While vast majority of the correspondence we receive is informative and supportive, on line we hear primarily from the League of Tiger Riders. Their activities were profiled in our last column “Riding the Tiger.”
One has to wonder: “What are they thinking?” On the other hand, it should not be surprising that we do not understand how “Not Ed Risse” and others think.
In a 2 June 2008 post on BR Blog POLITICAL WISDOM AND CONVENTION NOTICE we note a Wilfred Owens quote:
“There are no transport facility (or we always add, transport facility finance schemes) that will solve transport problem – there are only settlement pattern solutions.”
We heard from “Not Ed Risse” at 5:39 PM, he commented:
“Ed Risse’s ultimate nightmare is closer than he thinks.
“Unlimited, cheap, non-polluting fuel!
“Watch this video on TED.
“http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/227
“In early 2008, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that they had manufactured the entire genome of a bacterium by painstakingly stitching together its chemical components. By sequencing a genome, scientists can begin to custom-design bootable organisms, creating biological robots that can produce from scratch chemicals humans can use, such as biofuel.
“Human ingenuity and freedom will lead to unimaginable prosperity for everyone.”
Lets go over this remarkable “response” item by item:
“Ed Risse’s ultimate nightmare is closer than he thinks. Unlimited, cheap, non-polluting fuel!”
No, E M Risse’s ultimate nightmare is not there will be “unlimited, cheap, non-polluting fuel” his nightmare is that more than a small minority are foolish enough to believe that “Unlimited, cheap, non-polluting fuel” will make the world a better place in any way, much less preserve the potential of maintaining democracies with market economies.
EMR’s hope is that this minority stays below the 20 percent threshold per the 60 % / 20 % / 20% Rule. About the same percentage as believe that the Earth is flat would be fine.
Not Ed Risse goes on:
“Watch this video on TED.
“http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/227
“In early 2008, scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute announced that they had manufactured the entire genome of a bacterium by painstakingly stitching together its chemical components. By sequencing a genome, scientists can begin to custom-design bootable organisms, creating biological robots that can produce from scratch chemicals humans can use, such as biofuel.”
Let us all agree that there a lot of smart folks with a lot of great ideas burning through billions in research dollars on what in The Shape of the Future we call “frontier science.” “Frontier science” is the pursuit of arcane answers to cutting edge questions for which someone believes there is a big payoff – not necessarily a big benefit. Among them is Dr. Venter’s team at JCVI.
With respect to “bootable organisms” JCVI has another long, difficult step to achieve their goal.
But if JCVI or someone else on the same track, does completed the quest, where will the feedstock to produce this biofuel come from?
Who will pay for the processes that generates a new fuel?
Who will control the processes?
One thing for sure, the product will not be “cheap.” One might as well count on Brazilians selling its new found petrochemical resources at below market price.
How about the Hydrogen economy? How about cheap nuclear power? Better yet just hope that Thomas Gold was right about spontaneous generation of hydrocarbons. Or perhaps cold fusion, you get the idea…
Finally, “Not Ed Risse” says:
“Human ingenuity and freedom will lead to unimaginable prosperity for everyone.”
Lets look at both ends of this “freedom and unimaginable prosperity for everyone” pipe dream.
On the front end, long ago, right here on Planet Earth humans had wonderful biological robots that did just what Dr. Venter would like these new ones to do. These servants of man spent tens of millions of years creating a cheap – and if intelligently used – non-polluting fuel. What happened?
Humans have burned through most of the easy-to-access Natural Capital including the work of these microscopic petrochemical beavers in a little over a hundred years. To make matters worse – much worse – humans polluted the air, water and marine resources in the process.
What is more, humans and their Organizations do not have the collective intelligence to conserve (as in to be “conservative” about resource consumption) what is left of the petrochemical reserves for important products like pharmaceuticals and specialty materials. Instead humans, especially in the US of A are wasting it on needless to-ing and fro-ing to overcome dysfunctional settlement human patterns.
Note: Human settlement patterns were made dysfunctional to meet the short-term interest of a few at the expense of the many and this in spite of what the market would support if citizens were offered a choice.
On the other end of the “freedom and unimaginable prosperity for everyone” pipe dream:
What has the last 35 years (since the 1973 Wake-Up Call that was ignored) of unprecedented wealth and consumption done for “freedom and unimaginable prosperity for everyone?”
Well for starters the top five percent of the economic and social Ziggurat have gotten much richer but not much happier.
The middle forty five percent are Running As Hard As They Cans (RHTCs). They have run up record setting debt and have been responsible for most of the resource burn. RHTCs are clearly not “better off” than their parents were in the 60s. Back then, one could pay for a year of college with a summers work fighting fires and clearing trails. One could buy a good car with a summers work in a grocery store.
RHTCs own bigger-than-they-need houses, many in dysfunctional locations, and own dozens of “must have” gadgets. No single person on the cutting edge of “prosperity” knows how to use all the “modern technology” that they already own, much less all the new technology and other consumption items that MainStream Media advertising tells them they “need.”
What is worse, these RHTCs are not better off – not better educated, not healthier, not longer living and not happier – than citizens in other First World nation-states that have spent half as much of that “cheap” fuel.
And the bottom 50 percent of the economic and social Ziggurat?
By some measures, some citizens are, thankfully, better off. But most are falling farther and farther behind. The Wealth Gap is widening at an alarming rate. The Quality of Life is eroding and the ladders to self improvement are rotting away.
You may have noticed that citizens are demanding “change.” If one understands what happens in democracies that create conditions of massive disparity it is clear that it will not be long before over 51 percent will vote for demigods who promise easy solutions. That will end the gravy train for all but those on the “central committee.”
Humans have not shown the ability to achieve “freedom and unimaginable prosperity for everyone” with the resources they have burned through since 1870. What would cause “Not Ed Risse,” or anyone else, to think they will do better with some new gift house, if one actually arrives?
What are the members of the League of Tiger Riders thinking?
What is even more scary is that everyday comes a new barrage of misinformation and emotionally loaded defenses of Business As Usual and the mantra of the Tiger Riders. (See the discussion of Institutions in THE ESTATES MATRIX.
Have a nice weekend.
EMR