{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/626",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 626,
    "subject": "Urth's Power Grids",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-05-15T20:20:00+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-15T20:20:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0011-0056@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-15T20:20:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Urth's Power Grids",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In developing my theories of Urth power grid monopolies, I also\ntied-in that odd detail of Urth's utter lack of vulcanism (yet\nanother one of those flags suggesting deep futurity, and potentially\nas misleading as \"(naturally) dying sun\") as a suggestion that the\ngeothermal grid was as tightly tapped as the improved tidal power\ngeneration grid was (i.e., this is why Lune is closer to\nUrth--precisely to generate enough tide to make tidal power\ncompetative).\n\nAll highly speculative.\n\nImpulse derived from the mechanics, economy, and ecology of\nSeverian's powers.  Abaia has big powers, where does he get the\nenergy?\n\nKARDASHEV LEVELS\n(seen in THE SCIENCE OF SCIENCE FICTION and ON CIVILIZED STARS,\nwhich gave the energy outputs I'm listing)\n\nThe Soviet physicist Nikolai Kardashev came up with a theory of\nthree levels of interstellar civilization.\n\nType I civilizations (sometimes called \"world level\") are like us on\nEarth now or slightly better.  They produce a total average power\noutput of 4x10^12 watts (4 TW [terrawatts]).\n\nType II civilizations (aka \"star level\") harness the power of a star,\naround 4x10^26 watts.\n\nType III civilizations utilize energies of the entire galaxy,\n4x10^37 watts.\n\n------------\nTERRESTRIAL ENERGY FLOWS\n(p. 67 of TERRAFORMING by Martyn Fogg)\n\n_Natural_\nTotal Insolation\n(top of atmosphere)    ~175,000 TW\n\nAbsorbed by atmosphere\nand Converted into Heat ~82,000 TW\n\nStored in Hydrological\nCycle, Oceans and Ice   ~40,000 TW\n\nDriving Circulation of\nWinds, Waves, etc.         ~370 TW\n\nNet Primary Productivity\n(NPP) [plants as food]      ~90 TW\n\nGeothermal Heat Flow        ~40 TW\n\nTidal Power from\nMoon's Gravity               ~3 TW\n\n_Anthropogenic-\n\nHuman control of NPP        ~20 TW\n\nPrimary Energy\nProduction                  ~10 TW\n\nFood Consumption           ~0.5 TW\n\n_Hypothetical_\nTwelve Hour\nNuclear War               ~1000 TW\n=================\n\nSo then, using these two models (Kardashev and Terrestrial Energy\nFlows), I'm saying that Abaia and Erebus are using the 40,000 TW\n\"Stored in Hydrological Cycle, Oceans and Ice\"; that someone further\ndown the foodchain is using the 40 TW \"Geothermal Heat Flow\" to the\npoint that vulcanism is \"dead\"; Tidal Power has been boosted and\nutilized; etc.\n\nSo Urth is held below levels of Type I; the Other Lords (Abaia,\nErebus, and the rest) embody Type I; the inhabitants of Yesod are at\nType III and have put a probationary tire-lock (\"the boot\") on old Sol\nto keep Urth from getting up to Type II; Severian gradually comes to\nuse star power, Type II, himself.\n---------------\nXury,\n\nNow then, having writ all that, I answer your question: I don't know\nif the Urth and Sol banks are giving Severian loans based upon great\nexpectations of a white hole.  It seems clear that Severian's healing\ncomes at great cost to himself; he cured Miles's fatal disease by\ncatching it and conquering it, for example, and the other healings\nleave him cold and drained.  The more sinister dealings, like\nswearing to the sun, are more murky--well, in that case he promptly\nresurrected the uhlan, whereas possible energy flow at the executions\nis disturbingly like that scene in the Soldier book where the old\nEarth Mother Goddess becomes visible while licking up the human blood\non the altar.\n\nThese speculations move us beyond \"Claw as dumb object\"--the Claw\nwould appear to be a yes/no switch or a loan broker.  Then there are\nthe \"banks\" themselves, with loans approved by, I guess, angelic/demonic\nspirits (futher down the chain-of-command from the hypothetical\nYesodic governors of the solar system--Och, Phaleg, etc.).\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}