The Next Revolution

The next revolution will be in energy, but I don't think it will be in the way people think.  Many of the current revolutions have come things that were commodities and were innovated in the off-commodity market to create a new product.  Phones and Internet are great examples.

With energy, you have two issues.  One is storage, and the other is creation.  Both need answered.  With current energy creation methods, you create way more than you need, and force it down the path (the electrical grid).  In 99% of cases, all the energy isn't used and it just burns off somewhere.  Where?  I haven't a clue.  In that 1% case where you don't have enough energy going down the path, you have brownouts.  So you want to avoid the brownouts by forcing too much energy down the path that will never get used.

So, that comes to the second problem: storage.  If you have too much energy coming down the path and you don't just dissipate it into the air, then why not store it?  Storage could easily come in the form of individual homes and municipality wide storage.

Now the problem has been explained.  What are you going to do with all that new energy?  The better question is: what can't I do now that new energy is going to solve?   Almost anything.

Giant mechanical robots?  Need new energy.  Space ships that are worth a darn?  New energy.  Flying cars?  New energy.  Laser blasters?  New energy.

Because the big problem with most of these technologies is the ability to produce sufficient energy to make it work.  A giant robot is easy, just so long as you leave a tether on it.  But who wants a giant robot that is tethered to a cable?  Diesel engines are nice, but they are incredibly inefficient and need to be exceptionally huge to produce the kind of energy you need.  And after creating that huge engine, you need a place to put all that fuel.  Where is all that going to go?

And I have a distinct feeling that an institution is not going to create this new form of energy.  It's probably going to be someone pissed at paying their electric bill, trying to deal with the next fuel crisis.  Because solving rocketing heating costs by building a new technology is very likely.  Revolution usually happens when the issues with the existing system become so onerous that someone starts looking for an answer.

If it's going to be American, then the cost of fuel prices will necessarily have to skyrocket to create a sufficient pinch.  When gas prices were jumping towards $5 a gallon, people talked constantly about 100 mile per gallon cars. At $1.25 a gallon, people don't even think about it.  So the issue is likely to be solved by someone from Africa.  It's that need issue.  When you don't have a power grid, you don't have the issue of dealing with regulation.  And if you can create power in Africa, then you can solve lots of issues.

It's that lack of alternative that causes such amazing growth.  When there is no other option, a new option must be created.

And I have no faith that government is going to fund or create the next energy revolution.  They think wrong.  And you have to solve the thinking issue before you start solving any other issue.

Which leads in to why I think people should get out of debt and get on Thrive.  More energy to solve your issues and more money to experiment to create the world you want.