From: Anne Marie Tobias (atobias@interwoven.com)
Date: Fri Jun 01 2001 - 17:25:49 MDT
Unfortunately... once you leave the laboratory... you enter the
world of business and politics. As soon as you have a powerful
organization that has a powerful commitment to the way things
are (because it has that game wired), and it has as resources
the political engine (the best government money can buy), and
wallstreet, the opinion making machine... (US TODAY and
CNN the great mental homoginizers...), you can't be terribly
surprised that what happens in the lab, is not what happens in
the real world. We had ultra high efficiency, thin film plastic
solar cells in the lab at Carnegie Mellon three years ago. Where
are they? You think GE, and the fossil fuel guys are gonna let
that one by without messing with it? We have plastic batteries,
high charge density, low weight, non toxic, plastic batteries.
Where are they? Why aren't they in hybrid cars right this very
moment? Why did the energy crisis suddenly blossom, when
fossil fuels strongest advocate entered the white house? Why
is that man unwilling to give California representatives more
than 20 minutes of his time... The largest economic engine in
the country, and the president won't talk to the governor...
What's wrong with this picture.
You're being teased all right, but has nothing to do with the
guys in the labs...
As long as there is more profit in being stupid, why would'nt
you ever expect the people in power to do all they can to kill
the smart. It's just good business.
Marie Tobias
Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 6/1/2001 3:43:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de writes:
>
> << Now then there's the hidden, but very real cost of focusing on an
> old technology, instead of developing a set of new technologies.
> Like non-Carnot processes, fuel reformers, microturbines,
> high-efficiency water electrolysis, photovoltaics, industrial
> processes in space so we can eventually establish an industrial
> base on the Moon, and start putting serious photovoltaics capacity
> in Earth orbit, and similiar. >>
> Shades of Jerry Pournelle! My only problem is when t will the
> aforementioned "non-Carnot processes, fuel reformers,mcroturbines,
> high-effiency water electrolysis, and photovoltaics," ever make it BIG in the
> national marketplace? I get reports all the time from news releases on AOL,
> on such topics.
>
> These seem technically practical, but never make it out of the woods. That's
> the technological equivalent of cock-teasing ;-) Always, promises, promises.
> I personally get so annoyed to the point of getting livid. I also see that as
> part of the reason, I look to life-extension as a second, compared to physics
> and computationalism, regarding extropy. A billion years till something
> really teriffic happens, I can believe, "but glory around the corner, " I
> become cynical about.
>
> The same goes with new energy technology, vapor-ware belongs in the computing
> industry, not the energy industry.
>
> Mitch
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