The piece funnily enough mirrors its own criticism of Smil's book in that the actual review of the book and early history energy balance is good and then the en

The piece funnily enough mirrors its own criticism of Smil's book in that the actual review of the book and early history energy balance is good and then the entire essay spirals into some sort of religious rant about the alleged negatives of pursuing efficiency. It's a bizarre narrative in my opinion because one of the most fundamental modern technologies, the semiconductor and micro-technologies in general are the result of relentless pursuit of efficiency, doing more on the same space, consuming less energy. Far from a symptom of stagnation it's a significant driver of civilization advancement. Dematerializion and digitalization drastically reduce energy consumption but do not reduce rate of information processing. And that should be the yardstick for where a civilization is going.