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Troy

@ troyunrau @lemmy.ca

Posts
19
Comments
401
Joined
3 yr. ago

Centrist, progressive, radical optimist. Geophysicist, R&D, Planetary Scientist and general nerd in Winnipeg, Canada.

troyunrau.ca (personal)

lithogen.ca (business)

  • Geologists doubt Earth has the amount of copper needed to develop the entire world

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  • Things like platinum notwithstanding, It will almost always be more expensive to go get things in space than on earth.

    Hell, even on earth it is often too expensive to get metals like iron if there isn't rail or a port nearby. Imagine having to fly iron ingots around and the associated aviation fuel cost. Whatever crazy fuel bill you're imagining, multiply by a hundred or more if you're imagining getting it from space.

    No, all of those metals in space are best used to build some future version of our civilization _in situ. _

  • Geologists doubt Earth has the amount of copper needed to develop the entire world

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  • Very true. However, it doesn't add new material to the equation. If we need it to build electrical infrastructure, recycling won't suffice.

    Recycling aluminum is actually literally the best thing you can recycle in terms of environmental impact and cost efficiency. There are other things we recycle, but nothing pays off nearly as well.

  • Geologists doubt Earth has the amount of copper needed to develop the entire world

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  • That alternative material is aluminum. It's like a top four abundance material in the crust. It's just super fucking hard to refine from minerals that don't like to give it up without oodles of energy. Like, turn minerals into plasma levels of energy. So the irony is, to grow our energy economy past the need for copper, we will first need to grow our energy economy.

    Should fusion ever actually meet its promise, then this is one of the likely things we could do with this level of energy.

    If we ever become a spacefaring civilization, it'll almost certainly be necessary during the colonization of other planets/moons/asteroids, since the geological processes that concentrate copper on the earth are not present in those places. Whereas aluminum is plentiful any place rocky.

  • science never ends

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  • Understand that science is a name given to both a method, and to a mostly self-consistent body of models that can be used to make useful predictions. Science doesn't get things wrong. Science gets iterated upon.

  • Adventure buddy

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  • Awww. What a cute pet that cat has.

  • The holy war

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  • Not since like 2010. Unless you're still using spinning disks somewhere in an old NAS in a closet.

    Well, okay, might also depend on your definition of strong.

  • Sad fact of life

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  • I wash as I cook. Usually you have moments when you're waiting anyway. Means I have serving dishes only afterwards.

    Had to make it a habit though in order to force myself to do it. Took years to train the habit.

  • Removed

    What made you realize your parents aren't good people? /srs

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  • 😲

  • Noncoders are using AI to prompt their ideas into reality. They call it 'vibe coding.'

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  • And they're all going to raise their hands in dispair when they get hacked, scammed, exploited, or sued.

  • E is for Ennui - [The Existential Comics]

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  • If you're eaten by a snake because you sound like a frog, I will enjoy the scientific paper that results.

  • Why did you pet me‽

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  • I can sense the tail twitch

  • Is Bigfoot a sovereign citizen?

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  • Removed

    What are some good open world games/series that would be nice to take a walk thru from start to finish?

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  • Mod the bossfights out of Witcher 3 or BG3 and they'd both be awesome

  • Lemmy.one will be shutting down

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  • Any significant communities impacted? Scrolling through my subscriptions list and I don't have any in my list.

  • xkcd #3087: Pascal's Law

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  • Down the rabbit hole I go! Send snacks!

  • ISO 8601

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  • Harhar

  • What is something that you're grateful for today?

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  • I delivered an eight hour lecture. When I was done the students actually applauded. I almost cried.

  • Are we a joke to you?

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  • Yes

  • "I have regrets"

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  • 8 kittens. Halp!

  • floats away in disgust

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  • Sodium walks into a bar, orders a drink and tips the bartender an electron. The bartender asks what it is for. Sodium says: "nothing. Just feeling positive today".