Yeah, wood is great, except almost everywhere that depended on it ended up with none within wood gathering radius. The story is if you look at early photos of Santa Fe, the hills seem strangely denuded compared to the present.
-- rec -- On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 5:48 PM, Parks, Raymond <[email protected]> wrote: > Steam engines work fine on wood - not as efficient but they worked with > wood for years. Hydro-power has worked even better since ancient times. > > Charcoal comes from wood and can be made into coke. > > All that aside, I don't understand the comment "we already have mined and > spent all of easily available fossil fuels". That's stupid on several > levels. > > Ray Parks > Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager > V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084 > NIPR: [email protected] > SIPR: [email protected] (send NIPR reminder) > JWICS: [email protected] (send NIPR reminder) > > > > On Mar 21, 2013, at 4:41 PM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote: > > At the risk of hijacking the thread... I liked the comment on the > ycombinator: > > PeterisP > > There exists a viewpoint that in case of a cataclysm (which would involve > man-made objects disappearing*) we would never, ever progress past 18th > century tech again. > The argument is that getting from animal-powered devices to > solar/nuclear/whatever powered devices while at the same time switching > from 90%-agricultural workforce to anything more progressive can happen > only if there is a cheap source of energy available - and we already have > mined and spent all of easily available fossil fuels. > Even if all kinds of fancy devices are available and constructed by rich > enthusiasts, the lack of cheap steam power ensures lack of cheap steel/etc, > and all the technologies don't get the mass adoption required for their > improvements, there are almost no advantages for industrialization, so the > world gets stuck in feudal-agriculture systems as the local optimum. > > which suggests the Knowledge > Ark<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_ark>would be largely a waste of > time. > > * refers to a preceding comment. > > Robert C > > > On 3/21/13 11:00 AM, Owen Densmore wrote: > > From HN, a pointer to a delightfully clever essay that would be loved by > Nick and others who are often bewildered by the hacker alphabet soup > of acronyms and buzz words. > > Well, what _does_ happen when you got to a web page? > > https://plus.google.com/112218872649456413744/posts/dfydM2Cnepe > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5408597 > > > This has the possibility of a new book that somehow makes it all > reasonably clear. Maybe. > > -- Owen > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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