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> Geothermal heating provides unlimited fuel for people in houses, staying still

This sounds like the beginning of a great sci-fi novel.

A future where Earth's core has cooled because of excess draws to power humanity. Now, the planet is losing it's magnetic field.

To save humanity, humans need to re-heat the core, build biospheres, or leave the planet.



"A future where Earth's core has cooled because of excess draws to power humanity."

Has anyone done the napkin math for how long that would take?


About as long as it would take to cool the surface of the sun.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/04/28/the-center...

Core of earth: 6,000 ºC

https://www.space.com/why-sun-atmosphere-hotter-than-surface

Core of sun: 27 million ºC Surface of sun: 6,000 ºC

"The leading idea among experts is the sun's magnetic field is actually bringing energy from inside the sun up through its surface and into its atmosphere."

The "napkin math" will involve gathering some data about RF power harvesting, and some assumptions (e.g. cosmic rays)

https://news.mit.edu/2020/energy-harvesting-wi-fi-power-0327

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_thermodynamics

Do you believe in the 1st law of thermodynamics, that energy is neither created nor destroyed?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe

We could just balance the system:

core of Earth too hot -> use geothermal

core of Earth too cold -> use solar power


We basically can not accelerate the process. Almost all the resistance to heat movement is on layers we can not reach at all.


Do you think that reheating the core of Mars could reboot life there?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30476002

It's even more interesting that you mention the magnetic field, could we use solar panels to draw more energy from the sun to power a tesla coil and microwave the core?


sounds similar to the plot of The Core

(it was not great)


It's surprising how often that movie comes up, especially given how it's often accompanied by a note that it's not good. I suspect it's hit a pseudo-cult classic film status. The last few times I've seen it mentioned I've had the desire to seek it out and watch it again since I only remember bits and pieces.


That's what you get when you do a lot of publicity for a movie that is not good.




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