Distributive Numeracy
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About
Open source ecology's core work revolves around the distribution of power - as in productive power and economic power. The core question for us is - in the age of AI and automation - who ends up owning the tools of production. If the answer to this question is sound then we can have a Democratic society without existential risk. The trend today is not good, with ultimate Power Concentration at the Trillion Dollar Scale.
Quantities to Understand - Earth Scale
- From the Dyson Sphere, the solar constant of 1360 W/m2 emerges. Dyson Swarms are potentially viable, but as of 2026, placing solar energy on the Earth makes most sense. There are companies working on putting datacenters in space [1], such as SpaceX and Google, with Nvidia redesigning for radiative cooling in space. Point: radiation takes only a fraction of a PV panel area, so it is in principle not hard.
- If we use all of the current 20TW combined energy use of humanity - instead to send shit to a stable Lagrange Point such as L4 or L5 - we could send 3000 kg per second. [2]
- We would need 100-200kg of fuel per kg to go to L4 [3]