Comment on A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

Papanca@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’d take it if it was a reasonable price, like 1k, and if I could just swap it into new phones every time I upgraded.

  The problem is, power requirements tend to increase as computation power increases. And no doubt battery tech will improve in those 50 years. It’s not like we’re sending phones to the outer solar system and need them to just keep generating power forever.

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  • Toes@ani.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They already sell phones over 1k that are expected to last ~4 years. You’ll need to tag another zero or two to that price to incentivize manufacturers.

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  • AbidanYre@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    So what if power requirements increase. It could quadruple and now my battery will only last twelve years? The are plenty of other things that will start failing before then.

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    • ReveredOxygen@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I don’t know about this particular tech, but you can’t really control the speed of radioactive decay very easily. It’s possible they’re doing something, but if they’re just collecting the energy then there’s nothing you can do to get more energy in exchange for a shorter life

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      • AbidanYre@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That’s fair.

        Isn’t decay exponential though? So there would likely be some extra power being wasted at the beginning? Until it couldn’t supply however much is needed today? Or is that timeline long enough that 50 years is basically nothing?

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• obinice@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The EU are going to mandate removable batteries in phones, so I don’t see any reason you can’t take a standardised battery that lasts decades and swap it into your next phone, if they’re all designed properly with compatibility with this miracle battery in mind :-D

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  • shasta@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Perfect. Then they’ll sell the battery separately and it’ll cost $5000

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    • Nindelofocho@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      A battery that last several years and can be used in a plethora of devices would be reasonably expensive yes. $5000 is a lot but maybe $500 is more reasonable for something like that?

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  • Papanca@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Exactly; if Usually, it takes years, if not decades, before laws and regulations are actually in place

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• ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The isotope degrades into copper.

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• Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m not so optimistic.

  When ever we discover a new, much better power source, the cartel who is going to lose a shitton of business go on a smear campaign. Look at solar power. Look at electric cars. Hell, look at hemp.

  Companies would bury this so fast, and this tech would be a niche thing.

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• smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  No. Document the device for PC-like lifetime software support from first and third party. Long security update support for phones, great, but we still have a stupid thing when people buy whole new phone for little software feature.

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