Become a nocturnal society. Sleep during the day, charging everything by solar panels. Live life as normal at night.
Posted by afungalmirror@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 48 comments
Since everyone will be sleeping during the day, we can have retractable solar panels covering space that would otherwise be used, then move them at night when everyone gets up.
Single-Virus4935@reddit
We have enough space for solar and if you ahoft the peak usage to the night the storage problem just multiples.
RealCrazySwordGirl@reddit
Worked second shift for a long time, so this was my life. Got very depressing never seeing the sun very much tbh. Hated it.
Mediocre-Yoghurt-138@reddit
Wait, how can you not see the sun working night shift? I don't see the sun in the winter when I spend all the daylight hours indoors, at work. If you work during darkness then you have daylight free to choose if it will be your sleeping hours or your leisure hours.
RealCrazySwordGirl@reddit
I worked 18-02. I would get home about 0230-03. Sleep by about 07-08, Sleep until 16, Get up and get ready, go to work (inside, no windows).
So where it was an exaggeration to say i never saw the sun (except in winter when i really never saw the sun), other times of the year, it and i had only a passing acquaintance, and it wasn't enough for me.
Savings_Difficulty24@reddit
I used to work seeing shift. 12 hour shifts. 2 weeks of days, 2 weeks of nights. Most of the year, I saw the sun at some point during night shift. But there were a few months in winter where it was dark when you went to work and dark when you went home. It sucked, but it didn't last long enough to really start messing with your head. Plus going back to days every month also helped
RealCrazySwordGirl@reddit
Apparently research has been done on this, and actually fucks with your body quite a lot. Like, people who switch back and forth like that have greater risk of all kinds of bad 🤷🏼♀️
Savings_Difficulty24@reddit
That tracks.
For example: I no longer register "bed time". So, as I get tired, I progressively get more and more anxious instead of thinking that I need to go to bed. Also, I type this at 2am, because I haven't went to bed yet. I left that job 3 years ago. Along with sleep apnea and high blood pressure. I'm 30.
But, for my sanity, I was glad I wasn't strictly on nights all the time. Because not seeing the sun, also really messes with you
RealCrazySwordGirl@reddit
Whoa i can totally relate to that feeling more and more anxious as bedtime approaches thing holy shit! I didn't make anyone else ever felt this way!!
Lonely_Performer2629@reddit
We should probably encourage sleeping and waking up earlier to use solar more efficiently...
madTerminator@reddit
It would be better to wake up later 8 or 9. You wake up to already charging battery and sunny solar to make a breakfast. Program laundry, AC and water heating for noon. Returning for completely charged battery for evening cooking and other activities.
Snoo63@reddit
You should be able to charge your car at work. It's literally just wires!
zseblodongo@reddit
There could be solar roofs over company parking lots. Generates electricity for the company and chargers the worker's cars.
madTerminator@reddit
There are companies that build sockets next to parking spots.
xrelaht@reddit
Lighting isn’t our main user of electricity anymore.
Lonely_Performer2629@reddit
It will be
CatAteRoger@reddit
What do you plan to do about the issue of loss of vitamin D and everyone having bones issues?
afungalmirror@reddit (OP)
Digital vitamin D. While you're asleep, a USB cable plugs directly into your body and tops up your vitamin D. All part of the solar panel infrastructure somehow. I'll have my people work out the technical details, don't worry about it.
Neat-Life4072@reddit
what are your plans for growing and harvesting food, milking cows etc?
afungalmirror@reddit (OP)
We'll milk the beefy mushrooms that grow in the dark
Neat-Life4072@reddit
you seem like a fun guy
afungalmirror@reddit (OP)
I have a mushroom. It is the room where I keep my mush.
Th1ccSenpai@reddit
As a night shifter, the thought of that is amazing. If we could easily manage people's vitamin d levels, we could have a more functional night society. Back to 24 hour Walmarts with a bunch of other stuff
DiggingInGarbage@reddit
Where are we gonna get the batteries to store a whole days worth of energy for everything?
afungalmirror@reddit (OP)
We'll grow them on our solar farms.
erisod@reddit
The makes no sense. Better would be fully daytime. Shut everything off at night and have stuff only powered by solar.
afungalmirror@reddit (OP)
It's a crazy idea. Why would it make sense?
DrawPitiful6103@reddit
or half of us become nocturnal. the rest stay diurnal. no more traffic jams. 24 hour productivity. offices buzzing around the clock.
chickey23@reddit
Each group can't ever meet the other. Two separate societies in the same space. Just have to time the commutes right so everyone is switching places at the same times. Would work better buses.
jungl3j1m@reddit
I’ve worked night shifts and I can tell you that this is a terrible idea. We are not designed for nocturnal living.
chickey23@reddit
Some of us are more than others.
Terrariant@reddit
There was a movie I saw like 10-15 years ago where aliens were changing us to be adapted to our sun. Because (it was a global warming warning) - the sun was becoming too hot for people to survive outside during the day. So everyone had the option to either have the aliens grow them new (gross looking) skin or stay inside forever.
JaredAWESOME@reddit
Several outer limits TV shows live rent free in my head 20 years later.
Not this one, but I feel you
Terrariant@reddit
It was wild because it was like sound waves that forced people to grow scales. And the aliens were trying to help but we didn’t learn that until the end. So it was very body horror that turned into the psychological horror of never being able to go outside if you didn’t grow scales.
JaredAWESOME@reddit
My most prominent one was about a society of people who all had brain implants tied to the central computer, and they didn't have to read anything, and could instantly be trained to do everything from agriculture, manufacturing, to brain surgery.
One guy didn't have the implant, obviously. He had to read and learn the old-fashioned way, with books.
Anyways, the super computer/AI goes haywire and he has to shut it down. Afterwards, he has to teach everybody how to read because he's the only one who can.
It was Season 3 Episode 5-- “Stream of Consciousness". I rewatched it for free on YouTube. Weirdly prescient with all that's going on with AI these days.
iDidntCommitArson@reddit
Wow, that sounds 80% like Profession by Isaac Asimov. Highly recommend btw, I read this short read in a day and it changed my life
Terrariant@reddit
Oh that sounds a lot like The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clark:
NightWhiskers@reddit
Night shift workers would finally feel like society is built for them instead of against them.
xrelaht@reddit
Except they’d be the day shifters now.
General_Exception@reddit
So we need to have lights on all night to see and do work. Vs using sunlight through windows/skylights/outdoors etc.
scrotumscab@reddit
The film, Reminiscence, has the world like this because of climate change. It also turned Florida into Italy/Netherlands because of the sea level rise.
wizzard419@reddit
You can do that but it would be really bad for everyone's body. They have done studies in people who work graveyard shifts and even with the routine, your body is fighting it.
AssistanceChemical63@reddit
You could still go outside sometimes.
wizzard419@reddit
Yes, but it's not just about sun exposure, your body's systems can't just easily say "Okay, I will now clean your CS fluid at noon rather than midnight".
AssistanceChemical63@reddit
This is one of the ways to deal with global warming. The other way is to live underground.
Turbowookie79@reddit
You’d actually use more power being awake at night. People generally turn the lights off and the heat down a little at night. So there would be significant increases in energy usage. Also a lot more depression as people no longer get daily sunlight.
Fragraham@reddit
Give global warming time, and it'll be necessary.
SkyGuy5799@reddit
Why would they need to retract? We're not getting any light
afungalmirror@reddit (OP)
Because they'll be in the way. They'll be covering roads, parks, etc that we'll need to use at night.