Re:60 years later, is it time to update the Drake equation?
by the8472 on Tuesday May 18, 2021 @05:54PM
(#27201763)
> A civilization MUST have already conquered the energy problem
There possibly are ever more exotic applications that require more energy. Energy to matter conversion which you mention (and which also conveniently produces antimatter) requires very very large amounts of energy. The mass defect of the Tsar Bomba is merely 2.6kg, which also happens to be roughly equivalent the energy the sun that hits the whole planet each second.
And then there are speculative things like the alcubierre drive or anything that involves moving entire stars.
There possibly are ever more exotic applications that require more energy. Energy to matter conversion which you mention (and which also conveniently produces antimatter) requires very very large amounts of energy. The mass defect of the Tsar Bomba is merely 2.6kg, which also happens to be roughly equivalent the energy the sun that hits the whole planet each second. And then there are speculative things like the alcubierre drive or anything that involves moving entire stars.