Green energy ???

[snopro]

This is a very deeeeeeep thread..

 

[ABMax24]

quantum computers will help us bring things to the next level I think.

I don't really think it will, at least not yet. They are way to finicky and complex for anything outside of very specialized labs. Quantum computers need to be kept close to absolute zero for temperature and perfectly still to work right.

Right now we are encountering a point where the processing power of our current CPU's and GPU's are beginning to exceed the tasks that we can create to utilize it all. Take the below simulation by nVidia for example, it's data rate is 162GB/s, meaning in just over 6 seconds it would fill a standard computers 1 TB hard drive. The real issue is we need to develop better software to analyze data like this, because we are now creating data sets far larger than a human operator can analyze effectively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAZP1NcdWMo

 

[Pedaling pete]

IBM is making good progress. But it's going to take time.


https://youtu.be/utfOzRfqles

 

[Cdnfireman]

Agreed. But look how far we have come with everything else, computers, engines, airplanes, etc. Nuclear fusion tech is just so much more complicated, it's pretty hard to build a vessel to contain a reaction at millions of degrees and hundreds of atmospheres of pressure when every material we have available melts at temperatures below 5000 degrees.

I think you mean fission, not fusion.

 

[ABMax24]

I think you mean fission, not fusion.

No I mean fusion. Fission is whats used in every commercially operating reactor that is used for generating electricity. Splitting atoms (typically uranium) into smaller ones generates heat, this is called fission.

I'm talking about fusion where light elements are combined together to also produce energy. Fusion is what could solve all global energy problems. Fusion is what happens in the sun, mostly fusing 2 hydrogen atoms into a helium atom. The problem is this only happens at extremely high temperatures and pressures. The ocean is literally full of hydrogen (H20), we'd never run out of fuel, and the helium that is produced could be vented to atmosphere and would eventually escape the atmosphere into space.

On the periodic table Iron is the break-even point between fusion and fission for energy production. Elements lighter (lower atomic number) than iron on the periodic table release energy when fused. Elements heavier than iron (higher atomic number) release energy when split (undergo fission).