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The community of hackers seems to be in as much denial about impending energy shortages as classical economists. A shame, because hackers are good at finding n

• jamesbritt 17y ago
  "The community of hackers seems to be in as much denial about impending energy shortages as classical economists. " On what do you base this claim?
  • koops 17y ago
    Take Startup School. Did you hear anybody mention anything about scarcity?
• pchristensen 17y ago
  On the contrary, hackers probably understand better than most how novel solutions can make a seemingly insurmountable problem disappear. For instance - irrigation greatly improved agriculture in arid regions - drought resistant wheat solved hunger for billions of people (Borlaug) - automatic telephone switches prevented the US from being a nation of telephone operators - sewers drastically reduced water-borne illness and made cities liveable - cars prevented the huge waste problem that millions of horses caused in cities Similarly, price signals have made people change habits before, like how rising labor costs made the modestly wealthy do their own housework as they could no longer afford servants or how people who love the land move to cities because the prospects are better. Sure, the impending peak oil crisis looks like a problem, but not only do I expect that the combination of ingenuity and prices will produce a change, people like Amory Lovins at RMI have already shown how to profitably slash energy use at low oil and energy prices.