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> Technology is the story of better access to energy and information over time. This is an under-appreciated fact of history. Wealth and prosperity closely tra
by MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
> Technology is the story of better access to energy and information over time.
This is an under-appreciated fact of history. Wealth and prosperity closely track the availability of cheap energy, which is why interfering with energy production in the name of supposedly higher goals is such a high-stakes gamble.
"We’ve gone from spending 4% of GDP on energy to spending 14% - a 10% loss straight away to just keeping the lights on, money that could be spent doing other things we care about, including energy." [0]
[0] https://climatepodnotes.substack.com/p/its-energy-stupid https://climatepodnotes.substack.com/p/its-energy-stupid
- jl6 4y agoA related fact is that sometimes “advanced technology” really just means using more energy. A simple tech example is the escalating thermal budgets of CPUs. Yes, if you let them draw more power, they can run faster. In my view, that’s a less interesting technological development than an innovation that allows more work to be done with less energy, or that unlocks previously inaccessible energy. Those are the type of inventions that truly qualify as an advancement.
- MrBuddyCasino 4y ago> A related fact is that sometimes “advanced technology” really just means using more energy. I don't think this is what generally happens. Chips right now do this because Dennard Scaling / Moores Law are coming to an end, so they have to increase performance in different ways to win some dumb benchmarks. Nearly everywhere else its the opposite. Cars, fridges, heating, houses, lighting - they all use less energy than they used to.
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoJancovici's conference about how ecology and economy eventually boil down to fundamentals such as energy is eye opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQBPhKSWu0&list=PLMDQXkItOZ4II_sYvh0BevIBwmm7fvuHL&index=2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQBPhKSWu0&list=PLMDQXkItOZ... The punchlines are wonderful. E.G: "The first law of thermodynamics will always win over political promises". Highly recommended.
- wazoox 4y agoSome of his conferences and courses (in particular the École des Mines 20h course) are available with English subtitles.
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoDo you have a link?
- wazoox 4y agoHere you go: Dubbed videos (mostly English but also Russian and maybe other languages): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMDQXkItOZ4JcKrdHyRaAJKR8FGzEr1HA https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMDQXkItOZ4JcKrdHyRaA... Videos with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMDQXkItOZ4II_sYvh0BevIBwmm7fvuHL https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMDQXkItOZ4II_sYvh0Be...
- BiteCode_dev 4y agoThanks. The first one is French dubbed in russian. If you speak russian, I would recommend it as it as the slides clearly in view. However, the second one, in English doesn't show most of the slides, and they are really necessary to get the full picture. However, it's a playlist, and there are better ones in there. If you don't mind, I will update my comment to include one of them.