[ExI] Energy Defeatism (was: Wind, solar could provide 99.9% of ALL POWER by 2030)

[BillK]

On 12/16/12, Ben Zaiboc wrote:
> This is supposed to be good news?
> That we can possibly, maybe, get almost all of the energy that we are
> currently using from 'renewable' resources if we are very careful and reduce
> our need for energy as much as possible?
>
> Sorry, but I thought this was the extropian list, not the 'sustainability'
> list (where sustainability is just an euphemism for the long, slow slide
> into barbarism and extinction, barring any catastrophic extinction events
> that get us first).
>
> Note that the "ALL POWER" referred to, is all of our /current/ energy needs,
> not the considerably greater needs of a halfway-decent civisisation.  Maybe
> I'm on my own here, but I won't settle for anything less than a
> *superabundance* of energy, enough energy that everyone can run their own
> simulated civilisation at whatever speed they wish, with enough left over to
> send interstellar probes to other stars at decent fractions of C, to build
> routers for those hardy explorers who don't mind being out of touch with the
> cradle of civilisation for a few subjective millennia.  Plus keeping the
> TVs/internet connections/digital assistants/exoselves/whatever, of at least
> a few hundreds of billions of sophonts active *all the time*.
> I'm talking about a situation where the concept of 'brownout' is a quaint
> historical footnote that most people are blissfully unaware of, and the rest
> chuckle uneasily at the sheer poverty of the society that coined the term.
>
> Again, sorry if I offend anyone here, but I regard the sentiment behind the
> subject line of the ancestor of this post to be Failure Mode No. 1.  As far
> as I can see, it signals the beginning of the end.
>
>

The problem that you and all of humanity face is how best to survive
the next 20 years so that we are around to see the wonders of the
Singularity.

i.e. what should we be planning for NOW.

Power satellites are at least 20 years away. Even building more
nuclear power stations will take at least ten years before they start
to come online.

In the meantime the world faces very near future shortages of power,
food, water and resources needed to maintain an ever-growing
population.

Estimates will vary, of course, as to when the shortages will become
critical. But in the meantime, developing renewable energy sources
seems like a very good idea.

(And all of the above doesn't allow for a possible worldwide financial
crash as well).


BillK