This is science fiction we're talking about here, keep that in mind.
I disagree with your assertion that unlimited energy is the 'wrong question'. Consider the scenario that energy is created from the destruction of matter (vs oxidizing it) and we switch the entire planet to that energy source, we eliminate all green house gases associated with energy production and a big chunk of those associated with transport (all cars/trucks/trains become electric, no more coal or fossile fueled power plants, we burn hydrogen/oxygen in planes perhaps. So on the climate change front at least we can revert the human contribution of CO2 back to prehistoric levels.
Ok so then there is the question of actively regulating the temperature of the ocean (which we might want to do for other reasons like food production). One might speculate on using the planet mantle as a ginormous heat sink. It has a fairly large heat carrying capacity over all.
See when you're writing science fiction you don't run into this bump:
"And on this note, there's practically no magic in fusion power. They can't drastically undercut "primitive" fission reactors, because much their infrastruture would be identical (heat exchangers, steam generators, power generation, the power grid...) Add up the costs of modern power, and fusion also carries most of them. It's like a "factor-of-two" miracle in the most optimistic fantasy -- not an order-of-magnitude, not earth-shattering magic. (Less optimistically, I don't see how anything like tokamaks or laser ICF machines can be anything but more complicated and costly than conventional power, and I haven't see any physically-sound alternatives.)"
You are extrapolating on existing fusion principles and getting stuck. Gene Roddenberry invented "warp engines" which provided the energy in limitless quantities, and then went on to think about "Ok given some reason why X is true, now what?" kind of stories.
My take on Stross' essay is that we don't really do enough of that. And that is in part because our technology is 'close enough' these days that writers fall into the pit that you just stepped in, reality, aka 'non-fiction.' (I really liked the cyberpunk examples in this regard) So getting one's thought process out ahead of that can be quite challenging. (Easier if your fiction it more fantasy oriented, since you make a hard break with reality)
"Ok so then there is the question of actively regulating the temperature of the ocean (which we might want to do for other reasons like food production). One might speculate on using the planet mantle as a ginormous heat sink. It has a fairly large heat carrying capacity over all."
Not on these scales. At 10^18 W (your 100 MW person * 10 billion people) -- about 5x the current solar budget or Kardashev I -- you could heat the entire oceans 10 °C in about a year, or the entire earth's crust 10 °C in about 100 years. (Oceans are about 10^21 kg [1], crust is between 10^23 - 10^24 kg [2]; I'm using the specific heat value for granite here [3]).
I disagree with your assertion that unlimited energy is the 'wrong question'. Consider the scenario that energy is created from the destruction of matter (vs oxidizing it) and we switch the entire planet to that energy source, we eliminate all green house gases associated with energy production and a big chunk of those associated with transport (all cars/trucks/trains become electric, no more coal or fossile fueled power plants, we burn hydrogen/oxygen in planes perhaps. So on the climate change front at least we can revert the human contribution of CO2 back to prehistoric levels.
Ok so then there is the question of actively regulating the temperature of the ocean (which we might want to do for other reasons like food production). One might speculate on using the planet mantle as a ginormous heat sink. It has a fairly large heat carrying capacity over all.
See when you're writing science fiction you don't run into this bump:
"And on this note, there's practically no magic in fusion power. They can't drastically undercut "primitive" fission reactors, because much their infrastruture would be identical (heat exchangers, steam generators, power generation, the power grid...) Add up the costs of modern power, and fusion also carries most of them. It's like a "factor-of-two" miracle in the most optimistic fantasy -- not an order-of-magnitude, not earth-shattering magic. (Less optimistically, I don't see how anything like tokamaks or laser ICF machines can be anything but more complicated and costly than conventional power, and I haven't see any physically-sound alternatives.)"
You are extrapolating on existing fusion principles and getting stuck. Gene Roddenberry invented "warp engines" which provided the energy in limitless quantities, and then went on to think about "Ok given some reason why X is true, now what?" kind of stories.
My take on Stross' essay is that we don't really do enough of that. And that is in part because our technology is 'close enough' these days that writers fall into the pit that you just stepped in, reality, aka 'non-fiction.' (I really liked the cyberpunk examples in this regard) So getting one's thought process out ahead of that can be quite challenging. (Easier if your fiction it more fantasy oriented, since you make a hard break with reality)