Tuesday 18 November 2014

Long Term Plans - Science Fiction?

Good Afternoon Reader,

This is a concept I've been forming in my mind for a while now but I suppose it's as good a time as any to put it out in the open.

Many of you will be familiar with the concept of a Dyson Sphere already but for those of you who aren't it's a theoretical device that a very advanced species would construct around a star to harvest as much energy from it as possible.
You can read more about it at either of these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
http://earthsky.org/space/what-is-a-dyson-sphere

Today though I will be discussing another concept which is similar in scope but much more achievable with today's technology and resources. There is no common name for what I have been thinking of that I am aware of but I think there should be as it seems an important step in our development as an advanced species. So let's get into it.

While a Dyson Sphere encompasses a star my concept is for a mega-construction that would encompass the Earth. Mankind has three basic building blocks of our society today which are water, power and data. With enough of these three things there is very little we are unable to achieve but getting these everywhere we might want or need them can be problematic and human populations tend to become centralised where these things are readily available. So to ensure a backbone infrastructure supplying these things on a global scale would require a global project. I envision it as a series of rings around the Equator, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn with tremendous capacity for the flow of power, data and water. The rings would then be joined from North to South in key points; on Earth most likely from North to South America, Europe to Africa and Asia to Australia. This grid of power, water and data could then be linked up to major sources of each and additional links could be provided off the backbone grid to reach most areas of the world.

This is of course not the kind of thing that could be done today or quickly. It would be a monumental undertaking over decades and certain sections will clearly offer more value than others, joining the Northern hemisphere through the Tropic of Cancer for example will be lower cost and higher yield than joining the Southern hemisphere through the Tropic of Capricorn. The economics of it's construction would be something for a future generation to determine.