tylermauthe

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

Comment · 5 years ago

Dystopian maybe, but think of the great ROI.

Comment · 5 years ago

well... when they start doing all their flights on electric engines in 2022 I guess we'll see if it makes sense... did you read my link?

Comment · 5 years ago

The arguments presented here are logically sound and I agree that we won't be replacing a Boeing 747 with electrical. I also agree there are a lot of companies (not just electric planes) fleecing investors for money for products they have no idea whether or not they can build but claiming they absolutely can; but taking risk is baked into the idea of investing and is why profit is justifiable for investors so I think this is a moot point.

That being said, I absolutely think we will see EV planes in short haul -- and short haul flights are a HUGE source of emissions. This is good.

Here's a link -- local seaplane company is moving it's fleet to EV planes and has been flying test flights for almost a year: https://www.harbourair.com/harbour-air-magnix-and-h55-partne...

Comment · 5 years ago

why else would it exist? :)

Comment · 5 years ago

As others have said, our entire way of thinking is predicated on lack. Or, as it was said by The Watchowski Sisters in The Matrix:

> Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization.

Comment · 5 years ago

The claims on nuclear fission being just around the corner are wildly exaggerated. Sabine Hossenfelder has a great video [1] on this topic. I want fusion to be real too, but focussing on small scale fission and solar is probably a better idea.

[1] - https://youtu.be/LJ4W1g-6JiY

Comment · 5 years ago

Agreed, this post completely misses how the power dynamics of wealth affect the opinions and 'rationality' of players. It also never mentions how a whole section of society would be unable to take part in this system due to their socioeconomic status.