In memory of Leonard Nimoy, most famous for playing the (straw) rationalist Spock, what are your top 3 ST:TOS episodes with him?

Shmi

In memory of Leonard Nimoy, most famous for playing the (straw) rationalist Spock, what are your top 3 ST:TOS episodes with him? — LessWrong

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JoshuaZ11y40

Some people, like Keith Henson, argue that we've blown the thermodynamic opportunity to get off planet because we've already squandered the best quality fossil fuels.

This seems very strange. First, most of our rockets use hydrogen and oxygen. One doesn't directly need to use fossil fuels. Second, there's still a massive amount of energy available in terms of fossil fuels, it just involves lower energy return on energy investment. Third of all, there are many other sources of energy, with nuclear power being one of the more obvious, but massive amounts of solar and wind also being available. Fourth of all, rockets are comparatively inefficient in general since one needs to move most of the fuel itself. Launch loops and space elevators are both obvious substitutes that are more energy efficient once they are off the ground. Do you know where Henson has made this argument and what his reasoning was in more detail?

Gunnar_Zarncke11y00

I don't think Keith Henson refers to the energy expenditure of rockets but to the total cheap energy evailable to global society. Currently we are more concered with optimizing the last out of the reamining sources and keeping society running at all. Granted there are still significant technological improvements but these are mostly small scale. Rockets have not improved at all.

2passive_fist11y

I agree with all your points except the fourth. Once outside the atmosphere and up to speed, rockets are actually pretty efficient. The space shuttle main engines achieved 15% propulsive efficiency if I remember correctly; this is better than many land vehicles. I've studied launch loops and they have massive power requirements, on the order of magnitude of heating up the atmosphere significantly (up to a degree or so). Space elevators can be efficient, if the power delivery system is efficient, and so far all workable proposals (laser power beaming, conductive cables) seem extremely inefficient. Rockets are in many ways the ideal space launch system, the major disadvantage being enormous unit cost.

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In memory of Leonard Nimoy, most famous for playing the (straw) rationalist Spock, what are your top 3 ST:TOS episodes with him?

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In memory of Leonard Nimoy, most famous for playing the (straw) rationalist Spock, what are your top 3 ST:TOS episodes with him?

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