Re: Having seen Iron Man

Ben Crowell wrote:
> James Nicoll wrote:
>> 	How many uses can you think of for a multiple gigwatt generator
>> that has no waste heat or radiation issues, that is smaller than a
block
>> of butter?
> 
> Is it a heat engine? If so, then my proposed use for it would be to
> use it to obtain the Nobel prize for overthrowing the laws of
> thermodynamics.

The impression I got from the movie was that it was nuclear in some way, 
nothing physics-breaking.  The details don't really matter, though.

The uses would depend to some degree on how expensive and scalable the 
thing was. If only the movie version can easily exist (in terms of size 
and power output) you could run a car with it but it wouldn't fit 
conveniently into a laptop. If it's cheap enough a pocket version that 
you could plug your laptop into would be nice, though. You could put it 
in a UAV that will be able to remain airborne until it falls apart from 
wear. Same goes for space probes, unmanned submarines, any sort of 
vehicle or installation that is isolated. Autonomous radio relay 
stations, perhaps - get remote places wired up with communications quick 
and easy. Man-****table energy weapons and electromagnetic weapons become 
easily plausible.