An Absurd But Nonetheless Interesting (perhaps) Question

[wumpus]

On 1/21/2022 at 6:32 PM, Spacescifi said:

Main Question: Would the neighbor's house have steam billowing from some exhaust port on the roof becasuse of the reactor?

Sounds like  you want us to do your homework and compute how much heat a "pool" can lose without visible steam.  I'm going to assume that an olympic-sized pool is going to vaporize quickly  and that he is going to need a small lake.  You might get away with an olympic-sized pool and the maximum residential water pipe*pressure on the East Coast, but any place with water constraints will call foul.  Even then that might be too much: just find out the expected output of the reactor, divide the vapoirization pressure of a liter of water by that amount of Watts, and then figure out what it would take to supply that much water every second.

[Spacescifi]

9 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

As society has grown more complex so have our rules.

In a traditional (ancient) society, despite the female not having the same rights or status in the group as her male family members, they were not always treated as mere chattel.  You typically want value for value - so you would try to find an advantageous match for her and you; remember societies are built upon relationships.  The literature is filled with situations where things went bad, but the tradition would not have survived if it was always bad for the female.

Early on in my adulthood I met a woman from India studying in the US.  The subject of arranged marriage came up.  Despite the fact that she was dating a friend of mine, and very fond of him, she knew it was not going to last.  Her family had already promised her to a man from India.  A man she had yet to meet; the first she would meet him was right before the wedding, scheduled for after she graduated.  She was okay with this.  A fact that absolutely confounded me.  Her efforts to explain it ran up against my ignorance and prejudice.

Men typically did not sell their daughter off as a slave; that would have resulted in an extreme loss of face/reputation/status.  So the horror story we hear is the exception, not the rule.  Where possible families exchanged promises of marriage for eligible children with the expectation that the result would be good for both families... regardless of how each society defined what roles were available to the respective child.

It is a challenge, being someone raised within the Western Educated Industrial Representative Democracies to understand why anyone would want to live in any system less egalitarian than our own... But to them we are weird.  There is a sort of comfort to the traditional, I guess.  I think the main thing that humans instinctively fear is chaos - and the world is replete with places where people are willing to accept onerous forms of government in exchange for predictability and security.

Ultimately - most people only want one thing: the security to live their lives safely, raise their kids and not be abused by their neighbors.

 

And now I wanna see someone do it.

 

When the FBI show up he will be like, "It is what it is man... and the powerplant would not hire me so I made my own!"

 

Either he gets arrested or hired ny the government probably both.... since they will be very curious about how he pulled a Tony Stark and built his own nuclear power plant.

 

I would laugh outloud if he said he dug up some uranium in his backyard lol..... and it was true.

 

There goes his backyard. Government is taking that too.

Just now, wumpus said:

Sounds like  you want us to do your homework and compute how much heat a "pool" can lose without visible steam.  I'm going to assume that an olympic-sized pool is going to vaporize quickly  and that he is going to need a small lake.  You might get away with an olympic-sized pool and the maximum residential water pipe*pressure on the East Coast, but any place with water constraints will call foul.  Even then that might be too much: just find out the expected output of the reactor, divide the vapoirization pressure of a liter of water by that amount of Watts, and then figure out what it would take to supply that much water every second.

 

So on the West coast USA they won't let it happen.... interesting.

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Ultimately - most people only want one thing: the security to live their lives safely, raise their kids and not be abused by their neighbors.

The only problem is that different people mean opposite things behind these simple words.

1 hour ago, wumpus said:

Sounds like  you want us to do your homework and compute how much heat a "pool" can lose without visible steam. 

They found a sunken submarine.

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

[KerikBalm]

Relevant to the topic I think:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/student-accidentally-became-millionaire-cult-151446719.html

 

[FleshJeb]

On 1/21/2022 at 3:32 PM, Spacescifi said:

(*cough* paid them off but let's not talk about that lol)

Let's: This is a persistent trope/fantasy that doesn't have much basis in a rules-based society. I've worked and talked with a lot of people in a lot of permitting departments, and bribery just DOES NOT HAPPEN. Culturally, they tend to be very rules-oriented people (Many will argue that they are excessively so.) Projects go through extensive review from many people, and things that get built adhere to the rules. Large, controversial projects also have to go through serious public scrutiny.

"I don't like the rules, ergo the rules-enforcers are corrupt" is actually a very reductive and dangerous way of thinking. Blanket cynicism is disempowering--If one doesn't like a proposed project, go to a County Board of Supervisors (or equivalent) meeting and say something. Projects can and do get supported/killed all the time by this process.

Do favors and politicking get done? Sure, but there is a very strong corrective mechanism built into healthy societies.

[Spacescifi]

1 hour ago, FleshJeb said:

Let's: This is a persistent trope/fantasy that doesn't have much basis in a rules-based society. I've worked and talked with a lot of people in a lot of permitting departments, and bribery just DOES NOT HAPPEN. Culturally, they tend to be very rules-oriented people (Many will argue that they are excessively so.) Projects go through extensive review from many people, and things that get built adhere to the rules. Large, controversial projects also have to go through serious public scrutiny.

"I don't like the rules, ergo the rules-enforcers are corrupt" is actually a very reductive and dangerous way of thinking. Blanket cynicism is disempowering--If one doesn't like a proposed project, go to a County Board of Supervisors (or equivalent) meeting and say something. Projects can and do get supported/killed all the time by this process.

Do favors and politicking get done? Sure, but there is a very strong corrective mechanism built into healthy societies.

 

I am actually not that cynical. I just thought the idea was si ridiculous that is the only scenario in which it could happen... so while theoretically possible... the odds against it are so high that it is best reserved for amusing short stories.

[FleshJeb]

4 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

I am actually not that cynical. I just thought the idea was si ridiculous that is the only scenario in which it could happen... so while theoretically possible... the odds against it are so high that it is best reserved for amusing short stories.

Sorry, it wasn't directed at you, per se. It's just that we live in an era of decreasing faith in public institutions, and I like to make a point of standing up for them. I know a lot of hard-working, honorable people on the other side of the regulatory fence from me. They're absolutely a pain in the butt sometimes, but that's their job.

[Spacescifi]

43 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

Sorry, it wasn't directed at you, per se. It's just that we live in an era of decreasing faith in public institutions, and I like to make a point of standing up for them. I know a lot of hard-working, honorable people on the other side of the regulatory fence from me. They're absolutely a pain in the butt sometimes, but that's their job.

 

True.... it's better than anarchy or playing 21st century wild west cowboys.

In school and elsewhere it was well explained what government is for.

As an example, in theory one could leave and go live on an island and start their own civilization with only rules and laws they like.

However if you want to do that you must:

1. Raise an army or security force, otherwise a nation that has that will just swoop in and take over.

2. Provide healthcare to those who live in your land.

3. Either provide a money economy or ho back tp trade and barter or slavery.

4. Design education systems for the populace.

5. So much more.... a real headache.

 

It is so much easier to pay your taxes and be glad you are the head of no country at all.

[Davi SDF]

I think that depending on the reactor, he would be fine with just a hazmat suit. Although i would love to see the computer itself, cause if it trully is that powerfull, than it surely breaks outside his own legal property. Might as well give him Aperture Science Laboratories too!