Peak oil, peak energy, peak technology, peak affluence, peak population
Well, I must admit I am in awe by the willingness of humanity to tackle really hard problems. I think about this as I watched a presentation on how engineers try to model bore holes for drilling deep oil. The technology used is astounding and the data they can measure is equally astounding, even if still far inadequate for full understanding.
I wonder how they can 'afford' to put so much effort into these pursuits and the answer is of course high density energy offers a huge pay off when successful. So investing in massive machinery and data gathering and modeling are all worthwhile.
Well, that's the question - how long will it be worthwhile and who's paying attention to the dependency our annual lottery payments provide and what will we do when the wells run dry?
Yes, there's plenty of oil in the ground, if you're talking decades, but definitely not centuries. I'm sure there's plenty of more energy we can exploit in the future, but a part of me will always doubt that we can always find a higher step just when it is needed. I'm content to believe we may be at the top step now and we'll be fighting diminishing returns for the next century as we can, and at some point, we'll have to call it a day and chagce course. In such a vision, I wonder why not change sooner than later?
This isn't a special vision, but it is a costly one. How can anyone compete against the bottom line and take a higher one? Whatever Al Gore and the optimists say, the future can not have the affluence we know now, at least not for the masses. The pyramid must flatten and steepen at the same time - as the top try to hold their status and the middle gets squeezed down to the bottom. It won't look pretty.
A democracy will let this happen as long as a critical mass has hope. Hope unfortunately lasts longer than reason.
I'm astounded, and tired to think the fights ahead, glad's there's people fighting to keep what we have, but also glad others are looking for other models of success.
I wonder how they can 'afford' to put so much effort into these pursuits and the answer is of course high density energy offers a huge pay off when successful. So investing in massive machinery and data gathering and modeling are all worthwhile.
Well, that's the question - how long will it be worthwhile and who's paying attention to the dependency our annual lottery payments provide and what will we do when the wells run dry?
Yes, there's plenty of oil in the ground, if you're talking decades, but definitely not centuries. I'm sure there's plenty of more energy we can exploit in the future, but a part of me will always doubt that we can always find a higher step just when it is needed. I'm content to believe we may be at the top step now and we'll be fighting diminishing returns for the next century as we can, and at some point, we'll have to call it a day and chagce course. In such a vision, I wonder why not change sooner than later?
This isn't a special vision, but it is a costly one. How can anyone compete against the bottom line and take a higher one? Whatever Al Gore and the optimists say, the future can not have the affluence we know now, at least not for the masses. The pyramid must flatten and steepen at the same time - as the top try to hold their status and the middle gets squeezed down to the bottom. It won't look pretty.
A democracy will let this happen as long as a critical mass has hope. Hope unfortunately lasts longer than reason.
I'm astounded, and tired to think the fights ahead, glad's there's people fighting to keep what we have, but also glad others are looking for other models of success.
posted by Ares Olympus at 12:59 PM
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