1. Scientists' Good News: Earth May Survive Sun's Demise in 5 Billion Years

Comment #99517 by zebraone on December 17, 2007 at 12:43 am

I, for one, enjoyed this article. Granted it was 'dumbed down' for the masses, but it illustrated one of the great benefits that science offers; a window into the un-seeable. The goal of science is basic understanding. Technology is merely a byproduct of that understanding. While this story gives me no practical insight into my daily life, it does allow me to see a future that my mortality prohibits me from viewing.

2. Stretching the Search for Signs of Life

Comment #97349 by zebraone on December 11, 2007 at 11:48 pm

Just a couple of key points to make...

Moore's Law is not a law. It is a generalized observation that fits well over short periods of time. It does not take into consideration the finite limits of individual technologies. In terms of the computer industry, we have already reached the point where we are no longer doubling the speed of CPUs but are now placing multiple CPUs on the same chip to increase performance. This is not a true doubling as it requires twice as much material to achieve twice as much processing power. In order for this industry to truly advance again, it will require brand new technologies. Perhaps quantum or molecular computers will be the wave of the future but these will require technologies to be invented. There is no realistic expectation that the difficulties associated with these technologies will be solved any time soon, and certainly not within the scope of Moore's "law". Furthermore, Moore's "law" will never translate into a zero cost for production. No matter how advanced the technology is, it will still cost billions to send life forms or robots to another star.

The Dyson Spheres question is flawed for a very similar reason. It is based on the idea that our consumption of energy will forever increase exponentially. The real question is why has it increased so much? Our population growth explains much of it, and the growth of a consuming class further adds to our understanding. However it is unreasonable to assume that population growth will or can grow to infinity or that the consuming class could ever grow to more than 100% of the population. The ultimate limited resource is land. Long before we ever use all of the energy from the sun that reaches earth, we would have reached many other limitations that would have ultimately stagnated population growth, and consequently, our energy consumption.

Of course, the most significant flaw with Dyson Spheres lies in the realization that the raw materials necessary to build one would be, to say the least, mildly prohibitive.