October 1, 2006
1 min read
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OCTOBER 1956
WASTED RADIATION--"At present, nuclear power offers the most promising alternative to fossil fuels. However, progress in this field so far scarcely touches the heart of the problem. We speak of nuclear 'power,' but what we are really working on is nuclear heat. We are proposing to hook up the nuclear reactor to the steam turbine, an only modestly efficient invention of the 19th century, and to throw away three quarters of the energy of the nuclear reaction. It seems improvident to waste precious nuclear fuel in this fashion. Clearly the next step in power generation must be the elimination of the steam cycle and the direct conversion of radiation to electricity."
Eating Machine--"I call it an artificial living plant. Like a botanical plant, the machine would have the ability to extract its own raw materials from the air, water and soil [see illustration]. It would obtain energy from sunlight--probably by a solar battery or a steam engine. It would use this energy to refine and purify the materials and to manufacture them into parts. Then, like John Von Neumann's self-reproducing machine, it would assemble these parts to make a duplicate of itself. It could then be harvested for a material it extracted or synthesized.--Edward F. Moore"
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