Meliva wrote:Sure energy is needed for a lot of stuff, but it isn't NEEDED to advance technology. If you want a better method just look at how we measure our own history. Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc. That's a far better method then just how much energy is being used. Hell, wouldn't you think it would be more impressive if a society could get by using very little energy but using it far more effectively? Based on the Kardashev scale, if a civilization had far superior tech then we did like light-speed space craft, but it used next to no energy and they produced hardly any energy, it would rank below us. That makes no sense.
Better to measure things on what their tech is able to do, and what the materials they use rather then energy usage. Or hell, measure them based on how far their reach is. Many ways you could better measure a society's progress then how much energy they produce and use.
Hey Mel,
I have to disagree with ya on this one. The ages were a great way to measure our technological evolution, but we have progressed more in the past 50 years than all of human history before, and what has ushered that progression? We started with fire for energy, then animals, then water, then wind, then steam, then electricity, then nuclear but the pure amount of energy we can harness led to computers and use of energy that snowballed further innovations maybe

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I would argue a hybrid thought. Maybe energy usage is a great way to describe civilization, but, also to your point, the ability to harness all of the available energy created which would require "less" energy production.
When we generate/use energy, we loose some to heat, friction, line drop, conversions etc. Imagine if instead of using fissile material to heat water to steam, to spin turbines that turn generators, what if we could just harness the energy straight from the reaction, or harness lighting or smash quarks, or or or...lol
The sun drops 1000w per sq/ft on the earth, our solar panels are only 15-20% efficient. I would think a far superior society would use far more power than us, but would also capture far more.
Just a thought.
Remember...
You can sheer a sheep many times, but only skin it once!