Going forward and beyond

A couple of truisms are that we will strive to be happy and that we want our children and their children in turn to have the best that we have known and more. I agree with these values and I share them as well.

The may be a some divergence, however, in the ways that people think they can live by those values. The energy crisis and climate change seems to have spurred people into looking after their own interests primarily, perhaps with a zero sum mentality given an assumption that there is a limited pool of resources. There might also be a fear that public institutions might infringe on their individual chances, at least for the wealthy and powerful.

Climate change is one of those things that pushes to the limits of life on our planet. You would not be able to survive by yourself in a closed community alone. The biosphere of the planet can only survive as a whole. I also think that the answers to climate change and the energy crisis can only be realised with the coordinated actions of many people. Renewable sources of energy and storage to hold that energy ADD to the pool of available resources. With renewable energy, storage and a Smart Grid to coordinate it all we are going past a zero sum game. If in time we learn to live permanently in space and in bases on the moon, solar energy will most likely change our economic systems so that they are based around an abundance rather than a scarcity of resources. Energy is the primary resource. With an abundance of energy you could fashion material with information into diverse forms. A era of energy abundance is still some time off yet though.