Reply #7: Let's pretend over-unity DOES work

[Dogmudgeon]

One watt in, two watts out, right?

If all this energy is being tapped from the ether, than our energy growth can continue without limits. Here's a trivial exercise for people who are good at calculus (which excludes me): Assume the Earth uses ONE GIGAWATT of power per second right now (which is probably a very low figure) and that power raises the Earth's temperature one-billionth of a Kelvin in one second. How long will it take, at a constant 3.0% per annum energy use growth rate, to generate enough waste heat to turn 4 sextillion metric tons of granite and 2 sextillion metric tons of iron into their liquid phases? Gas phases? Exlosive decomposition?

Mind you, I'm not writing off the possibility of over-unity energy generation. But I sincerely hope we don't develop them until we learn how to better manage our energy use.

Math and Physics geeks, are you with me on this?

--bkl