20 Comments

Have you read "Where Is My Flying Car?" Part of the books answer to its eponymous question is that we stopped increasing our energy production*. The author analyses why, and concludes it was mostly due to poor incentives arising from institutional design and public sentiment which began demanding more regulation for ideological reasons. I mostly buy the books arguement, which dovetails with the point you're making in your article.

*If you look at what tech we should have by now, based off of predictions by Clarke and other futurists, then you mostly see the digital tech being on track and the physical tech nowhere in sight.

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2kwh/day? what kind of refrigerator do you think that people in Rwanda would use? Maybe the people in US and UK should spend less energy

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Why would energy flow to those in need instead of those with resources to pay for it?

If energy were cheap, who would be in the best position to benefit: those who use lots of energy, or those who use little?

Indeed, how could this asset class avoid the destiny of all other assets?

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Curious to why you did not include nuclear in your list of energy sources at the end.

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> Every square meter of land with a solar panel on it is a spot that can't be agriculture, housing, forest, or wetland.

Putting solar panels on the roofs of houses is common, though. I think you got slightly carried away with your rhetoric?

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Thank you for writing this. Far too many people seem to think energy usage, itself, is bad.

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Interesting concepts. Thanks for explaining new ideas

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