Desert based solar electricity: beware abuses of power

摘要

With reference to Tim Jervis' proposal (NCE 25 September) for "concentrated solar power positioned in the desert", Nat Schachner's 1934 science fiction story Stratosphere Towers proposes one sucr giant solar generator in Arabia to power the entire Western hemisphere. We should note that in Schachner's future, technical issues are less problematic than social ones. His story raises the questions of (a) misuses of power both technical and political; and (b) engineers' duty to humanity.