The Potlach Factor

The Potlach Factor

Historically -- in North America, in the Pacific northwest, there were Indian tribes (such as the Kwakiutl) which would periodically hold a celebration called a potlach. A very successful tribe would demonstrate their strength by hosting a potlach at which valuable goods would be given away, consumed or destroyed – nets, weapons, clothing, blankets, baskets, etc. One result was that it kept a lot of people busy and another result was that, in difficult times, the surpluses were needed and used.

If astronomy and geology teach anything, it is that -- to this point in time, humanity has been very lucky. It would seem that the continued survival of society over the long term is something of a fragile proposition.

The Potlach Factor is a proposition that (1) preparation for an absolutely major disaster also serves everyone very well when less serious events occur, (2) there should be systematic stockpiling of essential materials (particularly metals and biological resources), (3) a cultural attitude is needed to embrace the concept that major surpluses should be accumulated independent of general trade and commercial considerations, (4) long term planning (10,000 to 100,000 years) should result in being able to tolerate major global trade disruptions arising from climatic changes or from other events and (5) diverse cultural standards should be embraced (by creating language-based enclaves within a robust, secure and diversified community).

Roughly 300 active volcanoes are available to be tapped for power using a mixture of aluminum and silicon as a heat transfer liquid (450 deg C to 1200 deg C). If properly done, a single exchange (ceramic) tube (3 foot diameter, 5 foot/sec, 750 deg C exchange rate) can provide as much as 18 gigawatts of power (for comparison, the Grand Coulee dam in the north western United States is rated at 6 gigawatts).

Such a power resource would then be converted to electrical power and commercial sources of heat and steam. An adjacent city can then be created which could survive a major disaster such as the elimination of oxygen from the atmosphere or another KT event (which wiped out the dinasours).

It is proposed that the first city be located high in the deserts of northern Chile and that it be called Pele Uno. It is proposed that a set of 25 languages be used as a basis for the ownership of property (for the first 100 years) and that 25 somewhat separate areas be reserved for such linguistic and cultural enclaves – the resulting diversity should insure that the city has a dynamic foundation (and lots of excellent restaurants).

Assuming that a suitable volcano which can be tapped for powere also has an underlying layer of limestone (a common situation), water can be injected into it near the heat source to produce large quantities of clean carbon dioxide. Using supercritical carbon dioxide (80 atmospheres of pressure) methods and using disassociated water (as a source of hydrogen), a full range of products can be produced (e.g., tires, fuel, paint, plastics, pharmaceuticals, fertilizer, fabric, etc.). This arrangement also would produce great quantities of oxygen (enough to easily supply a population of 2 million with fresh air). Further, given the substantial amounts of power available, sea water can be distilled to provide a reliable source of fresh water for these purposes.

It is time to rethink the supply and demand type of economic model which is currently embraced for industry, trade and for general commerce. Many things which are easily and cheaply produced today may be difficult or close to impossible to routinely make if the basic parameters of life shift in a material way.

Yantarni is a stratovolcano located in the Alaska peninsula, United States, elevation: 1345 meters. The last known eruption: 800 BC ± 500 years. [latitude:57.019°N -- 57°1'7"N, longitude:157.185°W -- 157°11'6"W]. It is typical of the types of volcanoes which may be considered as candidates for obtaining a sustained energy source (it may or may not be suitable).

Yantarni is a small andesitic stratovolcano located between the Aniakchak caldera and the Chiginadak volcanoes that was not discovered until 1979. A large breached crater on the NE side, which was formed by collapse of the summit about 2000-3500 years ago, contains a lava dome that marks the volcano's 1345 m high point. This eruption, which resembled that of Mount St.Helens in 1980, began with a debris avalanche produced by the edifice collapse that was accompanied by a possible lateral blast and followed by the emplacement of 1 cu km of pyroclastic flows related to growth of the summit lava dome. No historical eruptions have been documented from Yantarni ( text and image courtesy of volcano.si.edu).

It is proposed that stockpiling be done in two ways — by creating both diversity packs and dedicated packs. A diversity pack would contain a number of metals (e.g., steel, aluminum, coper, etc.) in a variety of forms (e.g., ingot, sheet, tube, rod). A dedicated pack would contain a single metal in a specific form (e.g., 5052 sheet aluminum, in a variety of thicknesses).

The systematic storage of seeds and of viable plants in addition to deveolping and maintaining miniaturized lethal-free animals (e.g., a small herd of rhinos) are an excellent and desireable adjunct to saving viable cell lines. In particular, for large plants, particularly trees, long term maintenance in the form of untrimmed natural bonsai is both feasible and reasonable.

A robust city (can be designed from the ground up and) properly should occupy 25 separate contiguous independent regions. All of the regions should be interconnected and should be surrounded by a large central park (having at least one sizable body of water).

It is suggested that for the first 100 years, ownership by a person land in each of the regions should be predicated on fluency in a given language (e.g., Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Italian, Bengali, Polish, Korean, Tagalog, English, French, Thai, Hindi, Spanish, Japanese, Punjabi, Tamil, Chinese, German, Indonesian, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Swahili & Urdu). However, about 10% of the land in a given region should be available without such a restriction. Land speculation shoud be avoided by using homesteading (with covenants).

Underground subways should connect stations (centrally and in each of the 25 regions). These stations should be able to be quickly and effectively sealed from the atmosphere. Means to produce oxygen, and therefore fresh air, in quantity should be built into the stations and also at intervals in the tunnels. This capability should be made possible by having local banks of batteries and associated water vessels (permitting hydrolysis of the water).

The populated areas should be intimately integrated into the production areas, most of which should be sited underground. There should be a capability for producing all of the food required to support a population of 2 million on a routine basis (without sunlight and/or without an external source of oxygen).

The commercial production areas should produce everything needed for the city (e.g., tires, fuel, equipment of all types, pharmaceuticals, concrete, etc.) and should be able to do so without the availability of sunlight or an external source of oxygen.

When extracting large quantities of heat from a region proximate to the hot central area of a volcano, realizing aqdequate heat flow to the transfer region can be a problem. One way to avoid this problem is to terminate the Nickle return loop on a pyramidal extension whose flanks are comprised of interconnected passageways extending inward (toward the heat source) and angled downward away from the return loop. The transfer liquid (Si/Al) in the main transfer loop is allowed to leak into these sloping passage ways and to fill them. This creates a large contact area with the country rock (on each side; inward and downward) which should create large circulation patterns, the tops of which are at the return loop. The number and extent of these passage ways should be generous (better too much than too little). There may well be some leakage into the country rock by using this arrangement. A factor to consider is that either the Al or Si may precipitate out (or combine with local rock) preferentially which then would tend to seal cracks or leaks in the passage ways (as the basic 50/50 Al/Si mix would be altered, raising the eutectic point). The return loop is short (30 to 40 feet) and connects with the incoming and outgoing ceramic transfer pipes.