rays and neutrons, which are also very bad for us meatbags, but we still managed to figure out a way to harness their energy without exposing any meatbags to a searing radiation hell.
 
theprestige said:
1. Orbit at a safe distance.

2. Dangle some kind of collector into the energy-rich region.

3. Robert's your mother's brother.

I'm still working on the specifics, but the margins of my notebooks are a bit small for this kind of thing.
Click to expand...

Ah, you've got notebook margins. No worries then.

I guess the key lies in bridging the difference between the safe orbit distance and our ability to dangle. Space elevator is just a proving ground for this sort of thing.
 
Dr. Keith said:
Ah, you've got notebook margins. No worries then.

I guess the key lies in bridging the difference between the safe orbit distance and our ability to dangle. Space elevator is just a proving ground for this sort of thing.
Click to expand...

To be honest, this sounds like a job for an advanced Kardashev Type II civilization. Like, "we can tap regular stars no problem, but we're gonna need to go bigger if we wanna bootstrap ourselves into Type III." Meatbag failure modes and the angle of the dangle are probably gonna be trivial problems to anyone in a position to take this article seriously.
 
The Great Zaganza said:
When the Universe nears its heat death, Black Holes might be the last best source of energy.
Click to expand...

"Hey, Joe! This universe is pretty well played out. We're off to the next one. You coming?"

"You guys go on ahead. I'm gonna stay here a couple millennia longer, watch the whole thing wind down. Maybe warm my hands on black hole one last time, you know."

"You always were a romantic, Joe. We'll see you in the new universe, yeah? Don't forget to add your signature to the pre-Bang anomaly on your way in!"
 
theprestige said:
To be honest, this sounds like a job for an advanced Kardashev Type II civilization. Like, "we can tap regular stars no problem, but we're gonna need to go bigger if we wanna bootstrap ourselves into Type III." Meatbag failure modes and the angle of the dangle are probably gonna be trivial problems to anyone in a position to take this article seriously.
Click to expand...

I guess that is what makes the article silly. Pointing out that there are large sources of energy in the galaxy that we have no real means of harnessing is kinda pointless. The people who eventually have the means of harnessing such power sources will hardly be oblivious to such power sources.

I just imagine some guy behind a door marked "les archives"* combing through digital versions of ancient news sources suddenly perking up and saying out loud to no-one: "Hey, you know we could use this tech we developed for some other purpose to harness the power of black holes!"

*I have this hope against all reality that French will have some relevance in future society just because it will be the one thing that keeps them humble.
 
Skeptical Greg said:
Has anyone suggested that if we had the technology to travel to a black hole and harvest the energy, we wouldn't need the black hole?
Click to expand...

There's only sixteen posts in the thread, dude. It's all on one page. You tell us.

Meanwhile, my suggestion would be that developing the technology to travel to a black hole and harvest its energy is about the point where you'll start becoming seriously interested in projects that could use that kind of energy.

I mean, the energy density of uranium is huge. Bigger than wind. Bigger than solar. Bigger than biofuels. Even bigger than fossil fuels. But, "if we had the technology to mine uranium and harvest the energy, we wouldn't need the uranium," suggested no one ever.
 
theprestige said:
"Hey, Joe! This universe is pretty well played out. We're off to the next one. You coming?"

"You guys go on ahead. I'm gonna stay here a couple millennia longer, watch the whole thing wind down. Maybe warm my hands on black hole one last time, you know."

"You always were a romantic, Joe. We'll see you in the new universe, yeah? Don't forget to add your signature to the pre-Bang anomaly on your way in!"
Click to expand...

Isn't this the end of James Blish's 'Cities in Space'?
 
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