[FRIAM] Cautionary Tales: CliFi
Marcus Daniels
marcus at snoutfarm.com
Thu Jan 27 16:13:29 EST 2022
What does that tech reactionary guy like?
> On Jan 27, 2022, at 1:02 PM, glen <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The algorithm recommended this to me this morning:
>
> The Tesla Semi Is An Engineering Failure
> https://youtu.be/w__a8EcM2jI
>
> I can't help but wonder if electric ships run down any differently. Oh, and the algorithm recommended these 2 companies yesterday:
>
> https://www.zeroavia.com/
> https://wisk.aero/
>
> I suppose the question is largely about "just in time" versus "just in case" supply chains. Batteries spread a spectrum between them. Fuel cells plug some holes in their span, I suppose. Maybe we should have nuclear trucks and ships? Who wouldn't want a bunch of tiny reactors trolling the [high|water]ways? As long as we replace the amphetamine fueled humans with autonomous controls, I guess.
>
>> On 1/27/22 12:39, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> The tankers come and go from Richmond day after day. This is how the energy in the U.S. really works.
>> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Prof David West
>> *Sent:* Thursday, January 27, 2022 12:32 PM
>> *To:* friam at redfish.com
>> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Cautionary Tales: CliFi
>> In California there is a movement (ballot initiative I think) that will basically put the billion dollar rooftop solar industry out of business by giving public utilities exclusive rights for green power in the form of wind farms and large solar arrays. Keeps the inefficient distribution grid that they own in business as well.
>> davew
>> On Thu, Jan 27, 2022, at 12:24 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> Steve,
>> In the Bay Area, and in other places there is a trend toward electrification. It sounds plausible on the surface, but to go all the way means solar for water and for electricity. Most houses within financial reach for most people don't have the square footage to support all that. Consider that a smaller electric on-demand hot water heater could draw 75 amps flat out. There's no reasonable way to get lithium batteries that can absorb that kind of load. That would be $50k just to even start on the batteries never mind the panels. If not that, then one must give up (often limited) lot space for the tube style solar, which really isn't all that efficient.
>> The "freedom from the utility" is just not going to happen except in the posh South San Francisco type areas. Meanwhile the utilities want to penalize individual solar producers because they stress the grid.
>> Meanwhile, if the price of gasoline goes north of $5 / gallon, people are screaming bloody murder. Why isn't it $20? No, these folks (which is mostly everyone it seems) aren't going to be joining the 2000-watt society. And then there's the Manchin types holding out to keep *coal* afloat? Don't we just deserve to suffer at this point? At least we could try but fail to develop and deploy replacements. That non-fiction would be interesting reading.
>> Marcus
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:*Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com <mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>> on behalf of Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com <mailto:sasmyth at swcp.com>>
>> *Sent:* Thursday, January 27, 2022 12:15 PM
>> *To:* friam at redfish.com <mailto:friam at redfish.com> <friam at redfish.com <mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Cautionary Tales: CliFi
>> Marcus -
>> Thanks for your feedback on KSR's writing style... it really sobered me to realize how much of an obsessionist I am on this topic and what I will ignore to feed that obsession.
>> I tripped over (thank you Google News Feed) an interesting article in Grist:
>> https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/ <https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/>
>> that resonated with my reflections. While I do feel a little obsessive on the topic (not just climate but all the convergent "endogenous existential threats" coming at us), I feel somewhat balanced about it, especially as I graze on the buffets that books like MotF and Stephenson's Termination Shock and Amithav Ghosh's "Great Derangement" offer. I also found William Gibson's Jackpot Series:
>> https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency <https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency>
>> refreshing (for a dystopia) with our myriad existential threats (climate, species, pollution, finance, civil unrest, fascism, etc.) converging on a bit of a (nasty) wet-fizzle of an apocalypse he sardonically dubs "The Jackpot".
>> The Grist article describes (somewhat) the value of keeping one's eye on the dystopian/apocalyptic future threatened by our short-sighted habits and (overly optimistic?) conceptions of the future generated by our materialistic pop-culture.
>> Someone here (Marcus, Glen, EricS ?) mentioned Musk and the idea that he might be pursuing the canonical "Good Old Fashioned Future" coined in the Golden Age and refashioned in the Modern Era of Science Fiction. We boomers (and Xers?) who went into Sci/Tech likely read at least a lot of Marvel/DC comics (if not the Science Fiction without pictures) of our era and I claim it heavily shaped our image of what was possible/desireable. I don't think it is serving us (Gaia of whom we are her most precocious children?)
>> - Steve
>> On 1/25/22 5:58 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> < It might not surprise anyone here that I have become a CliFi obsessionist with Kim Stanly Robinson's stuff well represented ("Ministry for the Future" standing out well above the others). His Red/Green/Blue Mars series is a good complement with the social/technological/spiritual implications of Terraforming there. >
>> Huh. I found MftF drawn-out and boring with distracting little nonsense chapters interleaved. I don’t see why it is popular. A few good ideas here and there but couldn’t care less about the characters. It could be massively compressed.
>> That would be *all* of KSR's novels I'm afraid... my obsession with the ideas (unanticipated problems as well as unanticipated responses) trumps any need I have for being entertained by the characters or even plot.
>> It really read to me (as you point out) as a series of loosely connected vignettes of specific interest. To the extent that *some* of the MoTF characters did get under my skin, it was as an irritant as much as anything. I probably read Red Mars when it was new as my introduction to KSR and did not go back to his writing until as little as 5 years ago when I found his topics more relevant than I had acknowledged before... He seemed to me to be a lot preachy and I guess now I'm enough of the choir to be able to hum along with his sermons now.
>> Stephenson also gets very tedious for me, but I find his depth of research and quirkiness of characters and technical surprises worthy of my attention through his gruelingly long and seemingly careening storylines and characters.
>>
>
> --
> glen
> Theorem 3. There exists a double master function.
>
> .-- .- -. - / .- -.-. - .. --- -. ..--.. / -.-. --- -. .--- ..- --. .- - .
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