Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Kinda Bummed



First full week of Lenten abstinence of coffee and alcohol.  So far so good.

I'm really kinda bummed.  Seems that faulty wiring and a bad card may well be the reason for the neutrino results.  Damn.  Cold fusion all over again.

I think that the reason that I get my hopes up over things like this is that fundamental scientific research is our only long shot chance to turn the predicament where we currently reside into a problem.

Problems have solutions, Predicaments don't.

I have become somewhat a pariah of late.  Making note of things like peak oil and the probable decline of the American Empire really do irritate people.  

It seems that we are more and more controlled by a power structure that appears to bear the stamp of Alfredo Rocco and his thoughts.  People seem to forget that the regimes put together in this manner have pretty short shelf lives.

All of the issues that I discussed in the last paragraph spin out of the central thesis that there is no longer enough anything to go around.   Oil and the access to fossil fuel are what allows the political and social structures that we have developed to operate.  The American empire is the Ad Hoc system we have thrown together to keep thing running our way,  and corporatism is the defining political power constellation.

Something like cold fusion or access to the folded up Calabi-Yau dimensions that would allow the faster than c passage of light would give us the the chance to break out of the whirlpool kharybdis that is intent on sucking us down.

I will alway hope for a deus ex machina.


4 comments:

Joel Caris said...

Deus ex machinas do sound nice, but I have to wonder if suddenly finding access to the mythical free energy we dream about wouldn't just accelerate and complete our destruction of the ecosystem to the point that we would end up in much the same place.

What do you suppose? If we were able to solve our energy problem and found ourselves with all we could handle, do you think we would figure out how to handle it well in time not to take ourselves out?

Joel
Of The Hands

Degringolade said...

You might be right. But it would also give us the possibility that we could start getting off planet and out into the universe.

The greater odds are (in descending order)

1. A continued slow descent into a unwilling balance with nature with access to considerably less energy. This will lead to a population downslope to carrying capacity.

2. A final "blow-off" that will cripple the carrying capacity of the earth sufficiently that we will be back into the <200,000,000 individual level.

3. New technology allow us the opportunity to mature out of our current cultural adolescence.

4. Armageddon

In my mind, #3 is the most appealing of the lot, but it sure ain't likely

Mayberry said...

Most folks don't like to hear things they don't want to hear...

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit different in mindset. I do think we have reached the point of easy to extract stuff. But like whale oil of the last century a new product will come into use or we will conserve because of price. I don't think industrial solar is feasable yet but on homes it should be encouraged and go back to Edison's idea of DC systems.
Look at how and what the PTBs encourage. You conserve water in a drought area by doing "Zero Landscaping" or getting a few rain barrels. The PTB's outlaw your lawn and say all water from the sky belongs to them. Or you grow your own food, raise some livestock. The PTBs shut you down or never let you start. It's about control, power and money. I'm big into conservation and I think it should be encouraged. But when local regulations restrict your ability to garden or put up a windmill or solar panels. Because of health, safety or it's considered an eyesore. I tend to wonder exactly what is the agenda?