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Ultimately just another reusable but non-renewable resource. Like silver.

And like silver one of some historical importance, but ultimately not so great as was ascribed to it.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sat Sep 1st, 2012 at 05:17:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think land is likely to make a comeback, as I don't see food and transportation costs declining in any meaningful timeframe.
by rifek on Sun Sep 2nd, 2012 at 12:51:59 AM EST
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I wonder what the efficiency limit is for food?  a) Given free energy, how much land and resources would one person need?  b) What is the maximum conversion efficiency from raw energy to food energy?
by njh on Sun Sep 2nd, 2012 at 10:02:55 AM EST
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In terms purely of calories, potentially fairly high. You can synthesize methane and ammonia from air, given energy, and you can combine those to make amino acids and fatty acids. Theoretically, all of this can be done adiabatically.

In practice, that's science fiction. But so is energy too cheap to meter.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Sun Sep 2nd, 2012 at 11:37:05 AM EST
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