Re: Miss Pop Ulation (was: population, homosexuality)
Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Fri, 3 Dec 1999 01:43:12 -0800 (PST)
On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Spike Jones wrote:
> I propose the thing that must give is our comically inefficient way
> we use land. I flew over the US today, New York to Dallas to
> San Jose. It was clear and I spent most of my trip looking at the
> ground and marvelling, as I often do when I make that ride, at
> how *empty* is most of this country.
Try driving it Spike. I've been across the continental U.S. on the
ground about 6 times in my life and it is huge. Then just for fun
consider Russia, its almost twice as large (in land area) even without
including any of the former republics.
> We can transform this planet into a place where 50 billion technologically
> advanced humans could live, in great comfort, not overly crowded,
Especially if we go up.
> all well fed and cared for, if we would just build smart, and get with
> it on developing food production techniques that are more efficient
> than the ones we now use. spike
The process is as follows --
Use nanotech grown solar arrays to harvest sunlight at 30% efficiency,
then use the electricity to split water, then use the H+ ions
running across a membrane embedded with the F0F1-ATP-synthase
to synthesize ATP, then use the ATP to generate all of the
proteins, carbohydrates and fats you need for food.
You up the general energy conversion efficiency from solar to
something useful from ~0.1-1% for animals & plants to about 20-30%.
In the process I suspect you turn a lot of farmland back into
forest.
Robert