It would be nice to know the origin of 'the viewpoint'.
Robert C
On 3/21/13 5:48 PM, Parks, Raymond wrote:
Steam engines work fine on wood - not as efficient but they worked
with wood for years. Hydro-power has worked even better since ancient
times.
Charcoal comes from wood and can be made into coke.
All that aside, I don't understand the comment "we already have mined
and spent all of easily available fossil fuels". That's stupid on
several levels.
Ray Parks
Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager
V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084
NIPR: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
SIPR: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> (send NIPR reminder)
JWICS: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> (send NIPR reminder)
On Mar 21, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:
At the risk of hijacking the thread... I liked the comment on the
ycombinator:
PeterisP
There exists a viewpoint that in case of a cataclysm (which would
involve man-made objects disappearing*) we would never, ever
progress past 18th century tech again.
The argument is that getting from animal-powered devices to
solar/nuclear/whatever powered devices while at the same time
switching from 90%-agricultural workforce to anything more
progressive can happen only if there is a cheap source of energy
available - and we already have mined and spent all of easily
available fossil fuels.
Even if all kinds of fancy devices are available and constructed
by rich enthusiasts, the lack of cheap steam power ensures lack
of cheap steel/etc, and all the technologies don't get the mass
adoption required for their improvements, there are almost no
advantages for industrialization, so the world gets stuck in
feudal-agriculture systems as the local optimum.
which suggests the Knowledge Ark
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_ark> would be largely a waste
of time.
* refers to a preceding comment.
Robert C
On 3/21/13 11:00 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
From HN, a pointer to a delightfully clever essay that would be
loved by Nick and others who are often bewildered by the hacker
alphabet soup of acronyms and buzz words.
Well, what _does_ happen when you got to a web page?
https://plus.google.com/112218872649456413744/posts/dfydM2Cnepe
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408597
This has the possibility of a new book that somehow makes it all
reasonably clear. Maybe.
-- Owen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribehttp://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
