Steven V Johnson wrote:
Changing the subject, it would not hurt to occasionally perform a personal inventory on the following issue: It is easy to allow ourselves to be seduced into a perpetual state of giddy-like anticipation concerning a number of "free energy technologies." Once seduced, there's a very good chance we could end up blinding ourselves to the reality of the situation, particularly if we assume the anticipated "coming" of these technologies is the only way we will be able to fix a plethora of pressing global problems. . . .
These are good comments. I made similar points in my book. Free energy is not essential to solving our problems, but it would help a great deal.
We should also remember that energy is already free. It is by far the most abundant resource in the universe, from the sun and other sources. As Arthur Clarke pointed out in "Profiles of the Future" (and I quoted in chapter 19):
"The heavy hydrogen in the seas can drive all our machines, heat all our cities, for as far ahead as we can imagine. If, as is perfectly possible, we are short of energy two generations from now, it will be through our own incompetence. We will be like Stone Age men freezing to death on top of a coal bed."
- Jed
