That nuclear engineer sounds like an optimist. I heard the joke framed as “Fusion is only 30 years away and always will be!” An article on the subject and history of progress.
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Whether taken literally or as a metaphor, it shows a poor grasp of human history. There’s simply no historical basis at all for claiming that “We have created a Star Wars civilisation” or that we possess “godlike technology” (or even that we have “Stone Age emotions”, for that matter). It’s also ironic that someone who spent his entire career as a professor at Harvard should claim that “mediaeval institutions” are somehow to blame, when you could hardly find a more quintessentially Mediaeval institution than the university system. Whenever someone uses the term “mediaeval” with implied negative connotations like this, it’s a clear red-flag that they have little understanding or appreciation of the period itself.
Well, if you don’t provide any historical justification for the use of subjective terms like “Stone Age emotions”, “Star Wars civilisation” and “godlike technology”, I suppose you can claim just about anything.
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Pretty sure Wilson would have included universities in his critique and appreciated the irony and I have no doubt whatsoever that he was deliberately exaggerating to make a point. The point goes something like this: Human emotions have not changed much since Homo sapiens first evolved, hence stone-age, although a pedantic could argue that our emotions actually predate the Stone Age and tool use of any kind. Human cultures and their institutions have evolved somewhat more rapidly but their evolution is still subject to inertia and so we see things like slavery persisting long after people have already figured out that it’s immoral, religious institutions threatening scientists with imprisonment, torture and death for accurately describing the functioning of the universe and a bunch of more recent examples I can’t mention because they will be seen as political and inevitably call down the wrath of the moderators, hence “medieval”, not literally but as a marker somewhere between Stone Age and the present. As an aside, it isn’t actually necessary to interpret medieval as a metaphor since any comprehensive English dictionary published in recent history includes a definition of medieval that says something like “primitive or extremely old-fashioned” and there was anyway no pejorative intent in Wilson’s usage. One of the things contributing to cultural and institutional inertia is that stone-age emotional baggage. Human technology, on the other hand, has evolved extremely rapidly and Wilson’s reference to god-like is presumably a reference to Clarke’s Third Law which states “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” There can be no doubt that a Stone Age or Medieval observer would see a great deal of modern tech as magical, if not god-like. Our institutions have proved unable to keep pace with technological change for a long time and as the pace of change has accelerated the problem has become extremely challenging for a bunch of apes with Stone Age emotions seeking to wield medieval institutional tools (like, for example, Universities) to cope. At the risk of treading in forbidden political ground, the recent experience of trying to persuade a distressingly large number of people in nominally advanced countries that vaccines not only work but that there were no tiny spy transmitters being injected with the vaccinations is pretty solid proof that there are problems and they aren’t small.
The bit of Wilson’s commentary quoted above is perhaps better understood if quoted more extensively:
“Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.”
And no, he is not claiming that light sabres and death stars exist.
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But why should they have? And what should they have changed to? I daresay our eyes haven’t evolved much over the last hundred thousand years, but that need not imply they’re no longer fit for purpose! Humans aren’t on a March of Progress from the “Stone Age” towards some dimly imagined romantic ideal. That’s just teleological wishful thinking.
That’s just colloquial usage, not a technical definition. No professional historian would refer to the middle ages in such crass and ignorant terms (unless they were referring to common misconceptions about the period, which are rife).
The global population has increased nearly sixteen-fold in the last three hundred years, and yet the pre-existing social structures did not completely collapse due to all the extra demands placed on them. If we’d been truly unable to keep pace, the pattern of growth would have shown significant reversals. But that has not occurrred, and most current projections predict a population of 10-11bn by the end of this century. It seems that success literally breeds success. None of that success is due to anything remotely “godlike” - it’s mostly come as a result of relatively humble public health measures (like encouraging everyone to wash their hands at the appropriate times - you know the drill).
Honestly, it all seems rather hand-wavy and disconnected from the events of recent history. If that quote is anything to go by, I don’t think I’ll bother reading the book (which has also received heavy criticism for quite different reasons elsewhere).
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Indeed. But then I didn’t say any such thing. I merely stated a fact.
It’s actually an accepted definition, at least according to Oxford. It’s an informal but accepted usage, academic snobbery notwithstanding. Regardless, I mentioned it as an aside, not the main point.
Well, that and the elimination from the landscape of vast numbers of organisms of a broad swathe of species to make way for a colossal shift in the consumption of ecosystem components by humans and the conversion of oceans of fossil fuels into water and carbon-dioxide with side effects that you might have noticed this summer in Merrie Olde England. The growth of the human population has been enabled by the ability to grow, make and consume foods and other essentials in ways that were previously impossible. Advances in engineering have been the foundation for building dense cities without the formerly inevitable pestilential episodes of depopulation and there are all sorts of reasons to suppose that absent some so-far-unheard-of advances in technology, god-like or otherwise, things are not going to continue as they have. There is only so much space in which to produce the things we need. On the other hand, if your only measure of stability is numbers of human beings, everything is absolutely swell.
The public health measures that you trivialize as hand-washing include engineering using new methods and materials that make possible the habitation of humanity at previously unheard of densities that would have appeared miraculous not long ago. Smallpox eradication was made possible by the existence of previously implausible international bodies that vaccinated the world; those bodies are in trouble. Why? Greed, fear, anger, xenophobia, petty nationalism, opposition from medieval institutions - you know the drill.
Of course. Think I’ll go wash my hands.
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Right. And even now, some people get so bedazzled that “there’s an app for that,” they don’t notice that most of those apps really all do the same thing, namely, remove money from one’s bank account. Now, if I could find an app that put money into my bank account, that really would seem magical.
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Yes generally I agree with that statement.
Star war civilization…how to picture that, Modern Imperialism? not really but we have equivalents to C3PO and R2D2 now. We have not fought wars in outerspace. Drones are like early prototypes of some new-age machines. Stone age emotions. Evolution is a slow process in this case, and primitive tendencies is built inside the brain called the reptilian brain. so humans are always inherited the tendency for aggression, fear, instinctive behaviours. Stone age culture is sometimes in vogue, The flintstones, and Paleo diet. Medieval institution - Judges still wearing wigs. You have the word god printed on your currencies, modern western civilizations are based on Greek philosophy, and possibly on artifacts from other civilizations too, Aztec ? From the cradle of civilization. There are some kind of
fraternity in Universities and Secret clubs of politicians. God-like technology. The western god is portrayed as holding a lightning bolt, and that is electricity. Electricity is a godlike phenomenon that is feared and awesome at the same time. Maglev trains and Large Hadron Collider.
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Buy a bag of frozen berries at the supermarket.
Tramp thru the woods finding and collecting the berries ?! 
Yes, that’s probably what hunter-gatherers do.
Yes - that is why ‘Paleo’ diet is
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Must have missed that one.Qould you be able to post or DM a link?
As I recall, Ötzi (a.k.a. the Iceman) was found to have atherosclerosis and osteoarthritis. So, clearly, his “paleo” diet did not protect him from degenerative diseases.
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There’re also found bone diseases from too much bee larvae, from heavy metals, from not enough food, etc. With youngs being as current olds and lifespan of 23.
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Solarpower is now
Nuclar fusion is only withni decades, and probably much more expensive
Top 10 lowest solar power prices in the world | Commercial Solar Guy
The purpose of this post is to track the top ten lowest priced solar power plants globally. Here they are, as of January 28, 2021:
- 1.04¢/kWh – Saudi Arabia, 600 MW, announced April 2021
- 1.239¢/kWh – Saudi Arabia, 1.5 GW, announced April 2021
- 1.316¢/kWh – Portugal, % of 10 MW, announced August 2020
- 1.35¢/kWh – Abu Dhabi, 1.5 GW, announced April 2020
- 1.50¢/kWh – New Mexico, USA, 100 MW, announced May 2020
- 1.57¢/kWh – Qatar, 800 MW, announced January 2020
- 1.61¢/kWh – Saudi Arabia, 300 MW, announced April 2020
- 1.65¢/kWh – Portugal, 150 MW, announced July 2019
- 1.69¢/kWh – Dubai, 900 MW, announced December 2019
- 1.75¢/kWh – Brazil, 211 MW, announced July 2019
Special mentions:
- 1.99¢/kWh – Los Angeles, 700 MW, announced June 2019
- 2.52¢/kWh – Ethiopia, 125 MW, announced September 2019
- Lowest price in Africa
- 2.175¢/kWh – Idaho, 120 MW, announced March 2019
- Not included in top ten because escalator makes it more expensive
- 2.7¢/kWh – Uzbekistan, 100 MW, announced October 2019
- 2.7¢/kWh – Colombia, 2.2 GW, announced October 2019
- And the most important special mention: India
- Current lowest price 2.695¢/kWh – 200+100+80+120 MW, announced December 21, 2020
The whole world has seen solar power pricing come down precipitously. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and International Renewable Energy Agency published these wonderful images to help visualize bids and deals signed in the USA and globally. And while both are behind the above list by a bit, it gives a clear projection about how things have moved over time.
Three Myths About Renewable Energy and the Grid, Debunked - Yale E360
Top 10 lowest solar power prices in the world | Commercial Solar Guy
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Sorry - can’t find the forum post again.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90568932/these-mushroom-balls-turn-your-yard-into-a-climate-change-fighting-machine
Buy our fungal mycelium bomb. Water your lawn. Problem solved.
Relevant scientist explained you shouldn’t add random fungus, and their ‘bomb’ isn’t a silver bullet solution. They did not appreciate the pushback.
PS found it!
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/mycelial-networks-and-the-mushroom-ball-carbon-sink-plausible/20348
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Funny how nobody ever does.
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I agree that our social evolution has greatly fell behind our technology evolution and a paradigm shift is greatly needed. Having said this I am no scientist just have a passion for all life and instead of working against nature we as humans should work with nature. For example water management and erosion control. It is common knowledge that trees in particular and plants in general reduce erosion and readily available. The problem is that it is low cost and goes against the capitalist system. I myself have never understood human’s insatiable appetite for waste and energy needs. All other life for the most part take what they need and go about their lives. We humans need to incorporate this. Being part of the iNat and other groups have taught me that cooperation is the way to go. I can go on and on about this but will stop here. Just my 2 cents worth from a hobbyist naturalist point of view.
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Humans do what every other species does, every life type on Earth would take as many resources as it can, other species aren’t any better.
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depending on the local natural vegetation. In grassland it is the native grasses which are most effective for erosion control. Planting trees in grassland habitat (or our fynbos) is the wrong choice.
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But wild animals adjust their breeding to available food resources. Litters of feral cats and dogs, are again a human problem - not a cat / dog problem.