[ExI] Are mini nuclear power stations the way forward?

[Mike Dougherty]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 11:40 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> Mike, we don't have 10-20 years.  The problem is that the Japanese quake has
> scared off nuclear power investors now.  We will be forced to lower
> consumption by market forces, and that includes lower consumption of food.

Yeah.  miserable.  Still better than Keith's prediction of massive
die-offs though (I imagine everyone's quality of life will suffer
still)

Do you really think we don't have 10-20 years?  What does that mean?
Are you telling me you think 15k years dead Mayans knew solar tsunami
would fry earth electrical grid in 2012?  Nah, didn't think you were
suggesting that. :)

Seriously though, what degree of dystopian future are you predicting?

I may be incredibly naive, but I sometimes wonder if the doom&gloom
that's so fashionable on this list is warranted.  I agree that food
has cost more every year as long as I've lived, but isn't that just
another fact of life to which we adapt?  Energy costs go up too.  I've
never really seen them go down, so what evidence do we have that it
isn't normal for this to be true of the zero-sum game that is every
day?  Maybe the Singularity save us from this trend, but I'm not sure
I really understand that as anything more than wishful thinking
either.

Sorry to be so pedestrian in my take-each-day-as-it comes thinking...