The algorithm recommended this to me this morning:
The Tesla Semi Is An Engineering Failure
https://youtu.be/w__a8EcM2jI
I can't help but wonder if electric ships run down any differently. Oh, and the
algorithm recommended these 2 companies yesterday:
https://www.zeroavia.com/
https://wisk.aero/
I suppose the question is largely about "just in time" versus "just in case"
supply chains. Batteries spread a spectrum between them. Fuel cells plug some holes in their span,
I suppose. Maybe we should have nuclear trucks and ships? Who wouldn't want a bunch of tiny
reactors trolling the [high|water]ways? As long as we replace the amphetamine fueled humans with
autonomous controls, I guess.
On 1/27/22 12:39, Marcus Daniels wrote:
The tankers come and go from Richmond day after day. This is how the energy
in the U.S. really works.
*From:* Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Prof David West
*Sent:* Thursday, January 27, 2022 12:32 PM
*To:* friam@redfish.com
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Cautionary Tales: CliFi
In California there is a movement (ballot initiative I think) that will
basically put the billion dollar rooftop solar industry out of business by
giving public utilities exclusive rights for green power in the form of wind
farms and large solar arrays. Keeps the inefficient distribution grid that they
own in business as well.
davew
On Thu, Jan 27, 2022, at 12:24 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
Steve,
In the Bay Area, and in other places there is a trend toward
electrification. It sounds plausible on the surface, but to go all the way
means solar for water and for electricity. Most houses within financial reach
for most people don't have the square footage to support all that. Consider
that a smaller electric on-demand hot water heater could draw 75 amps flat out.
There's no reasonable way to get lithium batteries that can absorb that kind
of load. That would be $50k just to even start on the batteries never mind
the panels. If not that, then one must give up (often limited) lot space for
the tube style solar, which really isn't all that efficient.
The "freedom from the utility" is just not going to happen except in the
posh South San Francisco type areas. Meanwhile the utilities want to penalize
individual solar producers because they stress the grid.
Meanwhile, if the price of gasoline goes north of $5 / gallon, people are
screaming bloody murder. Why isn't it $20? No, these folks (which is mostly
everyone it seems) aren't going to be joining the 2000-watt society. And then
there's the Manchin types holding out to keep *coal* afloat? Don't we just
deserve to suffer at this point? At least we could try but fail to develop and
deploy replacements. That non-fiction would be interesting reading.
Marcus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:*Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com <mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>> on behalf
of Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com <mailto:sasm...@swcp.com>>
*Sent:* Thursday, January 27, 2022 12:15 PM
*To:* friam@redfish.com <mailto:friam@redfish.com> <friam@redfish.com
<mailto:friam@redfish.com>>
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Cautionary Tales: CliFi
Marcus -
Thanks for your feedback on KSR's writing style... it really sobered me to
realize how much of an obsessionist I am on this topic and what I will ignore
to feed that obsession.
I tripped over (thank you Google News Feed) an interesting article in Grist:
https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/
<https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/>
that resonated with my reflections. While I do feel a little obsessive on the topic (not just
climate but all the convergent "endogenous existential threats" coming at us), I feel
somewhat balanced about it, especially as I graze on the buffets that books like MotF and
Stephenson's Termination Shock and Amithav Ghosh's "Great Derangement" offer. I also
found William Gibson's Jackpot Series:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency
<https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency>
refreshing (for a dystopia) with our myriad existential threats (climate, species,
pollution, finance, civil unrest, fascism, etc.) converging on a bit of a (nasty)
wet-fizzle of an apocalypse he sardonically dubs "The Jackpot".
The Grist article describes (somewhat) the value of keeping one's eye on
the dystopian/apocalyptic future threatened by our short-sighted habits and
(overly optimistic?) conceptions of the future generated by our materialistic
pop-culture.
Someone here (Marcus, Glen, EricS ?) mentioned Musk and the idea that he might be
pursuing the canonical "Good Old Fashioned Future" coined in the Golden Age and
refashioned in the Modern Era of Science Fiction. We boomers (and Xers?) who went into
Sci/Tech likely read at least a lot of Marvel/DC comics (if not the Science Fiction
without pictures) of our era and I claim it heavily shaped our image of what was
possible/desireable. I don't think it is serving us (Gaia of whom we are her most
precocious children?)
- Steve
On 1/25/22 5:58 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
< It might not surprise anyone here that I have become a CliFi obsessionist with
Kim Stanly Robinson's stuff well represented ("Ministry for the Future" standing out
well above the others). His Red/Green/Blue Mars series is a good complement with the
social/technological/spiritual implications of Terraforming there. >
Huh. I found MftF drawn-out and boring with distracting little
nonsense chapters interleaved. I don’t see why it is popular. A few good
ideas here and there but couldn’t care less about the characters. It could be
massively compressed.
That would be *all* of KSR's novels I'm afraid... my obsession with
the ideas (unanticipated problems as well as unanticipated responses) trumps
any need I have for being entertained by the characters or even plot.
It really read to me (as you point out) as a series of loosely
connected vignettes of specific interest. To the extent that *some* of the
MoTF characters did get under my skin, it was as an irritant as much as
anything. I probably read Red Mars when it was new as my introduction to KSR
and did not go back to his writing until as little as 5 years ago when I found
his topics more relevant than I had acknowledged before... He seemed to me to
be a lot preachy and I guess now I'm enough of the choir to be able to hum
along with his sermons now.
Stephenson also gets very tedious for me, but I find his depth of
research and quirkiness of characters and technical surprises worthy of my
attention through his gruelingly long and seemingly careening storylines and
characters.
--
glen
Theorem 3. There exists a double master function.
.-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - .
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