Utilizing Superpower (Per Rethink X, Tony Seba)

Void · 2025-03-28 09:26:26

Superpower as I understand it, involves thinking from Rethink X, Tony Seba. The idea has a claim that in the future rather than have X amount of solar panels, and Y amount of energy storage, it will be economic to have perhaps 5X amount of solar panels and Y amount of energy Storage.

The notion is that costs for the solar panels will drop so much that it will make sense to have perhaps 3 to 5 times as much solar panels as you need, if solar energy were constant. An example would be if cloudy days are only 1/2 as productive as sunny days, then if you had 2X the number of solar panels, it would be just fine on cloudy days. And on sunny days you would have "Superpower". My objective in this topic is to find a way to make "Superpower" more productive to satisfy material needs and desires.

An article from Rethink X: https://cleantechnica.com/2020/11/07/im … kx-report/ Quote:

Imagining A World With Unlimited Clean Energy — RethinkX Report
4 years ago
Steve Hanley
135 Comments

An outside analysis of the claims: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/r … &FORM=VIRE Quote:

Tony Seba’s Vision of “Super Power” // Analysis
YouTube
The Limiting Factor
60.8K views
6 months ago

So, "Superpower" will be affected by Seasonality, Day/Night Cycles, and weather patterns.

So, I have also been looking for a way to make use of excess Carbon and Salt. If you could do that then there would be incentive to capture Carbon out of the atmosphere, and to utilize salt buildups. In such a world, hydrocarbon producers would have an alternate market for their products rather than to burn them.

Now I am thinking about making "Shade Balls". Which are likely to be plastic, and which the "Doom Goblins" will have already made an attempt to kill at birth, by pronouncing as demonic, plastics. Their two main arguments are that plastics are polluting the Oceans, and that microplastics are a terror.

As for the plastics in the ocean, that is said to be primarily a problem with 5 nations that dump it in the sea.

As for microplastics, it very much comes from tires, and clothing. Get rid of those then? Of course we are not ready for that.

However that may settle out, I think I see an opportunity to use shade balls, reservoirs, heat pumps, superpower, and possibly salt to create increased wealth.

I have read that for the Great Basin, the main reason for large lakes in the ice age was reduced evaporation, not increased rainfall. For the Great Salt Lake, much of the water of the lake is absorbed from the atmosphere in the wintertime.

https://www.lakeshoresup.com/2015/04/15 … e-ice-age/ Image Quote:

Another item of interest in this could be the Salton Sea. Excess salt buildup.

Another part of the scheme would be solar ponds: https://www.carboncollective.co/sustain … solar-pond
Quote:

What Is a Solar Pond?
Solar Ponds are solar thermal energy systems that collect and store solar energy, thereby providing a sustainable source of heat and power.
These are typically sizable human-made bodies of water that use the sun's heat as a stable temperature source in areas where traditional cooling technologies cannot be implemented.
Solar ponds differ from other solar thermal energy systems as they store the collected heat instead of transferring it through fluids or devices. Solar ponds may use any number of different fluid heating and cooling mechanisms.

However, for the ponds I am thinking of, I would suggest shade balls be placed on top of them, and that the thermal differential be formed by use of a heat pump system that would use "Superpower". Should it be desired, then solar panels could be placed on top of that.

It is not absolutely necessary to involve salt. You could have a freshwater version with limited energy storage ability.

In either case, the idea is to cool off the water just under the shade balls, to allow moisture to condense from the atmosphere into the body of water. This then may allow the reservoir to accumulate moisture rather than losing it.

In the case of a salt gradient method, the surface water might be something like -2 degrees C, while the bottom waters could easily be 20 degrees C, or more. Possibly as much as 90 degrees C.

As you would already have a heat pump method to pull heat from the top water and distribute it to the bottom water, then it should be possible to provide cooing and heating for residential spaces.

If the reservoir indeed was able to pull water from the air, then it would be possible to extract some for human use from the reservoir, perhaps involving distillation.

Possibly some types of wastewaters could be returned to the reservoir. Perhaps grey water?

Anyway, with this method it may be possible to increase the habitability of regions which have rather good solar power potential, and to allow people to move to those locations.

This would not necessarily be restricted to deserts and semi-arid locations, but might work in very humid areas, particularly for absorbing water from the air. Say Florida, maybe.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-03-28 10:29:59)

Void · 2025-03-28 14:17:48

This is what I have in mind:

One thing you need for a salt gradients pond is a method to keep the wind from stirring the water. So, I am thinking that a layer of Shade Balls could do that.

It would also inhibit evaporation and even so allow water condensate such as dew, or even direct moisture from air to water, into the pond. Of course, rain could also enter.

If you include the ability to manufacture Acetate, then you could possibly grow some organisms in the mid layer of the water, maybe in the cold and hot layers as well, but they might need to be extremophiles.

Now consider the Colorado River. If you made ponds along its length, you might grow a lot of biomasses from Acetate. You might condense water into the ponds. In the Shade Balls you might have a "Tool" that can be made from petroleum products, or from CO2 extracted from the air. With this method you could also have air conditioning and heat.

Salt as a resource.

One way of fixing the Salton Sea would be to export the salt to such ponds. This would be especially valuable if the ponds will collect water from the air. You could propagate this through many arid or semi-arid areas. But of course, it does not only have to be in dry places.

Of course, there is going to be a need to make it safe for children and animals.

The water under the shade balls might be at say -2 degrees C.

I recall that for every 20 degrees F you drop air temperature the Relative Humidity doubles.
I calculate that as 11.11 degrees C.

So, I am guessing that if the air temperature is 11.11 C and RH% is 50% then condensation might occur into the top of the pond, if it is at -2 degrees C.

If you had an air temperature of 22.22 degrees C then even if the air was at 25% Relative Humidity, you might get condensation.

I will do that in F also 71.996 to 28.4. (Instead of 22.22 to -2 C)
The difference in F is 43.596 degrees F, so if the RH% is 25, it can double twice, and be able to condense on the salty water at 28.4 degrees F.

So, here are some average RH% for some states: https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/ … -state.php

https://unitedstatesmaps.org/us-humidity-map/
Image Quote: Mean%20Relative%20Humidity%20(April).png

Obviously if you had air at

I just caught an error in my math converting between C and F. If anyone notices an error, please let me know.

Ending Pending.

Last edited by Void (2025-03-28 14:51:19)

Void · 2025-03-29 09:38:09

Something I want to mention is surface salinity of such a reservoir. Salt in water reduces evaporation, so if you have brine at perhaps -2 degrees C, that will absorb water from the air much better than would fresh water at -2 degrees C.

https://teacherscollegesj.org/does-salt … -of-water/
Quote:

Global web icon
TeachersCollegesj
https://teacherscollegesj.org › does-salt-affect-the...
Does salt affect the evaporation rate of water? - TeachersCollegesj
Sep 6, 2020 · How does salt affect the evaporation of water? Increasing water salinity reduces evaporation since the dissolved salt ions lower the free energy of the water molecules, i.e., reduce the water activity, and hence reduce the saturation vapor pressure above the saline water at a …

I recall reading a long time ago that the Great Salt Lake absorbs moisture from the atmosphere in the wintertime.

Of course, then once you have captured the water from air, then the salt reduces is utility to humans, so then the water would need to be extracted from the brine. I am old school, so I will suppose that distillation of some sort might be used.

However, I think that if you lived in Florida, and simply wanted to directly absorb water from the atmosphere, you might use fresh water. The water just under the shade balls would be near freezing, and the water 6 feet or so below that might be at as much as 39 degrees F. (3.89 degrees C).

In that case the heat extracted to create the cold might go towards some sort of lower temperature industrial heat.

In lower humidity locations though I think brine and the storage of heat on the bottom and cold on the top may very well pay off.

The desert southwest of the USA, and I suppose elevated Mexico, are perhaps, reasonable places to attempt to use this. They are generally expected to have good sunshine.

Of the 48 lower states, even the Canadian border is at about Northern Spain or Southern France. Most of Europe and Canada are at higher latitudes than that. The somewhat dry southwest of the North American continent is at about the latitude of the Sahara Desert.

To be made to support a greater population, more water would be helpful. Then you don't have to export electricity to where the water is, instead you import water from the atmosphere. And then people can follow. These are also places where winter heating may tend to be a lower level of burden.

In making this attempt I have tried to turn Salt and Carbon into resources. So, then if there is a buildup of salt somewhere like the Salton Sea, it can be taken to another location where an atmospheric condenser might be set up. That then turns the accumulation of salt in the Salton Sea as an asset, and the salt level might be brought down to more desirable levels.

And so also, I am hoping for the mass production of Shade Balls, to incorporate Carbon into.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_ball
Image Quote:
Image Quote of a single shade ball:

Manipulations might include color and albedo. Concerns might be if salt will coat them and change the color and albedo.

But if solar panels were placed over the shade balls this will be less of a concern.

Another concern would be to try to reduce the shedding of microplastics. I don't think it is a large concern, as microplastics more come from tires and clothing. But looking into optimization is perhaps worthwhile.

My actual hope is that over time the hydrocarbon industry can be weaned away from burning materials as fuels, and towards making useful tools like Shade balls.

Also, a hope is that it would become attractive to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and make shade balls. This could possibly get the Doom Goblins to leave us alone and quite trying to peasantize us. Peasantization is something many of the elites are always trying to achieve. If you make the masses poorer, you can feel richer and so much above them.

If shade ball pools and solar panels altered the color and albedo of a location, a microclimate alteration might be possible.

As I understand it, trees in a desert may cause the high sky to be cooler than otherwise, and so rain is more likely to happen. However, if the desert is too harsh or animals degrade the forest too much, the trees may die off and so less rain will fall.

Solar panels, or solar mirrors>thermal device, or shade balls, are non-living, so if the desert is too harsh for trees, they can function anyway.

The question of energy from nuclear fission or fusion. I am beginning to think that these will emerge, and that they may make more sense in places like Canada and Europe. They might not be so competitive where solar is a good option.

However, when Fusion emerges, that will change things in the solar system where Titan and Mars will both become more attractive.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (2025-03-29 10:31:12)

Void · Yesterday 08:57:32

This looks rather good. If you can pull water out of the air using cold brine then you can extract drinking water and bathing/washing water from the brine, I hope.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … 3286&ei=18
Quote:

Scientists make first-of-its-kind discovery that could impact drinking water for billions of people: 'Other groups overlooked the potential'
Story by Jon Turi • 4h •
3 min read

I think I like it.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (Yesterday 08:58:35)

Void · Yesterday 10:57:44

Here I have put a solar awning over a Shade Ball Canal:

Yes, there is a wiki for Awning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awning

A question exists about desert rivers. Is it smart to dump fresh water on the ground to irrigate crops? Could I make a case for dumping at least some of the water into brine canals?

I think I can.

Tony Seba and Rethink X are partially into a thing called Precision Fermentation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RethinkX

Here is a video: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/r … ORM=VRDGAR

In the cross section of a brine canal, depending on temperature and salinity, you could grow certain extreme organisms.

Oxygen from air should be possible to inject though the shade balls into water or by some other means. A food like Acetate can power the "Crop".

It may be possible to incorporate many functions into these canals.
-To inhibit evaporation or even to promote condensation from the air into the canal.
-Utilizing "Superpower" to store thermal energy and to maintain salt gradients. Cold on top and warm on the bottom.
-Using the bine canals to ship materials will be somewhat in conflict with the thermal storage, but never say never. If a tow train could pull it along, special barges might be able to move though without disturbing the thermal stratification too much.
-The brine automatically has anti-freeze of salt.
-The specific gravity of the brine would be better for lifting loads.

If you are in the Great Basin or the Colorado River, it makes more sense to inflate brine canals with solar panels and shade balls, then to dump fresh water on the ground to irrigate bulk food.

In other words, with Salt from the Salton Sea and water from the Colorado River such structures as this could be made with a very large output of benefits, I feel.

For Utah, same thing with rivers, and salt deposits.

And it could likely run mostly off of "Super Power".

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (Yesterday 11:17:31)

Void · Yesterday 11:35:50

The Suez Canal presents a different way to do it. You could simply draw sea water out and if needed flush excess brine out the other end.

Ponds likely would be alongside the canal, in this case, so canal shipping would not be combined with the brine canals or pools.

In the example of the Colorado River, then it might be that no canal shipping will be desired, but maybe it could be done. Irrigation is typically in conflict with shipping, but in this case your farmland is precision fermentation in the brine canals/pools.

It might make vastly more sense to do this with the Nile River. The productivity might simply be off the charts.

And if Shade Balls could be made from atmospheric CO2, then, it is all over for the Green Doom Goblins.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (Yesterday 11:40:33)

Void · Yesterday 21:27:07

At this point, I think that the prescription that I have intended for Earth, with some modifications likely would work well on Mars.

If the solar awning were made complete to hold pressure, then at early morning before sunrise, RH% can be 70-100 percent on Mars. At that time sucking air in and compressing it might lead to collection of water. Cold brine under shade balls, might likely absorb the water vapor.

The water column would likely provide locations suitable for precision fermentation using special microbes.

Ending Pending

Void · Today 07:13:56

I am not against so called green energy, but would rather refer to it as new energy, or developing energy.

I believe that the phrase "Green Energy" has been tainted by a degenerate process that gives the wrong benefits to the wrong people.

Particularly in West Europe, and centering also on poorly assimilated North Americans, this process seems to be embedded in instincts to resort to archaic social arrangements. Royal thinking somehow is blended with socialist leanings to produce a socialism for the elites.

It is the difference between uplifting the "Capable Man" and regarding the masses as something that the "Dominant Man" is to consume. Either process can produce a contrast between the more fortunate and the less fortunate.

But the "Capable Man" Elon Musk as a possible example, potentially attains great fortune in facilitating the growth of technological culture, and the "Dominant Man" simply seeks to consume all other peoples life forces in order to attain domination as the method of relative wealth. This second process then leaves the poor poorer over time, as they are being consumed.

The Green Movement is attractive to "Dominant Man" I believe because it first tells the common people slowly that they are unworthy, and that as penance they should reduce their expectations as to what they may think their share of realty should be. So, to put a "Hair Shirt" onto the public, rather than inventing new sources of productivity, they engage in a punishment process, which if they have successfully hypnotized the public allows them to take things away from the common people. This deflates the cost of being "Well Off". The common people become less wealthy, and the material amount needed to accumulate also declines. So, this is a descent into a religious based hell in my opinion.

And I think that this is what we see as having happened in Western Europe. Instead of inventing a new resource, they simply destroy the resources that do not benefit the elites, and also seek to confiscate those remaining resources. They do not so much invent new resources.

Although to be truthful, in isolated cases it is obvious that the Europeans and British do still create important intellectual advances. Just stay away from the Socialist Greens though because they are in the process of promoting themselves to royalty while promising to be the moral people.

So, unfortunately, I have a tendency to self-congratulate, without firm evidence of accomplishment. I need to be self-aware of a bad potential in that.

But my logic is that if you can pull water to a location of lack of water, that is otherwise favorable to productivity, that can likely be a win.

If we can keep the "Greens" from disrupting technological civilization, then accumulation is likely to lead us to the proclaimed "Superpower" situation of Tony Seba, and his associates.

An example of that can be found here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … 68fa&ei=15
Quote:

Solar breakthrough: Transparent panels generate power 1000x more efficiently
Story by Joseph Shavit • 1h • 4 min read

This goes on continually, so if a technological society does not have memory loss every advance makes it more likely that new energy sources will emerge.

So, just because there was a lack of productivity from a product like solar panels 20 years ago does not mandate that it will always be a failure.

I think it can be true, that it may make sense to have 2X or 5X times as much solar panels as can give power under optimal conditions. Tony Seba's logic that this reduces the amount of energy storage needed, seems sensible to me.

To a certain extent, a solar pond/solar canal, can be an energy storage device. At its extremes you could even run a heat engine from it. But I like it's more simple features more. IF you live in a desert, you are likely be subject to hot days and cold nights, or maybe warm days and cool nights.

The pond can provide heating and cooling from its water layers. And if it can accumulate water or even just store water from atmospheric, well, and river sources, that is valuable also. And I have hopes that forms of precision fermentation would be possible in at least some layers of the water.

But it would also be possible to use distilled water in containers either submerged or outside of the pond. The hope here is if you can condense atmospheric water into the device, you can then distill fresh water from it.

Anyway, there is hope. It may take time to perfect methods, but the overall architecture seems sensible to me.

Ending Pending

Last edited by Void (Today 08:04:53)

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#1 2025-03-28 09:26:26

Utilizing Superpower (Per Rethink X, Tony Seba)

#2 2025-03-28 14:17:48

Re: Utilizing Superpower (Per Rethink X, Tony Seba)

#3 2025-03-29 09:38:09

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