On Sun, Feb 17, 2002 at 04:59:03PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > This, BTW, is an example of a paragraph question that really needs > a 50kbyte response. I'll cut it short, because of limited time on > my part as well as list rules. This question is posed explicitly, so > I believe Eric will appreciate a longish answer. Sometimes people > present me with such a
Thanks, I do appreciate it. > Finally, lets consider the alternatives for the next 100 years. The > real alternatives are natural gas, oil, and coal. We can argue why > alternative energy sources don't work, but the fact of the matter is > that they cannot be counted on. Its my strong opinion that they don't > work because they require technologies that are very difficult to mass > produces at reasonable expense. I've given long arguments on this in > the past, and will probably be likely to do so again if temped with a > rebuttal. :-) Arguing that no one can find a way to mass produce something cheaply in the future is an argument that will be surely proven wrong eventually. Rebutt if you want, but I think you will have a hard time with this argument. There are so many examples of things that seemed impossible to produce cheaply in the past that we now mass produce cheaply. I've learned never to underestimate the ingenuity of engineers and capitalists. On the other hand, if you are talking about arguing that it will be a very long time before there is a reason to figure out how to mass produce alternative energy devices cheaply, then I will not argue with you! Two examples of giant 20th century engineering projects that I am familiar with, silicon integrated circuits and fiber optics, had utterly tremendous advances despite the naysayers, but it took millions of man hours and billions of dollars. This was a good investment since there were no closely equivalent technologies. If there is an alternative technology, then it may not make economic sense to expend so much resources developing the new technology. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.com/
