energy can never be created or destroyed. So well i could produce energy in unlimited quantities, it would have to also consume something(s) in unlimited quantities. The would be war and fighting over the "somethings(s)" as even if it consumed the most plentiful of thing, is the power output is not regulated such that an equal amount of that consumed thing is replaced. The thing would run out. This would mandate control of the device. This control is power. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. This would lead eventually to the device becoming a source of hatred, leading to a revolution, and the destruction of the device and the knowledge of it. Which would put us back where we are now.
It's hard to say - I doubt it would benefit us proles, though! Nothing our governments have done in the past decades has benefited us... only them and their friends. (If they didn't, maybe 50% would be driving their cars on water or chip/frying fat by now.) As for war over it... maybe. There will always be a reason for war. Hell, Israel is currently trying to show Iran that it could kick Iran's ass, if Iran doesn't stop doing their plutonium crap. Plutonium which, according the UN, isn't even remotely rich enough to make weapons out of. So I don't know why Israel is even trying to make this into a dick-measuring contest. And when we look at pre-religion and pre-wheel times: what did we kill eachother for then? Cave real-estate? Wives? Mammoth steaks? Thousands of years of human history have proven that, sadly, man doesn't need a "good reason" to kill another man. Heh, some will even do it in order to belong to a group, for less than £25/€20, for fame. In our modern world, politicians have small penises. People with small penises are big dicks (I claim copyright on expression that, by the way ), and will always put their own egos before the lives and well-being of the people they are supposed to be serving. The wars they wage and the length of the barrels of the tanks they sent are, in their hugeness, a reversal of the smallness of their genitals. The more civilians they kill (by mistake, of course, despite all the "surgical bombing") is directly related to their impotence. Imagine being told "you finished quickly!", or "what the hell, why is that limp?!". Imagine what that does to your manhood. Then imagine you can fix all that by killing a few thousand ragheads no one cares about anyway. You may not be able to get it up, but at least you're a real ****ing man. Prove me wrong. Playboy Berlusconi doesn't wage a lot of war, does he? The best example of the above... our Western governments. The best example of unlimited power being abused... our Western governments. (The only reason I'm not mentioning non-Occidental governments like, let's say, The 'Democractic' Republic of Congo's government: they wouldn't be bothered because they're too busy killing eachother in a more conventional way for more conventional reasons.) So yeah, unlimited power = unlimited being nailed in the behind for us, the people. The power may be unlimited for the governments, but they'll make damn sure it's limited for us. After all, that's what best for us, right? They're always right. Ah, humanity... you just want to hug 'em. (Oh, and happy birthday to me. I'm 25 today. The realisation that I've spent 1/3 of my life without actually doing anything [nothing too significant anyway] may have influenced this post.) [edit: the dick thing isn't a joke. I really do consider that an option in the decisions of some of the world's leaders. Men are feeble, and our genitals are very precious to us. I know - I have the same, embarrassing male genitalia as those politicians!]
That's an old law, which might stay true forever, but who's to say that it will never be broken, just like so many others?
There's always something to fight over. Just look at Helen of Troy. As for what would happen, probably not a lot in the short term - assuming the technology was even made available by Big Evil Corporations who profit from current systems. The new system would take a while to be rolled out and the priority would not be those who need it. For modern, comfortable families nothing would change at all - presumably just some re-wiring in the house. The biggest change for me would be that I wouldn't constantly be complaining that every single laptop and PC in the Dennis Labs is left on all the time, needlessly. In developing or poor countries though, the **** would likely hit the fan. Just because you have all that power doesn't mean you have the equipment TO power, or the expertise to build them. It's too big a jump, too fast. I don't want to bleakly hypothesise war or large scale conflict, but it isn't a stretch. There would be an enormous stage of upheaval. And obviously, a lot would depend on whether or not this new power source was clean or not.
If we did some how get a new unlimited power source, economic structure would collapse, be that only for a short while. Depending on which country invents the power source (most probably a "Western" country), there would be a struggle for power.....leading to yet another war.......then when the dust settles, Like it's already been suggested, there would be a war on the only thing that we need, water. Could we not use this new power source to create terraformers on...... say Mars? It wuold take years but would help future generations.
i reckon it would result in logan's run. think about it with unlimited power etc the population would likely go through the roof, old people staying alive for longer as quality of life improved the world over. we'd have to start culling at 50 i reckon
Physics says so. Anyhow, if it wasn't energy, war could be waged because of food, water, boundaries, religion, other resources, insanity, etc. Just because energy would be abundant does not mean that it would be shared by all. Perhaps war would be fought for control of the source. If it were universal, it still might require a certain level of infrastructure to support it. Solar power is virtually unlimited, but we are still unable to efficiently and cheaply harnass it.
Even Star Trek has shown what happens when money isn't an option or a personal possession/status symbol. Humans find someone or something else to fight over. As for what would I do with unlimited power? Nothing. That kind of power would cause more harm to the world. I'd rather just have $100 million.
Hmmm... World Peace comes fairly high up. Then we would build 2-3 large spaceships, fill them with every PC World/Currys/Dixons/The Link employee and send them off into space...on a one-way course for the centre of the sun (shortly afterwards levelling all of the stores involved and turning them into green spaces with play parks for children).
With unlimited power/energy, I'd hope we'd be on the moon within a year, and on mars a couple of years after that. The oldies could stay on earth
