Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: Fwd: You just went to the Google homepage. What actually happened?
Posted by
Robert J. Cordingley on
Mar 22, 2013; 12:06am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Fwd-You-just-went-to-the-Google-homepage-What-actually-happened-tp7582191p7582214.html
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
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 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?
This has the
possibility of a new book that somehow makes it all
reasonably clear. Maybe.
--
Owen
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