Coffee Shop no. 11 - Just a Thought...

What do you think?

1. Do you think it is possible to run the planet only on environmentally friendly resources?

I think it is possible to run the planet on only environmentally friendly resources. First, we should define environmentally friendly. For my response here, let's define "environmentally friendly" as anything that either helps the Earth, or keeps it neutral, with as little harm as possible. In other words, anything that is good, or not affecting the planet with the least harm we can. With that definition, I believe we can. Civilization has accomplished that for many thousands of years! The question is, can we do it today with all that
we have now?

...Ever since the Industrial Revolution that happened throughout the 1800 - 1900s throughout the world, technology
and science have advanced rapidly. Within the last century, major world-changing technological advances have occurred including, the internet, the computer, email, cell phone and many others. Some may even say that the last century has been the most "techie" century in human history so far! Before this, everything was on a slow steady
course, but when we hit the 1900s, technology made a huge leap.

Unfortunately, this huge rise in technology has also led to a huge rise in pollution and waste and other "earth-saddening" events. We see that electricity is now a huge source of power for us. Lights, computers, stoves, phones, refrigerators... Without electricity these days, the world would be deprived of one of, if not the, most valued energy source. The problem is, most of our electricity comes from coal and natural gases.

...coal makes up for almost 50% of our electricity generation source. With electricity dominating our lives and almost 50% of it coming from coal, we have a huge issue. First off, the power plants where electricity is produced from coal (and a variety of other sources) are huge, major contributors to the pollution we release into the air. In fact, these are some of the most major factors to our global warming problem! Also, coal is a non-renewable source. This means that once it's gone, it's gone. It takes millions of years to make coal and other fossil fuels. In conjunction with how much we use of it now and the ever increasing demand for coal, it's no wonder why our earth is so subject pollution and why we are so conscious now of "going green"!

With all these saddening events going on, we have to pose questions like whether or not we can run the earth simply on environmentally friendly resources. The answer is yes, but realistically, it's not that simple. We know society has been living well with the planet for centuries, but that was in the days when people all lived humble lives in cottages, drove in horse-drawn carriages, lit small candles, and had no factories. The age however, has changed. So have the circumstances.

If we were to say, "the old ways were good, let us live like them", then yes, we may rid ourselves of the environmental issues we have now. But ask any person of today and they will utterly refuse such an idea. "Foolishness!" they will say. No one is willing to forfeit all we have now just to "go back" and live a dark life without any of the great technology of today. To forfeit what we've accomplished all these years would be infinitely torturous! How then, could we solve such a problem? Surely there is a way out of this maze, surely we can find a way to live in harmony with the earth again. Surely we can find a way to save our beautiful green and blue Earth from the darkness of
muddy brown pollution and environmental ignorance...Any ideas? ~Pomomarine

I have an idea on how to generate Eco Friendly electricity. That idea is to harvest the earths own gravity. We already do that today on rivers, but that generation is so minimal we would need to increase the efficiency of our machines over a million times for the demand to meet the production. But i was thinking one day; why cant we have micro-generators inside a body of water (Like a small pond or even a artificial body). They would work almost the same as those river generators but instead there is a tube, on the side of the tube there is a generator attached to it. The generators tribunes (the wheel things) would be have inside and half out. The outside part will be enclosed with a box so no water flow to effect the inside.There are several generators on the side of the tube. When water flows through them they will generate electricity. How this would work is the tube with the generators would be placed in the middle of a body of water (submerged) with both ends of the tube sealed. Then we unseal the first end (top). Gravity would pull the water downward but the air inside the tube would have nowhere to go. That's when the other end of the tube comes in, we unseal that end and then the water would spin the turbines in a cycle. Of course there might be some issues with the continuing cycle but that could be fixed with some micro heats and coolers. Now what if we made thousands of these and made them extremely small (having a mass of less than one micro gram)? We could generate tons of electricity. So what happens when we fill something like a bathtub of water with these inside? We could generate quite a bit of energy. This could be a solution to our energy crisis. ~Project Z

On the topic of energy, I don't believe we can harvest energy purely out of gravity. For example dams are generators spun by the movement of water, so kinetic energy is made into electric energy, not gravity into electricity. Using just gravity alone breaks conservation of energy. How can electricity be eco friendly? Reduce the waste matter. Nuclear power has very little waste (but dangerous waste.) I would say that wind turbines as well as solar panels are the best shot at the energy crisis. ~186000 mps

Possibly, energy would NOT be a problem. But we still need oil. We need it to run machines, as a lubricant between gears, and to make plastic. Of course if we use ecofriendly energy, the amount of oil used will be dramatically cut and we will have "more". At our current level of knowledge, it would be hard, the biggest challenge is to over come plastic. (Mining on other planets/asteroids can help save some of our natural resources)...[Adding on,] we have become so dependent on these that it would be hard with our level of technology. Also NOTHING can be COMPLETLY eco-friendly making the statement impossible. All eco-friendly objects have consequences. Wind turbines kill birds, solar panels need to to manufactured and take ground space, under water turbines kill fish, nuclear energy has deadly byproducts, cloud seeding can mess up weather patterns, and so on. We use these technologies because the benefits are GREATER that the risks, but wildlife and the global ecosystem is still disrupted.~Environmentalist

I don't think it is possible to run the planet only on environment friendly resources because if you make energy there are side effects so wouldn't the "most" eco-friendly thing to do is not to use energy? Of course I'm not sure that is entirely possible considering the wy we do things now. ~ZobyBlueberry

Well, I think that eco-friendly energy is perfectly possible, even at today's level of technology. Solar panels use the energy of the sun and converts it into electricity. Pretty soon electric cars will outsource gasoline and diesel cars. There wont be any emissions left. Solar panels are probably the best option, as they require little space and are effective at generating electricity. ~186000 mps

When I was talking about my underwater turbines i mean they are very very tiny and are not in a body of water that contain large animals (such as fish). I was thinking that we could put them in artificial bodies of water. ~ProjectZ

The whole point of underwater turbines is to produce mass amounts of energy. To do this they would need to be large and to make them spin they need to come into contact with ocean currents, artificial will just take more energy. Also at our level of technology and for convenience, they would be easier and better to build in shallow waters. I am a green freak, but all technology has a consequence in the environment, we have to face it. Even a bike has a consequence, it needs to be manufactured, needs a garage or shed, it drives over ants. all things can harm our environment, but it is still best to go green. But the olny way to be completly green is if we never even lived on planet Earth. -Environmentalist

My point isn't to harvest ocean current energy, my point is to harvest gravity. Bigger doesn't mean more energy, well it dose but not at a huge scale. Lets say we have one huge turbine that is the size of the earth. Now lets imagine earth filled up with turbines that have 1 cubic foot of capacity. Which one generates more electricity? The answer should be obvious. Now lets think one turbine the volume of one cubic foot. Now lets imagine millions of turbines that also fit into one cubic foot. Yet again the scenario with many small turbines generates more electricity. ~Project Z

~Bartumes

2. Do you think it is possible to create a video game so advanced you will be in it?

...my answer is "no", or [maybe] we are already in one...According to many astrophysicists, we may be living inside a high tech computer simulation and therefore the "being" at the controls of the computer or the "programmer" as you may call it, is actually controlling everything which happens on Earth and in the universe, which is actually part of one master computer simulation.The scientists say that subatomic particles and matter act almost as pixels in our three dimensional simulation and that we, like the computerized characters in a Sims viedo game are made up of millions of these sub-sub-atomic "pixels". The mere idea that we are in a computer simulation created by a seemingly omniscient being is mind blowing to say the least and many people dismiss the theory as soon as they learn of it because it defies most of the rules of physics and enters the realm of cybernetic intelligence. If we are truly living inside a simulation, that would mean that we are cybernetic beings that have come to be aware of our own existence.

Other scientists believe that the being at the 'controls" of the universe may be a future version of ourselves meaning a highly evolved human from the future trying to rebuild humanity before it collapses unto itself ( a tie in to an apocalypse in an alternate future, obviously). I find that far too improbable. Time travel is a nearly impossible feat because it defies the laws of physics, so there is no way an advanced human from the future can come to create a life like simulation of the past which is aware of itself. Therefore, I don't believe that it will ever be possible for humans to create a simulation which they can "be in" or permanently stamp themselves into as a cybernetic being. ~Severus

I believe that it is possible to create a video game so realistic that we are in it. If you were to have a device that can interpret the brain's electrical impulses of the 6 basic senses (touch, hearing, smell, sight, taste, and balance) then replace them with different brain frequencies but still give you the element of control, it would be possible. And in response to the theory that we already are in one, I looked it up and that is actually just a metaphor to show how everything is interconnected by a force like a video game. Although it is possible, it would take a tragic toll on us and the planet. It would be a drug in all senses of the word. Not something that you inject or eat a swallow but it would be highly addictive because you would be able to simply go into go into a perfect world. People would spend all there time in it and then soon enough it would be multi-player and everyone would share one huge simulation. This would be a perfect example of the matrix. Also this happened in one of the "Bobby Pendragon" series. The only way to counter act this addiction would be to add a negative factor such as a minor electric shock but then [some time] after the creator died the patent would wear off [from] power and [a] money hungry person would sell it without the negative influence and it would become like the movie "Surrogates". ~Bartumes

Bartumes, it wasn't only a metaphor. If you watch several episodes of " Into the Wormhole" they discuss with many astrophysicists about how the universe may actually be one giant simulation. Although I do not agree with the theory. ~Severus

True, the world may be a giant simulation. Maybe there are giant aliens up there who made us to observe our behavior, or maybe our world is truly like the matrix. But according to quantum theory anything is possible. Maybe we are all truly giant purple hippos with bat wings that spit rainbows and we cant see them. Because of this I do not think it is fair to just say it is possible because anything is really possible and if the world existed forever everything would happen at least once. ~Bartumes

I do believe its possible to create such a program. What we need to do is be able to directly send electric currents to the brain. We also need to block all natural electric currents to the brain.Now its easy, we can easily send signals to the brain indicating sight, feeling, smell, and hearing. Its easy to make it,but the next thing is how secure it is. If its a game like Halo then I'm fine. But when use the internet for connection i will want to play that less because what if the internet fails while your playing that is a huge problem. Normally if your using the internet on something like Xbox Live and it fails your character gets terminated. That means that you get terminated and you feel like you've just died. If your mind thinks that your dead then it will stop sending signals to your heart. Then you will really die in really life. No company would want their customers to die from their video game. But then comes what the game is becoming. Lets say you have an MMORPG and turn it into where you are in the game. Doesn't that virtual reality to you? Lets say we make a SIMS game into a MMORPG. Then lets say lets make that game so that you are in the game world. First off that would get "laggy" and second of all that would be a virtual reality. That would be a revolution.We could connect people from China to the US and have them talk face to face without moving them from their countries. But that could be VERY VERY dangerous. Lets say someone used this agansit the population by hooking everyone up to it. Then that person destroys the internet? He would of killed every person that was hooked up.~ProjectZ

It's possible, but a waste of our time. This would be great for entertainment purposes, but once again it could be dangerous. Also there are many hackers, this time they could hack into your brain! It would be more practical if NASA used this idea to train astronauts for space.~Environmentalist

I agree with your views, Environmentalist. The video game would be an utter waste of time. The bigger hazards being "brain hacking" and the control of other people as "mind slaves". ~Pomomarine

~Bartumes