There’s a cliff behind the house that ought to work!   At LANL there were these 
motivational Giving Campaign signs resembling thermometers.  Can we get to N 
million $$? Here you could look at the giant rocks suspended in the air.  Can 
the solar PUC get to the top of the hill with 100 tons?

https://www.wired.com/story/energy-vault-gravity-storage/

On Jan 3, 2022, at 7:33 PM, thompnicks...@gmail.com wrote:


How ‘bout methane?  The benefit of that would be that you could drop a match in 
after.

n

Nick Thompson
thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Monday, January 3, 2022 4:34 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam@redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??

Nick writes:

< This may be just more of my quaint Deweyan blather, here, but it feels like 
you are giving up the initiative.  You have the chance, here, to take some 
teensy well-meaning future-oriented action which will, complexity being what it 
is and the world being complex, actually plunge us into nuclear war and 
eliminate life from the earth forever.  >

I like the sound of that.  Still, I feel I should defect on the economic 
principle of the thing.  And I don't want to persuade the neighbors that I have 
the cool power system and they don't.   I want them to come to an understanding 
themselves and insist their government act to make it so.   Also, if possible, 
I would like to pump all my CO2 into a sealed 10-mile cube above Joe Manchin's 
house.

Marcus
________________________________
From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> on 
behalf of thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> 
<thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>>
Sent: Monday, January 3, 2022 3:23 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??


Hi Marcus,



This may be just more of my quaint Deweyan blather, here, but it feels like you 
are giving up the initiative.  You have the chance, here, to take some teensy 
well-meaning future-oriented action which will, complexity being what it is and 
the world being complex, actually plunge us into nuclear war and eliminate life 
from the earth forever.   As Descartes said, God gave Man the power to choose, 
and because he can choose, he can sin.  Good thing he didn’t give that to Women.





n



Nick Thompson

thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> On 
Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Monday, January 3, 2022 2:44 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Nick writes:



< So what do your present investments look like? >



I work at home, and like most people (during the pandemic) there's a point at 
which you want some privacy and quiet space to do work.   So, I hang out in the 
garage, which is fine most of the time here, except for right now.   It is the 
few months of the year where it is uncomfortably cold.



I look at my PGE bill and ponder my options.  I can do nothing and be annoyed 
with noise and distraction.   At about the same cost I can 2) build an 
insulated ceiling in the garage and turn on heaters, or 3) not insulate the 
garage and heat it.   If I heat with gas or propane, it will be a relatively 
low cost.   If I use electricity, it won't be cheap.   To fix the electricity 
problem, I'll need to slap down $40k or something to get the Tesla Powerwalls + 
solar.   If I do that, I don't even need to insulate since I'll have power to 
spare.   Ideally, I would do both 2 and 3.



The problem is that I'm incentivized to do the lazy thing which is to get a 
cheap gas heater.

They should be taxing the natural gas so much that I don't even consider it.



Marcus

________________________________

From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> on 
behalf of thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> 
<thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 2:00 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



So what do your present investments look like?



n



Nick Thompson

thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> On 
Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 2:58 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Nick writes:



< So, what does a healthy 2040 community look like.   What are we working 
TOWARD, here.  Once of the things that the Mcnamee podcast highlighted for me 
was my feeling that, in a chaotic world, people like me, planners, are just out 
of tune with the world. >



I don't think it really matters how people interact in social media or what 
they think.   What will matter is how people adapt to climate change and the 
exhaustion of food and energy, and the migrations resulting from climate 
change.  That's where the opportunities will be.   If there are millions of 
people that deny it is happening like they deny pandemics, then things simply 
must be arranged so that the natural accounting occurs.   The planners will 
look past the chaos and make their investments.. and wait.



Marcus

________________________________

From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> on 
behalf of thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> 
<thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 1:32 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



So, what does a healthy 2040 community look like.   What are we working TOWARD, 
here.  Once of the things that the Mcnamee podcast highlighted for me was my 
feeling that, in a chaotic world, people like me, planners, are just out of 
tune with the world.



By the way, I think “surfing the web” , as it has been used, is a terrible 
metaphor.  What most of us do is like water skiing the web.  Bouncing over the 
wake, never actually getting into the water.   Gives surfing a bad name.  A 
surfer finds the few survivable paths through an immense concentration of 
hostile forces.  Surfing is more like martial arts.  In fact we must begin to 
surf the web.   To realize the manners in which its hostile forces constrain us 
and find the few paths that allow us to master those forces and come out of the 
curl safely.  We thought it was a playground; now we see it’s a minefield.



n



Nick Thompson

thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> On 
Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 2:18 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Nick writes:



< Imagined a world in which we all worked at home, everything was on zoom, and 
everything was delivered by Amazon by drone.  I realize this is a reductio, but 
hum along with me for a few bars.  There would be no intermediate social 
landscape between the home and the distribution center.  No intermediate human 
scales.



I can’t say immediately why this would be a bad thing, but my gut doesn’t like 
it.>



I can't think of many examples where the intermediate scales are anything but 
wasteful or intrusive.   Maybe to see a tailor coupled to the purchase of 
certain clothes?  I still drive to services (dentist, doctor, hair stylist), 
just not to redistributors, because they don't really add anything.   There's 
still a farmer's market that seems as popular as ever -- but they DO offer 
something unique.    I can drive five minutes to Home Depot but honestly half 
the time their inventory is exhausted for what I want, and I end up ordering it 
online.



Marcus



________________________________

From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> on 
behalf of thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> 
<thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 1:03 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



Marcus,



I would like to be convinced …. But



Imagined a world in which we all worked at home, everything was on zoom, and 
everything was delivered by Amazon by drone.  I realize this is a reductio, but 
hum along with me for a few bars.  There would be no intermediate social 
landscape between the home and the distribution center.  No intermediate human 
scales.



I can’t say immediately why this would be a bad thing, but my gut doesn’t like 
it.



Nick



Nick Thompson

thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> On 
Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 1:38 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



I can see living without Facebook (I do), but why can't we live with Amazon?   
It seems like they did a pretty good job of displacing the likes of Walmart.  
It could happen again.  What added inherent value do stores have, other than as 
a mechanism to prevent he consolidation of market influence w.r.t. to prices?

________________________________

From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> on 
behalf of thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com> 
<thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>>
Sent: Sunday, January 2, 2022 12:03 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' 
<friam@redfish.com<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
Subject: [FRIAM] Roger Mcnamee !!??



I just listened to this podcast



https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VMP5489734702



a conversation between the former prosecutor, Joyce Vance, and the musician, 
financier, turncoat Facebook investor Roger Mcnamee, who likens this moment 
with big tech to the moment before the food industry regulations of the early 
1900’s and anti-pollution legislation of the 60’s, moments when Da People 
reasserted control over over-weening industry interests.  He is author of the 
book, Zucked.



An hour-long pod cast is a terribly inefficient way to learn about something, 
so I hope that one you, for whom none of this is news, can offer a more 
condensed source.



We are basically talking about the Amazon paradox, here: can’t live with it; 
can’t live without it.  How much ARE we willing to pay to have the trains run 
on time?



As usual, I am in need of instruction.



Nick Thompson

thompnicks...@gmail.com<mailto:thompnicks...@gmail.com>

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/



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