Category Archives: Energy

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S: LOOKING FOR AN NEW YEAR RESOLUTION. HERE IS ONE.

27 Friday Dec 2019

Posted by in 2019: The Year of Disconnection., Energy

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(Thirty-minute read)

We all recognize that there are many problems in our world, which with our collective intelligence could be address if we did not turn them into profit-making.

The dire warnings about climate change are on the top of the list, but as we have seen the recent UN Climate Conference in Madrid shows that we once again are unable to act collectively. Instead, we opt for blindness and continue as if nothing can change the inevitable disaster awaiting us all.

Why aren’t we interested?

Because it is abstract happing over there, impossible to describe – the Amazon is burning, California is on fire, Australia is covering New Zeland with smoke.

Half the world might not believe in the science, but it’s no longer acceptable to hind the truth behind rhetoric that is saying one thing and feeling another as if deny it.

We know that there are climate refugees, that the Arctic is melting, that there is flooding, extreme weather events, droughts, famines, but the story is too complicated we do not feel immersed in it.

Because we don’t believe it we are incapable of believing, we can do something about it even if it is a solid scientific fact.

What is knowledge when our brains are unprepared to receive it?

Most of us can’t explain how our individual and collective behaviour is boosting hurricane winds.

On one hand, we have to feel it, believe it, but our brains find it difficult to imagine ourselves in the future and to plan for that future.

Therefore the question to be addressed by all of us is.

Are we even capable of believing what the scientist are telling us?

What, then, is to be done?

Greta Thunberg might be the figurehead for change, but the emphasis should be on doing.

The change required is not to wait for feeling or belief,  but to act.

Some now argue that the focus should be on the personal shifts taking the responsibility away from Governments. In my mind governments have a responsibility to oversee the conversion to green energy by ensuring that Climate Change does not become a product to be sold for a profit,

We have a colossal opportunity with climate change to do one or the other, turn it into profit-making or save what left of our planet.

The problem with profit is already here to see.

In fact, that’s exactly what Big Oil firms have just started doing. Relying on oil alone simply won’t be enough for the oil supermajors to sustain their profits.

Bio this Bio that, Wall Street Carbon Credit, Green bonds. When you some of the biggest companies on the planet decide to start spending money, we’re more than happy to get in on the action.

This is just the beginning of the trend.

Sadly externality costs of fossil fuels are shouldered not by fossil fuel producers, but rather by wider society.

After gods knows how many Climate summits and we are still unable and will remain so to agree on any practical solution or action other than rely on technology to come to the rescue.

Why is it not possible to cover every bit of unused land with Solar panels?

Because the problem is that we normally don’t use logic to make the decision which electricity source to use. We want it all.

When looking at sustainable electricity resources, we commonly identify four:

Solar, Wind, Hydro and Biomass.

Each of them is renewable, but that doesn’t necessarily make them sustainable.

Sustainability is determined by three different parameters:

Environmental sustainability, Social sustainability and Economic sustainability.

If producing a renewable energy device costs more energy than it produces during its lifetime, it’s not sustainable.

Mining coal is bad for the environment, but mining neodymium and other rare earth metals for wind turbines is equally polluting.

Let’s not close our eyes to what’s happening:

Anything that’s mined destroys complete ecosystems.

There’s one overarching aspect of social sustainability – we have one globe where we can provide enough food and energy for everyone. Using the planet’s effectively and efficiently is therefore crucial.

Economic sustainability seems easy enough to measure. If a technology can be sold without subsidies it is sustainable, right?

But in most countries, fossil fuels belong to the most heavily subsidized products.

According to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook, fossil electricity is still subsidized for over $100 billion worldwide.

So, how do renewable energy technologies compete with that when subsidies for renewable sources are only one-sixth of that? And which of these can be called economically sustainable?

The one that can be purchased cheapest by consumers.

Sustainability is a very complex word and entails many aspects of which we’ve only scratched a few here to illustrate its diversity.

The question is:

How do we deal with all these aspects? Can we balance all the pros and cons? And how do we do that?

What we can do, is use the full matrix of available renewable electricity technologies and use them in the most sustainable way. Just by using logic.

Solar panels on sloped roofs that are otherwise not used,? Yes, please!

Solar panels on Dutch polders ( Low-lying land)  instead of cattle to create an “energy landscape”? No!

Wind turbines on the North Sea with high impact on nature? No!

Wind turbines on abandoned land with limited impact on nature? Yes, please!

Hydropower with dams that submerge complete villages and arable land in Brazil?! Madness!

Corn production for energy while we could produce food or feed? Of course not!

Biomass residues for electricity production? Yes, please!

Electricity production from living plants while the plant grows while producing rice on the same surface? Yes, please.

We want electricity for the whole world, at low cost, at low environmental impact, as soon as possible, with high return for the companies, with large local economic growth, with high shareholder value, easy to use for consumers, available always and everywhere.

You know what? That’s not possible.

Let’s decide what’s most important and take that as a starting point.

Starting point 1: I want cheap electricity: Here’s your coal-fired power plant. It has all the advantages of cheap electricity, but don’t complain when the Earth dies and when you’ve run out of coal.

Starting point 2: I want renewable electricity at the lowest possible price: You’ve got the choice of hydropower, wind power, solar power or biomass.

Depending on local subsidies and providers, one or more of these options will be available to you. Some of the electricity companies will provide “green electricity” and you don’t even have to choose.

Please don’t ask about the exact sustainability of your renewable electricity. It’s cheap, it’s renewable, forget about the rest.

Starting point 3: I want sustainable electricity: Now we’re talking. You’ve got the choice of hydropower, wind power, solar panels and biomass.

Let’s check what can be combined with other applications at the same land and what has the lowest impact on nature and people in the long run. You might have to pay a bit more than you’re used to, but at least you’ll be assured of a long-term solution and availability of electricity without hampering the access to other resources for yourself or others.

If we all chose starting point 1 nothing will change, we won’t stop climate change and smog will be the number one death cause in large urban areas.

If we choose starting point 2, we’ll focus on low prices that will compete with the sustainability of the renewable energy source. We might end up using fossil resources to produce renewable technologies and not changing anything in the end.

I’ve chosen starting point three. If you do too, we might have a chance of moving towards a sustainable electricity matrix with minimal impact on nature and people.

In fact, we actually may get to a point where energy is abundant, cheap, sustainable and available to everyone everywhere.

Where are we at this point of any time?

At this point, it’s hard even to imagine what a planet that’s 3.6 degrees C hotter would be like. To put this in context, human activity has already warmed the planet by about 0.8 degrees C — enough to produce severe droughts around the world, trigger or intensify intense storms and drastically reduce the Arctic ice cap, not to mention out of control fires.

Fires that will consume the parched forests of the temperate latitudes.

The wildfires in Australia are giving all of us preview that we can’t imagine today.

All the above might be true but it does not address the main problem.

Our usage of Energy.

Industry is increasingly seen as a solution to our global environmental problems, ignoring the role of major corporations in creating the current multiple crises.

Natural resources often lie at the heart of wars and civil strife and the estimated impact of greenhouse gas emissions varies widely due to uncertainties about the future.

We don’t know what the costs of climate change are, and health costs are highly uncertain.

Many scientists have ruled out arguments that market forces and technological changes can gradually lead to a sustainable energy future.

While the investment opportunities for renewable energy continue to grow, the question is to what extent the government ought to finance such investment.

Why?

Because it is no longer efficient for the government to invest in uneconomic technologies at an early stage. This why the political headwinds currently facing the renewables sector are immense.

However, these new energy sources did not simply emerge as the result of free-market forces. Rather, the government heavily subsidized each new energy source.

As the costs of PV technology, wind turbines, energy storage, and other clean energy technology have decreased over time, they have become competitive in their own right.

So here is your new year resolution.

If your community is like many others today, most people want to offset as close as possible to 100 per cent of their consumption.

It’s no longer necessary to have 32 acres of solar power panels to meet the demands of 1,000 homes.Solar Container

The majority of solar panels are 250 watts, which means you’d need four panels to create a 1-kilowatt peak (1kWp) system, eight panels to create a 2kWp system, 12 panels to create a 3kWp system, and so on.

A large fixed-tilt photovoltaic solar power plant that produces 1,000 megawatt-hours per year requires, on average, 2.8 acres for the solar panels.

Concentrating solar power plants require an average 2.7 acres for solar collectors and other equipment per 1,000 megawatt-hours; 3.5 acres for all land enclosed within the project boundary.

A solar panel system for a family of three costs around £4,000-£6,000 in the UK.  Solar panels could reduce your monthly energy bill by nearly 50%

So switching to solar energy is a smart decision that allows you to create your own power instead of buying it from the National Grid.

Energy bill savings from solar panels ultimately depend on two things: How much electricity your solar panels produce, and how much of this electricity you use.

More than half of all new electric power worldwide came from renewables last year.

Sounds too good to be true?

Prove me wrong by trying it.

Start your own research by forming an action group.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

THE BEADY EYE ASK’S; IF YOU ARE A TEENAGER NOW WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOOK FORWARD TOO.

30 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Energy, Evolution., HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Life., Modern day life., Nuclear power., Our Common Values., Social Media, Sustaniability, Technology, The essence of our humanity., The Future, The Obvious., The world to day., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A five-minute read)

IF YOU ARE A TEENAGER at the moment you have every reason to despair at the efforts of your forefathers, who continue to exploit the earth unabated, for short-term profit.

However, there is one thing for sure in your lifetime you ARE GOING TO NEED A NEW VISION FOR THE WHOLE WORLD.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of teenages"

HOW IT WORKS, AND FOR WHOM.

Our world has gone through two industrial revolutions and is now on the threshold of the next, providing that the legacy of the previous two doesn’t destroy what is left.

The coming revolution is going to CREATING THE MOST DRAMATIC STORY EVER TO BE TOLD.

For the last seven decades and both previous industrial revolutions, that created Capitalism, we have used fossil fuel to drive an unsustainable world economy that is now held in the hands of a few. ( The sixty riches people in the world own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world’s population.)

With the explosion of Artificial Intelligence WITH US AS THE MAIN TARGET, we are now faced with unrestricted evolution that will create THE 6TH EXTENSION

A WORLD STRIPPED OF ITS ESSENCE, GLITTERING WITH AN ARID AND TROUBLED BEAUTY.

To change any of this will not be a cake walk.

How will this journey end is now the big question?

As we see climate change taking a grip we got to learn to share, as everyone is going to be involved whether they like it or not.

So are we going to be able to deal with internet platforms whose power is growing daily through algorithms?  Not likely.

There is no need here for me to paint a picture, we all have smartphones which contain a little of the earthly riches.

We all know that social media is an extremely powerful tool, whether used for positive or negative reasons. It can help ignite social change, expand meaningful conversations and provide increased support for causes, among other things. A single Twitter hashtag can create massive social awareness but not the necessary action.

So the purpose of this post is to see if there is anyone out there among the under thirty years old ( which is half of the world population) have any suggestions as to use this power in a positive way to create the distribution of Green Energy.

It is energy that is going to DRIVE ANY EXTENSION or EVOLUTION.

HERE IS MY SOLUTION.

EVERY HAMLET, VILLAGE GENERATES ITS OWN POWER.

THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH LITTLE OR NO COST.

THE LARGE ENERGY COMPANIES ENTER INTO GREEN ENERGY COMMUNITY CONTRACTS WITH COMMUNITIES OF OVER 500 HOMES.

THEY LEASE THE LAND FROM THE LANDOWNER.

SUBSIDIZING THE CAPITAL COST OF SETTING UP SOLAR OR WIND GENERATING POWER – ATTACHED TO THE GRID.

THE COMMUNITY RECEIVES FREE POWER AND A % OF THE REVENUE FROM THE SALE OF EXCESS ENERGY FOR MAINTENANCE COST.

THE ENERGY COMPANY RECOUPS ITS CAPITAL COST PLUS AN AGREED INTEREST PAYMENT OVER A TERM OF YEARS RELATED TO THE EXCESS POWER GENERATED

NOT ONLY WOULD THIS BE GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT REDUCING CARBON EMISSION AND REPLACING NUCLEAR ENERGY WHICH IS BOTH DANGEROUS AND EXPENSIVE IT WOULD (FROM A RESOURCE THAT IS FREE) REDUCE THE RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUEL THAT IS DESTROYING THE WORLD SUSTAINABILITY.

HOW CAN THIS BE ARCHIVED?

THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED BY USING THE HASHTAG POWER TO LOBBY BOTH THE GOVERNMENT AND THE ENERGY COMPANIES.

So is there any young entrepreneurs out there that can put the package together?

# ELECTRIFY US

All suggestions appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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THE BEADY EYE CAN’T HELP BUT WEEP WHEN IT LOOKS AT CLIMATE CHANGE. WITH THE STATE THE WORLD IS IN AT THE MOMENT THERE IS ZERO HOPE OF US COMING TOGETHER WITH A REALISTIC SOLUTION.

10 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Climate Change., Energy, Evolution, Humanity., Life., Nuclear power., Our Common Values., Paris Climate Change Conference 2015, Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The Future, THE FUTURE OF OUR OCEANS/SEAS, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A SEVEN MINUTE READ)

For the past year, I have been adding to my Flipboard ( # Silent Witness to Climate Change) anything connected to the subject.

In the last few months, the shit really started hitting the fan.

Record heat waves in Pakistan, India, each killing thousands of people, while California burns, Port Rico has little or no water and the Helheim glacier in Greenland lost 10 billion tons of ice.

Countries and communities around the world are already experiencing stepped-up climate change impacts – including droughts, floods, more intense and frequent natural disasters, and sea-level rise – and the most vulnerable are being hit the hardest.  Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of climate change"

It is not difficult nor does it require Artificial intelligence to realize that if the world does not address Co2 emissions we are looking at mass migration, economic collapse, not to mention wars that will threaten the very fabric of civilization.

GLOBAL WARMING IS ALREADY HAPPING FAR FASTER THAN THE 2 DEGREES CELSIUS LIMITED SET BY THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT. THE CURRENT RATE OF EMISSIONS WITHIN THE PRESENT CENTURY WILL EFFECT OUR OCEANS – IRREVERSIBLE.

The appearance of low-oxygen regions is doubling every ten years, spreading from coastal areas into deep and deeper water, forcing fish whales and pretty much every living ocean creatures upwards.  Cold patches in the ocean are slowing warm ocean circulation currents while acidifying continuous unabated with over six percent of the world reefs disappearing before the end of the decade.

SURELY WE DON’T NEED TO BE TOLD THAT HURRICANES ARE GETTING STRONGER AND MORE AND MORE DEVASTATING NATURAL DISASTER ARE OCCURRING WORLDWIDE.  Considering all of the other climate forces surely its time that our world leaders whether in or out of government stand up and take notice.

We are all however through our self-image underestimate climate change.

If you ask me no one can comment on how far in the future these changes will occur but what is happing to the Bearing sea is already providing us with a snapshot of what is to come and it won’t be gradual. (The Bearing sea was once a barrier between the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean it is now an arm of the Atlantic.)

Rather than seeing lots of regional tipping points, the future will be the sum of all the climatic events and their interaction. It won’t be Florida that is wiped off the map but the whole of the earth ecosystems.

With the Donald Trump promoting America First, fueling trade wars and opting out of the Paris Climate agreement it would be a brave political leader to be advocating that we should cut consumption for obvious economic reasons.

Social media continues to dilute any long-term coordinated political engagement, aiding populous ends, and fragmented partitions.

To reduce Co2 emissions we are left with one option and that NEEDS to engage all of us.

So what if anything can be done?

All TV stations should be legally obliged to provide their viewers with a weather forecast once a month that is dedicated to the effects of climate change in order to bring the subject to the attention of the viewing public.

We are beginning to see small communities developing their own sustainable energy supply.  GOVERNMENTS NEED TO SUPPORT THIS TRANSFORMATION WITH REWARDS AND SUBSIDIES WHETHER ITS TAX BRAKES OR PAYING FOR THE ENERGY GENERATED.

WHAT IF YOU WERE REWARDED FOR CONVERTING TO SOLAR PANELS.

To make a difference worldwide we must make GREED IN THE FORM OF PROFIT CONTRIBUTE.  ( see previous posts on a WORLD AID FUND)

Will any of this happen?

Nuclear power –  Infusion – Technology-  Paris Climate Agreement, you name it, will not stop natures environmental response to our abuses of sustainability.

THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT IF WE ARE TO TURN THE TIDE ON CLIMATE CHANGE GOVERNMENTS AND ALL OF US MUST RESHAPE THE FUTURE OF ENERGY.

TO BENEFIT SOCIALLY AND FINANCIALLY FROM THE ENEGERY WE MUST TRANSITION TO COMMUNITIES MODELS.

While we are all becoming aware that we are at the edge of a new phase of human history. To get there we must act not as machines driven by data and algorithms ungoverned by ethical philosophical norms.

INDIVIDUALS TURNED INTO DATA TO FUEL PARTIES FOR POLITICAL OR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES IS NOT GOING TO TACKLE THE PROBLEMS THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS BRING TO THE WORLD.

ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE ALGORITHMS ARE WEAKENING THE FORTITUDE REQUIRED TO ACT.

POLITICAL LEADERS OVERWHELMED BY NICHE PRESSURES ARE DEPRIVED OF TIME TO THINK OR REFLECT ON CONTEXT, CONTRACTING THE SPACE AVAILABLE FOR THEM TO DEVELOP VISION.

THE DIGITAL WORLD WITH ITS INCENTIVES IS EMPOWERING THE RADICAL OVER THE THOUGHTFUL TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT WE MUST EXPECT AI TO MAKE MISTAKES FASTER- AND OF GREATER MAGNITUDE THAT HUMANS DO.

AI may well in the future reach its intended goals, but it will be unable to explain the rationale for its conclusions.

THE TERM ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE IS A MISNOMER.

THE TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD  IS PREOCCUPIED WITH COMMERCIAL VISTAS RATHER THAN EXPLORING THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUMAN CONDITION THAT IT HAS BEGUN TO PRODUCE.

THERE IS ONE THING FOR CERTAIN IF WE DO NOT START TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGES  SOON  WITH A GLOBAL EFFORT TO CLEAN UP OUR ACT WE SHALL DISCOVER THAT WE STARTED TOO LATE.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of climate change"

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASKS: WHICH TWENTIETH- CENTURY INVENTION HAS HAD THE MOST IMPACT ON OUR DAILY LIVES.

04 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Artificial Intelligence., Big Data., Capitalism, Climate Change., Energy, Environment, Evolution, Facebook, HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, Humanity., Innovation., Nuclear power., Our Common Values., Sustaniability, Technology, The common good., The Obvious., The world to day., Twitter, Unanswered Questions., War, Where's the Global Outrage., WiFi communication.

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(Six-minute read)

Perception is at the heart of this question and of course, there are hundreds of inventions that could and should be mentioned if we had the time and space.

We began the 20th century with the infancy of airplanes, automobiles, and radio. We end the 20th century with spaceships, computers, smartphones, AI and the wireless Internet all being technologies we now take for granted.

However, the world is steeped in poverty with precious little in the way of humanitarian advancement. Image associée

HERE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER IS MY LIST AND WHY.

The credit card:

Part of the fabric of modern day life. Credit no longer the prerogative of the elite. The ultimate symbol of the triumphant Anglo-American consumer culture. The modern manifestation of money. Allowed modern Banks to transcend national boundaries. Guarantees payment of debts.

Microchip: Fiber Optics: Microprocessor: Windows 

Created the Credit Card. The Internet and the World Wide Web.

Artificial Fertilizers: 

Enabled the further expansion of agriculture and pollution.

Internal combustion engine:

The why is obvious:

The pneumatic tire:

Did more for the engine.

The condom/ Birth pill. 

The why is obvious.

Nuclear Power:

Nuclear power has long provoked ardent policy fights, historically centered on the perceived safety or danger of splitting atoms to keep consumers’ refrigerators running.

Today, it’s not local or environmental opposition but economics that’s crippling nuclear power.

It may be very difficult to meet international carbon-cutting goals without the widespread addition of nuclear plants.

This still leaves the problem of waste, and a choice between nuclear waste—deadly but the concentrated poison that lasts thousands of years—and fossil-fuel waste—invisible, diffuse carbon pollution that in sufficient amounts will transform the Earth for thousands of years.

While nuclear waste is nasty stuff, so are the conventional pollutants of fossil-fuel burning.  Nuclear power avoids air emissions of over one million tons of sulfur dioxide and 650,000 tons of nitrogen oxides each year, as well as significant particulate emissions.

Since CO2 emissions persist for many years in the atmosphere emissions cuts made today are worth more than the same cuts made down the road.

The best invention may be Toyota’s Hybrid.

AK-47 Kalashnikov: M16: 

The twenty century can be characterized by mass warfare and mass killing- two world wars, Stalin’s purges, the Holocaust, Hiroshima, Cambodia’s killings fields, Rwanda the list goes on.

No firearm of any kind has killed more people.

It is the weapon of choice for terrorists, rebels with 75 million in circulation around the world accounting for 20% of the entire global stock of firearms. Every year, small arms kill between 20,000 and 100,000 people in the world’s conflicts. AK-47s Kalashnikov accounts for a high proportion – and quite possibly the majority – of this human toll. In the 68 years since the first prototype was made, the AK-47 has probably dealt death to millions.

A Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle in the hands of a herdsman in Sudan

This is the decade of AI  (run by the Algorithm) I PAD, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook. Social Media. 3d Printing.

Will there use glorify peace? Not on the evidence so far.

Feel free to add yours and why.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

 

THE BEADY EYE SAY’S. WORLD MAINSTREAM POLITICS IS TURNING A BLIND EYE TO WHAT TECHNOLOGY IS DOING TO THE WORLD.

11 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Algorithms., Capitalism, Climate Change., Energy, Environment, Humanity., Life., Politics., Post - truth politics., Sustaniability, Technology, The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., United Nations, Wealth., What Needs to change in the World

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( A six-minute read)

Algorithms are shifting authority.

Surely its time for all of us to stop acting as though we are all independent of Life.

To see the future first you have to be able to imagine it.

People might be beginning to understand but the clock is running out faster and faster which is being signaled by nature year after year while banks are commercializing its very existence.

Including us, none of the worlds in the universe are immune to natural limits.

If we and our politicians are still dragging our feet in another ten, twenty, thirty years we will have degrees of climate change that we will simply not be able to manage.  The whole world will be in trouble.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "pictures of political movements"

As all the bad things re climate change are coming true assisted by the inertia of AI which is getting build into the system this time  we will not be able to rely on coal to generate energy,

The chances of Technology (In the form of Algorithms) tackling inequality or driving sustainability are dismal in the extreme.  (See previous postings)

The coming global problems that are going to be created by technology are obvious to see, lack of meaningful employment with the resulting immigration causing civil unrest and a return to Nationalism.

Just look at the results of Paris Climate Agreements being adhered too.

A complete allusion due to the rise of Nationalism.

Why?

Because of nationalism, we are now beginning to address the world problems on all the wrong levels.

We need to be looking forward not backward.  Make America great, or Brexit Britain the two current prime examples.

We are now all living with technology and no government can control it.

Now more than ever the global capitalistic economy with national politics does not work.

Basic human needs are changing and even if we manage to establish a Basic Wage for all it will not solve who lives or dies.

Human stupidity or violence should never be underestimated. There is no post-truth fake news it has been with us for thousands of years.

No one has the time to analyze all the information that AI is producing other than another machine to make a judgment.

( I often feel that we should all be changing Facebook, Twitter, Google and the like for the information we are supplying them with.)

We have out of date Organisations that are incapable of making anything stick.

So I hear you saying what can be done.

First and for most, we must apply a World  Aid Commission on all Profit-seeking Algorithms, on all high-frequency trading, on all sovereign wealth funds acquisitions, on all foreign exchange transaction over $50,00, on all world Lotto prize money etc. (See previous postings)

Then we must create a technology storm room where all programmes relating to technology in all its forms are held with access to all in sundry.

Of course, this is pie in the sky as it will never happen.

Since the dawn of history, the human has not been able to share for the common good of all, but there is one thing that might focus our minds sooner than extinction and that is the price of oil as it runs out.

New media such as Social Media seems to be driving a return to a more pluralistic communication System and Social movement activists may be seen as consumers of these new media, and for this very reason find attention for their demands.

But this, in fact, is open to différent types of interprétation.

So where are we?

As F.M. Powicke said: ” Political and social history are in my view aspects of the same process. Social Life loses half its interest, and political movements lose most of their meaning if they are considered separately”

Social media with its networks and its rules petitions and false news that go beyond democratic representation and is achieving exactly what Powicke rightly identified.

Social left politics is in disarray, Right-wing politics on the rise, Liberal politics in the pockets of Economic growth and the technologic revolution.

It is, therefore, time for in-depth research on the interactions between movement organizations and the society of social media that goes beyond the analysis of media bias.

In course of constructing the political landscape of these movements, if there is going to be any chance.  We must not allow the world to be governed by the altar of profit, whether its Apple, Microsoft or some other monopoly platform.

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks chucked in the bin.

 

 

THE BEADY EYE ASKS: WHAT IS HAPPINESS.

31 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in Artificial Intelligence., Capitalism, Emotions., Energy, Google it., Happiness., Humanity., Life., Our Common Values., Technology, The Obvious., The world to day., Unanswered Questions.

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( A follow on read: Twelve minutes from the post – WHAT IS THE CONCEPT OF NOW.)

While writing:( what is the concept of now) my daughter suggested I write a happy post. This post is therefore dedicated to her continuing search for happiness.

What is happiness?  How do we find the key to happiness?

Is happiness the sole purpose of life or is it just good health with a bad memory.

To day this is the default view. Skepticism about the afterlife drives humankind to seek not only immortality but also earthly happiness.

Who would like to live for ever in eternal misery?

What stands between us and an answer to this deceptively complex questions is the problem of subjectivity –happiness means different things to different people.

To behaviorist, happiness is a cocktail of emotions we experience when we do something good or positive. To neurologists, happiness is the experience of a flood of hormones released in the brain as a reward for behavior that prolongs survival. According to the tenets of several major religions, happiness indicates the presence of God.

This question has no straightforward answer, because the meaning of the question itself is unclear. What exactly is being asked? Perhaps you want to know what the word ‘happiness’ means. In that case your inquiry is linguistic.

Chances are you had something more interesting in mind: perhaps you want to know about the thing, happiness, itself. Is it pleasure, a life of prosperity, something else? Yet we can’t answer that question until we have some notion of what we mean by the word.Image associée

Is there anything more to being happy than just thinking you’re happy?

Do we have the power to choose to be happy or unhappy?

Are all kinds of happiness created equal?

Happiness is not a single all-encompassing concept it is a complex the notion.

A state of mind. What is this state of mind we call happiness? Typical answers to this question include life satisfaction, pleasure, or a positive emotional condition.

A life that goes well for the person leading it. Perhaps you are a high-achieving intellectual who thinks that only ignoramuses can be happy. On this sort of view, happy people are to be pitied, not envied.

We are inclined to think that pleasure is the key to happiness.

Is it purpose, or goal?

Has a goal that is an end-in-itself, nothing that he does is actually worth doing.

For most people, happiness is a central aspect of well-being, since most people very much desire to be happy. Even a slave might come to internalize the values of his oppressors and be happy, and this strikes most as an unenviable life indeed.

Is happiness overrated?

How if at all should one pursue happiness as part of a good life?

Is it possible to objectify and even quantify so subjective and elusive a quality as happiness?  The individual pursuit of happiness may be subject to non-moral norms as well, prudence being the most obvious among them.

The pursuit of happiness is self-defeating especially when it is associated with pleasure. The virtue of compassion or kindness, giving not receiving, produce happiness.    

Philosophical “theories of happiness” can be about either of at least two different things: well-being, or a state of mind. To be happy, it seems, is just to be in a certain sort of psychological state or condition.

Is it a psychological state (for example, feeling overall more pleasure than pain) and happiness as a positive evaluation of your life, even if it has involved more pain than pleasure.

Above all, there is the fundamental question: In which sense, if any, is happiness a proper goal of a human life?

Wealth, beauty, and pleasure, for example, have little effect on happiness.

What is needed to achieve genuine happiness?

Answer me this:  Would you choose to attach ourselves to a device that would produce a constant state of intense pleasure, even if we never achieved anything in our lives other than experiencing this pleasure. We all need to answer this question for ourselves.

Morality itself is a worthy goal of human existence. Our good or bad fortune can play a part in determining our happiness; for example, happiness can be affected by factors as our material circumstances, our place in society, and even our looks, whether we are married or not. In the long run marriage is not a major source of either happiness or unhappiness.

When asked Aristotle said” that the supreme good is happiness.”

And of this nature happiness is mostly thought to be, for this we choose always for its own sake, and never with a view to anything further: whereas honour, pleasure, intellect, in fact every excellence we choose for their own sakes, it is true, but we choose them also with a view to happiness, conceiving that through their instrumentality we shall be happy: but no man chooses happiness with a view to them, nor in fact with a view to any other thing whatsoever.

But what is happiness?

For Aristotle, it is by understanding the distinctive function of a thing that one can understand its essence.

Whereas human beings need nourishment like plants and have sentience like animals, their distinctive function, says Aristotle, is their unique capacity to reason. Thus, our supreme good, or happiness, is to lead a life that enables us to use and develop our reason, and that is in accordance with reason. Unlike amusement or pleasure, which can also be enjoyed by animals, happiness is not a state but an activity. And like virtue or goodness, it is profound and enduring.

By living our life to the full according to our essential nature as rational beings, we are bound to become happy regardless.

For this reason, happiness is more a question of behavior and of habit—of virtue—than of luck; a person who cultivates such behaviors and habits is able to bear his misfortunes with balance and perspective, and thus can never be said to be truly unhappy.

Some goals are subordinate to other goals, which are themselves subordinate to yet other goals, but happiness needs sadness. Without sadness there can be no happy moments unlike pleasure which can be manufactured by algorithms.

Being happy doesn’t come easy with the stress of modern life.  Take for instance the average American who uses sixty times more energy than the average stone age hunter-gatherer. Is he sixty times happier?

It took just a piece of bread to make a starving medieval peasant joyful.

It appears that even with all our unprecedented accomplishments even if we provided free food, ensured world peace, provided free medical care, gave everyone a thousand bitcoins the Capitalism system ensures that the ceiling of happiness remains out of reach.

Our exceptions are driven by our biochemistry level rather than our economic, social or political situation. Pleasure v pain. Unpleasant bodily sensations.

PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS DISAPPOINT TO REMAIN HAPPY YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO FORGIVE, FORGET, “ Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Self-actualization is Happiness. Joy goes in and out of vogue. We can deceive ourselves into thinking we’re happy when we’re not and we can be happy without realizing it.

Happy.

It’s pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed.

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I would be as happy as a pig in shit if I could live in THE CONCEPT OF NOW.

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THE BEADY EYE ASKS: WHAT IS THE TRUTH WHEN IT COMES TO ENERGY.

14 Sunday May 2017

Posted by in Energy, Modern day life., Oil, Sustaniability, Technology, The Future, The world to day., Unanswered Questions., What Needs to change in the World, Where's the Global Outrage.

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( A Six minute read)

It’s easy to pick the dominant environmental issue of the last decade. It has been the issue of climate change and what—if anything—the countries of the world can do to limit, or reduce, carbon dioxide emissions.

It took hundreds of millions of years to create the world’s oil reserves.

It took less than a century before oil became the commodity on which world power turned and it was little more than a century before fears were raised that we would run out of oil.

Day in, day out, human beings are dependent upon it more than any other resource—and yet most rarely think about it.

For instance, most plastics are derived from oil. The medications taken by millions of people requires oil to produce.

Today, producing, distributing, refining and retailing oil is the single largest industry, in terms of value, on earth!  Yet, like most, you probably give little if any thought to the black liquid.

So the world needs to come to a common understanding that:

  1. The alternative energy is not mature enough to replace fossil sources any time soon.
  2. Energy security means a diversified and balanced portfolio inclusive of every bit of resource, fossil as well as renewables, just to meet the projected demand. No single form of energy will be able to entirely replace it.
  3. Real “green” energy is easier said than done.
  4. Gold and Oil are the commodities most heavily invested in by Hedge Funds.

Now consider.

Oil is a nonrenewable, finite resource.

What if there were no more oil?

What if the lifeblood of modern civilization stopped flowing?

The global economy would collapse in a heap of ruin—and fast! Life as we know it would come to an end. All the everyday items made from oil would no longer be produced. Virtually all transport would stop, and so would nearly all manufacturing. Scores of millions would be unemployed. Millions in colder climates would freeze. Food production would come to a grinding halt. Scores of millions would starve to death because 99.99…% of people don’t have the faintest grasp of the historical technology required to revert to a pre-oil era.

So where there used to be a strong link between economic growth and the increasing demand for oil, is that link now being broken by alternative energy sources.

Many are touting a number of alternative forms of energy as potential replacements to oil.

The key rationale for reducing petroleum consumption lies in the fact that the market price does not account for its full social cost: the negative externalities or consequences associated with petroleum use-such as greenhouse gas emissions and national security issues-are not incorporated in the market prices.

But is all of this true.Résultat de recherche d'images pour "biofuels images"

Biofuels: Corn-based ethanol.

A biofuel-gasoline mixture is already being used in many automobiles. Making biofuels requires large amounts of land. If these fuels were to become the “new oil,” nations would face a choice between growing crops for food and growing crops for fuel, as there is not enough cultivable land on earth to satisfy man’s need for both.

More carbon dioxide is actually released through biofuels than gasoline.

Résultat de recherche d'images pour ":Hydrogen fuel cells:"

Hydrogen is a non-polluting alternative fuel. Hydrogen fuel cells directly convert the chemical energy in hydrogen to electricity and release water and useful heat as by-products. Hydrogen fuel cells are pollution-free and have greater efficiency than traditional combustion technology.

The most abundant element in the universe but, it does not occur naturally as a gas in the Earth it is quite expensive to produce.

The systems used for delivering gasoline from refineries to gasoline stations cannot be used for hydrogen.

NASA is the primary user of hydrogen resources for its space program.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are currently very expensive than conventional vehicles or any hybrids.

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Is efficient and clean, but the more reactors that are in use around the world, the more likely a nuclear disaster will occur.

Nuclear fusion: Résultat de recherche d'images pour "what is nuclear fusion"

Is an atomic reaction in which multiple atoms combine to create a single, more massive atom. The long allure of nuclear fusion is simple: clean, safe, limitless energy for a world that will soon house 10bn energy-hungry citizens. But despite 60 years of research and billions of dollars, the results to date are also simple: it has not delivered.

The world record for fusion power – 16MW – was set in 1997 at the JET reactor in the UK. The longest fusion run – six minutes and 30 seconds – was achieved at France’s Tore Supra in 2003.

The world needs to know if this technology is available or not.

Solar and wind power:

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Are unlikely to produce enough energy to match that of oil.

New motor technologies:

Electric or Fuel cell cars to expensive.

So where are with energy.

Here’s the bottom line:

Renewables will remain niche players in the global energy mix for decades to come. The past—and the foreseeable future—still belong to hydrocarbons. And we can expect natural gas, the cleanest of the hydrocarbons, to garner a bigger share of the global energy pie in the near term and in the long-term.

Most alternative technologies rely on rare earths for efficiency.

However, the radioactive waste produced by rare earths mining process makes oil sands look like a green energy. This overlooked (or ignored) fact just now received some attention due to the sudden shortage caused by China’s embargo and export quotas on rare earths.

It Will Take 131 Years To Replace Oil, And We’ve Only Got 10.

Carbon dioxide emissions will continue rising because hundreds of millions of people are transitioning to a modern lifestyle, complete with cars, TVs, and other manufactured goods.

Renewable sources like wind and solar have their virtues, but they cannot compare with hydrocarbons when it comes to economics. If renewable sources of energy were dramatically cheaper than hydrocarbons, then perhaps we could be more optimistic about their ability to capture a larger part of the global energy mix. But even if that were true, a wholesale change in our energy mix will take a long time.

There is one thing all energy transitions have in common: they are prolonged affairs that take decades to accomplish.

If petroleum didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it. Nothing else comes close to oil when it comes to energy density, ease of handling, flexibility, convenience, cost, or scale. Electric vehicles may be the celebrity car du jour, but modern batteries are only slightly better than the ones that Thomas Edison developed. Gasoline has 80 times the energy density of the best lithium-ion batteries.

The entire global economic foundation is still built upon oil.

However China and India are among those facing major problems with urban air pollution.

We can talk about wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen, and lots of other forms of energy production. But the question that too few people are willing to ask is this one: Where, how, will we find the energy equivalent of 25 Saudi Arabia’s and have it all be carbon-free?

The hard reality is that we won’t.

We need a simpler measure for global energy use, which now totals about 241 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. That sum is almost impossible to comprehend, but try thinking of it this way: It’s approximately equal to the total daily oil output of 29 Saudi Arabia’s.

Furthermore, over the past decade alone, global energy consumption has increased by about 27 percent, or six Saudi Arabia’s. Nearly all of that new energy came from hydrocarbons.

Scientists and policymakers can claim that carbon dioxide is bad but here is no urgency for an accelerated shift to a non-fossil fuel world: The supply of fossil fuels is adequate for generations to come; new energies are not qualitatively superior; and their production will not be substantially cheaper.

The supply chain required to run a modern society is oil.

The inability to lubricate moving parts to have no power the Internet and most technological development based on it (the “Internet of Things”) would cease to exist.

Most world currencies would collapse. Over 90% of

U.S. dollars exist electronically;

with no electricity to power the computers that track

these financial transactions and balances, most

records of ownership would be unavailable for the

foreseeable future.

Within a couple of weeks all the food in the cities would

be exhausted. Mass unemployment,

all the trees will probably be chopped down to

make coal to make energy.

 

Energy is too important for its development to continue in such a random manner. Thus society seems to be caught in a dilemma unlike anything experienced in the last few centuries.

Despite many claims to the contrary—from oil and gas advocates on the one hand and solar advocates on the other—THERE IS  no easy solution to these issues.

If any resolution to these problems is possible it is probable that it would have to come at least as much from an adjustment of society’s aspirations for increased material affluence and an increase in willingness to share as from technology.

Unfortunately recent political events do not leave us with great optimism that such changes in societal values will be forthcoming. With Donald Trump the debate over whether climate change is for real, and why it might be happening, has not gone away.

It’s less clear than ever how much oil is left but thanks to technology and changing climate change which is pushing car manufacturers towards more hybrid and electric cars, is seen as less of a threat than even ten years ago.

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