I learn two tales final week that — on the floor — had nothing to do with one another.
One was a couple of radical plan to beam daylight all the way down to Earth at night time to ship energy on demand from house.
The opposite was a couple of new Nvidia supercomputer, hand-delivered to Elon Musk’s SpaceX headquarters, that can assist practice the AI programs operating his rockets and satellites.
However once you take a look at the massive 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 are turning once-separate industries right into a single, self-reinforcing system. In different phrases, power, 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 Sixties.
The concept 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 power.
However for many years, this idea has been dismissed as too costly or too difficult to be sensible.
That’s not the case in the present day.
In January 2023, a staff at Caltech proved it might be achieved. 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
Though that was lower than a cellphone digicam gentle, it was sufficient to show that the physics works.
And now an organization referred to as Mirror Orbital desires 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 finally prolong day by day photo voltaic manufacturing by as much as two hours per web site. This might 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 principle, it might erase the most important weak spot of renewable power: intermittency.
We talked about the issue of intermittency earlier this yr, when Spain went darkish as a result of a sudden energy crash and never sufficient backup power.
However with this photo voltaic array, it might be doable to have a clear energy supply that by no means goes offline, beaming gentle or power wherever on Earth, day or night time.
Naturally, critics are apprehensive in regards to the environmental impression of this cutting-edge know-how. There’s the chance of sunshine air pollution and orbital litter, and there are legitimate considerations in regards to the security of beaming power by way of the ambiance.
However suppose 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 permit electrical energy change the world.
And we’re not the one nation pursuing this new know-how.
As all the time, China is racing to get there first. Its house 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 power, has plans to launch a one-gigawatt orbital photo voltaic array inside the subsequent 25 years.
And the European House Company’s SOLARIS program initiatives that two gigawatt-class stations may finally 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 staff.
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 power than a normal 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 ability to coach and deploy huge AI fashions inside its personal testing amenities, with out sending information backwards and forwards to the cloud.
Meaning it could construct programs that course of sensor information, predict upkeep points and modify flight paths in actual time straight aboard its rockets and satellites.
In brief, the DGX Spark offers SpaceX the power to create spacecraft that may suppose for themselves in orbit, as a substitute of ready for directions from Earth.
This improve could be a serious enhance for America’s house initiatives.
And once you pair that stage of intelligence with the promise of limitless orbital power, you may see why these two breakthroughs are a part of the identical story.
You see, the identical satellites designed to beam energy all the way down to Earth may additionally ship it to different spacecraft, maintaining AI programs just like the DGX Spark operating repeatedly.
Power feeding intelligence, and intelligence optimizing power. 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 couple of collection of convergences that change the construction of the economic system.
When energy era and synthetic intelligence meet in orbit, it represents the growth of Convergence X past Earth’s factories and information facilities, and into the vacuum of house.
After all, each of those advances are nonetheless early.
However so was the microchip when George Gilder launched it to President Reagan.
House-based power 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 develop into normal gear in each spacecraft, operating navigation, upkeep and logistics autonomously.
When these two programs finally 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 ambiance.
That’s the final word expression of Convergence X…
Not simply right here on Earth, however a whole bunch of miles above our heads.
Regards,
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