I learn two tales final week that — on the floor — had nothing to do with one another.
One was a few radical plan to beam daylight right down to Earth at night time to ship energy on demand from area.
The opposite was a few new Nvidia supercomputer, hand-delivered to Elon Musk’s SpaceX headquarters, that can assist practice the AI techniques operating his rockets and satellites.
However while you have a look at the large image, these articles validate one thing George Gilder and I’ve been saying for months…
That we’re on the verge of what we name “Convergence X.”
We’re seeing a fusion of applied sciences which can be turning once-separate industries right into a single, self-reinforcing system. In different phrases, vitality, computing energy and manufacturing are all merging into one steady loop.
And that loop is starting to play out above the planet.
A New Grid within the Sky
House-based solar energy isn’t a brand new idea. It dates all the way in which again to the Nineteen Sixties.
The thought is that satellites may gather daylight in orbit, the place it shines twenty-four hours a day, and beam it again to Earth as usable vitality.
However for many years, this idea has been dismissed as too costly or too sophisticated to be sensible.
That’s not the case at present.
In January 2023, a crew at Caltech proved it could possibly be carried out. Their experimental satellite tv for pc, referred to as SSPD-1, transmitted 200 milliwatts of energy from orbit to a pair of receivers on Earth., which is
Regardless that that was lower than a cellphone digital camera mild, it was sufficient to show that the physics works.
And now an organization referred to as Mirror Orbital needs to perform this at scale.
Their preliminary plan is to launch a constellation of 57 mirrored satellites into low-Earth orbit, every able to redirecting daylight onto photo voltaic farms or cities after darkish.
If the thought works, it may ultimately prolong each day photo voltaic manufacturing by as much as two hours per website. This may equate to as a lot as a ten% to fifteen% enhance in annual output with out including a single new panel on the bottom.
Picture: Mirror Orbital
And, in idea, it will erase the largest weak spot of renewable vitality: intermittency.
We talked about the issue of intermittency earlier this 12 months, when Spain went darkish as a result of a sudden energy crash and never sufficient backup vitality.
However with this photo voltaic array, it will be attainable to have a clear energy supply that by no means goes offline, beaming mild or vitality anyplace on Earth, day or night time.
Naturally, critics are anxious in regards to the environmental impression of this cutting-edge expertise. There’s the chance of sunshine air pollution and orbital litter, and there are legitimate issues in regards to the security of beaming vitality by means of the environment.
However assume again to the early days of electrical energy. Folks as soon as thought high-voltage traces had been harmful too.
But inside a era, we constructed the safeguards that allow electrical energy change the world.
And we’re not the one nation pursuing this new expertise.
As all the time, China is racing to get there first. Its area company has introduced plans for a one-megawatt orbital photo voltaic station by 2030.
That’s sufficient to energy a small neighborhood.
Japan, a rustic that imports over 90% of its vitality, has plans to launch a one-gigawatt orbital photo voltaic array inside the subsequent 25 years.
And the European House Company’s SOLARIS program tasks that two gigawatt-class stations may ultimately energy 1,000,000 properties.
So what does all this should do with Nvidia and SpaceX?
Earlier this month, Nvidia delivered its latest AI supercomputer on to Elon Musk’s crew.
Picture: Nvidia
The DGX Spark is a compact AI workstation that packs about one petaflop of computing energy — sufficient to deal with AI fashions with as much as 200 billion parameters — whereas drawing solely round 1,000 watts of energy.
That’s much less vitality than a typical hair dryer.
However what makes the DGX Spark so exceptional isn’t simply its efficiency. It’s the place it’s getting used.
SpaceX now has the facility to coach and deploy large AI fashions inside its personal testing amenities, with out sending knowledge forwards and backwards to the cloud.
Which means it could possibly construct techniques that course of sensor knowledge, predict upkeep points and modify flight paths in actual time immediately aboard its rockets and satellites.
Briefly, the DGX Spark provides SpaceX the power to create spacecraft that may assume for themselves in orbit, as a substitute of ready for directions from Earth.
This improve could be a significant enhance for America’s area initiatives.
And while you pair that stage of intelligence with the promise of limitless orbital vitality, you’ll be able to see why these two breakthroughs are a part of the identical story.
You see, the identical satellites designed to beam energy right down to Earth may additionally ship it to different spacecraft, maintaining AI techniques just like the DGX Spark operating constantly.
Power feeding intelligence, and intelligence optimizing vitality. That’s the loop forming above us…
It’s Convergence X taking form in orbit.
Right here’s My Take
Convergence X isn’t nearly a single breakthrough.
It’s a few collection of convergences that change the construction of the economic system.
When energy era and synthetic intelligence meet in orbit, it represents the enlargement of Convergence X past Earth’s factories and knowledge facilities, and into the vacuum of area.
After all, each of those advances are nonetheless early.
However so was the microchip when George Gilder launched it to President Reagan.
House-based vitality may unlock new markets on Earth, enabling 24/7 clear grids and off-world energy for satellites, lunar bases and even asteroid mining operations.
AI supercomputers just like the DGX Spark may change into commonplace tools in each spacecraft, operating navigation, upkeep and logistics autonomously.
When these two techniques ultimately meet we may find yourself with one thing humanity has by no means seen earlier than: a self-sustaining industrial community that extends past Earth’s environment.
That’s the final word expression of Convergence X…
Not simply right here on Earth, however tons of of miles above our heads.
Regards,
Ian KingChief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing
Editor’s Notice: We’d love to listen to from you!
If you wish to share your ideas or ideas in regards to the Day by day Disruptor, or if there are any particular matters you’d like us to cowl, simply ship an electronic mail to dailydisruptor@banyanhill.com.
Don’t fear, we gained’t reveal your full identify within the occasion we publish a response. So be at liberty to remark away!
