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>> What would the ideal be? There’s a renewable energy startup in Providence, Rhode Island, called VCharge that probably could have used Cole too. Its chief sci

>> What would the ideal be? There’s a renewable energy startup in Providence, Rhode Island, called VCharge that probably could have used Cole too. Its chief science officer, Jessica Millar, has a PhD in math from MIT. VCharge is trying to make our energy grid more efficient using energy storage and transmission algorithms. It’s not a sure thing, but if it succeeds we’ll all be better off for it. How is a more efficient energy grid the ideal? It sounds very status quo to me. The ideal would be doubling human life expectancy, building massive Elysium-like space stations that orbit the Earth, a guaranteed minimum income for everyone, and stuff like that. It seems like everyone lacks an imagination nowadays. Where are the people who used to invent things like airplanes and such?

nswanberg 13y ago
They are mostly the ones getting laughed at and dismissed. Which means there are probably as many or more as there have ever been, but they are not recognized until well after the fact, once it is no longer a risk to laud them.
ForHackernews 13y ago
Transmission and storage are really big barriers to widespread renewable energy. Solar and wind only work in certain geographic areas and times of day, unlike coal/oil plants which can be built anywhere. Solving those problems is potentially a game changer for carbon emissions, and (if you accept the more dire predictions) the future of humanity.
moron4hire 13y ago
They work as quantitative trading engineers at giganto investment banks. Or they are underprivileged people who have the potential to do more, but are placated by the soma of social media. Or they're somewhere in the middle, aspiring to develop better soma. It is a rare combination to find the ability and the ambition (for something other than just economic gain) to make new, exciting things of real value. You have to have all three. Drive, intellectual and economic means, and vision. With the growing gap between rich and poor (or, in other words, the evaporation of the middle class), it's probably not getting better anytime soon, either.
- mkaziz 13y ago
  Intellectual and economic means aren't hard to come across - it's mostly a genetic lottery. Drive? Vision? They're far harder to have.

nswanberg 13y ago

They are mostly the ones getting laughed at and dismissed. Which means there are probably as many or more as there have ever been, but they are not recognized until well after the fact, once it is no longer a risk to laud them.

ForHackernews 13y ago

Transmission and storage are really big barriers to widespread renewable energy. Solar and wind only work in certain geographic areas and times of day, unlike coal/oil plants which can be built anywhere. Solving those problems is potentially a game changer for carbon emissions, and (if you accept the more dire predictions) the future of humanity.

moron4hire 13y ago

They work as quantitative trading engineers at giganto investment banks. Or they are underprivileged people who have the potential to do more, but are placated by the soma of social media. Or they're somewhere in the middle, aspiring to develop better soma. It is a rare combination to find the ability and the ambition (for something other than just economic gain) to make new, exciting things of real value. You have to have all three. Drive, intellectual and economic means, and vision. With the growing gap between rich and poor (or, in other words, the evaporation of the middle class), it's probably not getting better anytime soon, either.

mkaziz 13y ago
Intellectual and economic means aren't hard to come across - it's mostly a genetic lottery. Drive? Vision? They're far harder to have.