[ExI] FW: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good

[Bill Burris]

China has 17 nuclear power reactors in operation, 32 under construction,
and many more planed for the near future.

I am investing in uranium and thorium mining companies.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/why-a-uranium-renaissance-looks-inevitable
http://energy-myths.caseyresearch.com/

Bill


On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 5:02 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [
> mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org<extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org>]
> *On Behalf Of *Kelly Anderson
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 10, 2013 3:00 PM
> *To:* ExI chat list
>
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] How Electricity Became a Luxury Good****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 8:14 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:****
>
> There is a good possibility we will not start on it until it is too late.*
> ***
>
> ** **
>
> >Yes Spike, please do define too late.****
>
> ** **
>
> >In Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, we have more fossil fuel BTUs than Saudi
> Arabia, though it does exist in hard to mine and transform rock shale form
> …****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Ja, all of these, but I was looking at the long term in the event that
> there is some fundamental reason why a singularity is impossible.  For the
> record, I think a singularity is both possible and inevitable, but there is
> value in mapping out a future in which it is not, or a future in which the
> singularity takes longer than we thought, analogous in a way to nuclear
> fusion power.  We have coal and we have oil enough for now and the next
> decade or two, but then what?****
>
> ** **
>
> The notion of a poverty trap is real.  I have some distant cousins who are
> trapped in that now: they live way the hell out in a holler in West
> Virginia, and have only a vague notion of what a computer does.  I can’t
> even communicate with them: I have no intentions of writing on paper and
> sending stuff with stamps on it.  I did that with their grandparents, will
> not do it now.  That represents a group of people genetically similar to
> me, who are in a poverty trap.  They do not use the internet; they are on
> the other side of a chasm which I cannot or will not span.****
>
> ** **
>
> We can imagine scenarios where humanity gets caught in a poverty trap, or
> a memetic trap similar to what grips much of the middle east today.  The
> collective dedication to Mormonism in those places traps both the believer
> and unbeliever alike, slowing progress and causing retrogression.  If we
> don’t get something sustainable long term off the ground, I can easily
> envision most of humanity being far more concerned with their next meal
> than advancing science.****
>
> ** **
>
> Regarding oil shale, oil sands, fracking, sure we can do all that, but
> what I am looking at is a long term solution in the event that the
> singularity doesn’t happen.  These other things will work for our lifetimes
> perhaps, but what then?  Also note that oil has made us comfortable and
> conservative.  We don’t want to change things when they work so well.  But
> China and India are coming, and they read the internet too.  They want to
> live like we do.  Imagine that.  What happens to our oil reserves then?
> Our coal reserves?****
>
> ** **
>
> As an exercise Kelly, map out a future with optimistic models of current
> energy resources, and anticipating the technological rise of China and
> India.  Where does it lead?  Use top level estimates of greenhouse warming,
> just using top level first order approximations, and include increased
> radiation of heat with Boltzmann’s law.  Where does it go?  What happens if
> a billion Chinese people and another billion Indians want to drive SUVs?
> Then a billion more middle easterners get tired of being poor?****
>
> ** **
>
> spike****
>
> ** **
>
>  ****
>
> ** **
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20130910/1ee1824f/attachment.html>