Broadcast Energy - Science Fiction Come To Life

[Thorne]

I'm not all that surprised. It's been coming for years. What concerns me, though, is the potential safety issues. Sure, they say that it's safe now, but what about later? Cell phones were supposed to be safe, too, and now they aren't quite so sure. A lot of things industry has put forth as safe have eventually proven just the opposite.

It's a great concept, and I believe an ultimately necessary one. True energy independence will come when we can collect solar energy in space and beam it down to transformers on the surface, hopefully without incinerating any wayward planes that might stumble into the beam!

The blanket statement, from the article, "It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields" strikes me as very premature. And I would find it very difficult to believe, since the human nervous system is as much electrical as chemical, and either can be influenced by magnetic fields.

I think I'll wait a few decades before I outfit my house with this tech.

[DarkPoet]

The blanket statement, from the article, "It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields" strikes me as very premature. And I would find it very difficult to believe, since the human nervous system is as much electrical as chemical, and either can be influenced by magnetic fields.

I think I'll wait a few decades before I outfit my house with this tech.

I was about to post nearly the same thing. As everyone familiar with electricity knows, induction's a bitch, and I wouldn't want to be somewhere near such a device once something goes wrong (just one example, imagine the flament in the lightbulb burning out slowly and flickering while doing that - in that case the receiver might become an uncontrolled sender due to back induction). Then there are things like cardiac pace makers, which are likely to be influenced by static magnetic fields when moving through them. It makes my toenails curl up when I listen to the overconfident proclamations that are spread now.

[Thorne]

I was about to post nearly the same thing. As everyone familiar with electricity knows, induction's a bitch, and I wouldn't want to be somewhere near such a device once something goes wrong (just one example, imagine the flament in the lightbulb burning out slowly and flickering while doing that - in that case the receiver might become an uncontrolled sender due to back induction). Then there are things like cardiac pace makers, which are likely to be influenced by static magnetic fields when moving through them. It makes my toenails curl up when I listen to the overconfident proclamations that are spread now.

Good point! I hadn't even thought about pace makers and other medical devices. Wouldn't it be nice to get electrocuted by a steel screw in your ankle while walking through the mall?