[FRIAM] Edge: The Need for Heretics

[Phil Henshaw]

Folks,
Well, it's fascinating to watch scientists like Dyson swerve back and
forth between 'entertainer' and 'searcher' all the time.   What a waste.
I guess it's human even if (pardon the rhyme) confunz'n.  It's been a
very unusually beautiful summer so far in New York this year, hot, clear
and dry with everyone out and about and enjoying themselves (well except
for the 3" rain in an hour at 7AM one day last week that completely
drowned the poor subway system)   What Dyson, and most others don't know
yet is the new evidence, a simple thing really, turning a standard
economic measure upside down.  

The embodied energy of $1 is about 8000btu's*, consistently in all the
economies.  That means that as an economic product, dollars are a direct
measure of energy use.   That simply means that growth in dollars is a
direct measure of exponentially growing impacts of exploiting the earth
for energy, in nearly direct constant proportion.  

Of the three main energy sources, fossil, nuclear, and competition for
land, which would you recommend for providing exponential increases of
energy forever, without consequences?   Think about it.  That's
different than the story we've been hearing from the masters of magic
all these years, as we pulled the whole construction of our civilization
out of a magic hole in the ground.   It turns out the world is what it
appears to be, a small blue ball, with a growth compulsion that *all*
the great promoters promised would be free, forever, and that turns out
to be wrong.

*- http://www.synapse9.com/design/dollarshadow.htm see DOE & other ref's


Phil Henshaw                       ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave 
NY NY 10040                       
tel: 212-795-4844                 
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    


> -----Original Message-----
> From: friam-bounces at redfish.com 
> [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Owen Densmore
> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 12:19 PM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: [FRIAM] Edge: The Need for Heretics
> 
> 
> This from the Edge: Freeman Dyson talking about the need for 
> heretics  
> in science: 
> <http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge219> .html#dysonf>
> 
> 
> Interestingly enough, his first shot is at 
> global warming!
> 
> But the real story is that he want's *young* heretics, not 
> old ones.   
> Plenty of them and they are ignored.  Feel fee to volunteer to be  
> either kind.
> 
>      -- Owen
> 
> 
> 
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