• Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    10 days ago

    Evolution: everything turns into a crab.
    Engineering : everything turns into steam which powers a turbine

  • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    10 days ago

    Till we come up with a better way to generate alternating current than spinning a magnet inside a coil, it will always be turbines

    • Emi@ani.socialEnglish
      13·
      10 days ago

      I wonder if we would even switch to some different way of electricity if we found a new better way to generate and use it but require making new infrastructure.

      • Kirp123@lemmy.worldEnglish
        29·
        10 days ago

        There are a bunch of different ways to generate electricity that we already know about.

        The photovoltaic effect which is used in solar panels generates electricity from light. The thermoelectric effect which uses the temperature difference between the two faces of a a thermocouple to generate electricity. Electrochemistry can generate electricity from various chemicals such as in batteries.

        The issue is that these methods don’t scale as well as just steam generators. Steam generators can reach up to 50% efficiency. So yea, unless we find a method that scales better and has higher efficiency we will keep using steam generators for a while.

        • DeLancre@piefed.socialEnglish
          10·
          10 days ago

          Can’t wait for cold fusion to replace regular nuclear reactors. Then we will be finally able to boil water like no one ever did before!

      • fullsquare@awful.systemsEnglish
        4·
        10 days ago

        if power electronics get a bit better than they are now, we could switch to DC power transmission and DC/DC converters instead of transformers. bunch of infrastructure could be replaced one by one, but benefit is slight except for already used undersea cables

        but on generation side, it’s either photovoltaics or spin a magnet

        • chaogomu@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          10 days ago

          The problem with DC is line resistance. AC has to deal with line impedance, which is much easier on long distance transmission.

          • fullsquare@awful.systemsEnglish
            5·
            10 days ago

            AC also needs to deal with line resistance, and cheap, efficient multi-MW, multi-kV DC/DC converters aren’t there so far, but there are prototypes (and drop-in transformer replacements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_transformer) Advantage is that these converters can be more efficient than transformers and you don’t have to deal with reactive current (if DC). Obvious downside is that frequency control isn’t there

    • Baggie@lemmy.zipEnglish
      16·
      10 days ago

      Doom 2016, but they are definitely using the souls. Turbine honestly would have been preferable.

      • fruitycoder@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        9 days ago

        I think they were just using the souls to open the portals then the cultist took over. So really they were the good guys /s

        • Baggie@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          8 days ago

          I think the argent energy itself is purified hell energy, which in turn was processed souls. That might have been confirmed in eternal, but I’m pretty sure the slow corruption of the UAC employees was implied to be because of the hell energy in 2016. Hard to remember what’s headcannon though.