This chapter in
Energies discussed the various innovations society has made since the advent of the industrial age. The chapter mentioned everything from the first airplane to steam engine and how those inventions have effected our society. These inventions, like better transportation, have helped our society become much more streamlined and efficient that we ever could have dreamed only a few hundred years ago. Today, anyone in the U.S. can order almost anything they want, and have it arrive in their house within a week, even within a few days. This is largely due to the strides we've made in human transportation. the invention of the internal combustion engine, the bicycle, and the jet engine are the three most prominent improvements in my mind for land transport. Aquatic transportation has become much faster as well, with the advent first of the steam engine, then the propeller-driving engine, then with nuclear fission. All these new technologies together make it possible to get almost any good anywhere in the world in just a day. This is very efficient, and beneficial to society, but it also comes with a price. The spread of infectious disease has increased greatly since the advent of the passenger jet.
Better communications, in combination with more efficient transportation can help us become more environmentally friendly. By communicating incredibly quickly via the internet and worldwide phone service we can effectively transport the exact right amount of goods, so no fuel is being wasted in transport.
Bicycles today play a tremendous role in eastern countries. Why hasn't the bicycle gained more notoriety in our society?
In a similar vein, nuclear fission powers the most advanced and environmentally friendly submarines today. why hasn't this same technology been employed on ships, especially large ships?
While it may sound trite, we live in a truly unique time in history. Never before have we had such complete control over our world, and the most important changes we've made have all happened in the last 70 or so years. A combination of things came together to make this possible, but there's never been anything like this before. I see this as a new renaissance, which would mean some stagnation after this point. Do you think that technology will continue to grow at such an exponential rate, or do you think we'll reach a point soon where we can't really expand anymore?
I tend toward the pessimistic on your last question. I see our "control over our world" as importantly partial--we destroy as much as we control--and entirely dependent on easy access to powerful energy sources. Take away those sources (or have them get harder to access), and the whole thing unravels.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, and we're on the verge of an unforeseeable technological breakthrough, after which the 20th century will look to the 22nd like the 18th century looks to us.
On the other hand, societies do collapse, and it often has to do with outrunning their resource base. Perhaps we're cleverer than our ancestors. Or maybe we've just been luckier. So far.