| SvennoJ said: @haxxiy Why aren't we covering 1% of the Earth with solar panels now? Instead of dumping 1.6 trillion dollars into AI so far, we could have already solved the energy and food crisis instead. Well maybe not, here's what AI has to say about that :/ Covering 1% of the Earth's surface with solar panels would cost roughly $200 trillion USD just for materials. With installation, land preparation, and grid infrastructure, the cost would exceed $600 trillion to $1 quadrillion. To put that in perspective, the total global GDP is about $100 trillion. (snip) |
Well, for starters, even with business as usual, in the next couple of decades we're likely getting another 10x cost reduction in solar energy from economies of scale and learning-by-doing alone (a conservative estimate given past trends in photovoltaics), so that brings our BOM down to "just" the size of the US's GDP.
Not to mention that the full automation of labor would be a step change comparable to the Industrial Revolution while percolating much faster throughout the world than it did. The economy's doubling time, GDP deflator-adjusted, would be in the order of just a few years, so enormous infrastructure projects such as 5.1 million km² of solar panels would become much more doable on relatively short notice.
Also, to think this used to be a thread about Crazy Taxi and SEGA...
