12-23-06 Same As It Ever Was
When I was a kid and the way that automobiles work was explained to me, I was amazed. I hadn't even suspected that the car moved only because, down there at the bottom of it, the engine was using explosions of gasoline and air. The technology is so refined that these explosions happen several times a second.
I had thought there was some far more advanced magic occuring under the hood, and I had hoped that someday I would understand it. But this! This was a tremendous let-down for me!
It soon became apparent that everything we had in this modern age of technology was, at the bottom of it, just a matter of making fire with various things. We make fire with gasoline to drive pistons inside automobile engines. We make fire with coal and natural gas, and use the heat to boil water and make steam, and use the steam to turn turbines, and use the power of the turbines to turn generators in electric plants. We make fire with diesel fuel inside big engines to make explosions, and those diesels are used to turn generators that make electricity, and that electricity is used to run the electric motors that drive the engines in trains. Everywhere I looked, the beginning of the chain of power sources all went back to making fire.
I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's as the "atomic age" was coming to fruition. Atomic power, I thought, would be the more advanced magic. But it turned out that I was wrong about that, too. When I learned that the only difference between an atomic bomb and the power source for a nuclear reactor was simply that the same chain reaction that could result in a horrific explosion was simply being controlled, and that it was only the heat that was being used, I was again disappointed. It was an even bigger let-down. The heat from the controlled nuclear chain reaction is used to boil water and make steam, and the steam is used to turn turbines, and the turbines are used to turn generators to make electricity...
So there it was. Einstein's great breakthrough showing that the universe is made out of energy, and that there's so much energy comprising matter that you have to multiply the speed of light by itself to come up with such a huge number that will give us some idea of just how much energy that really is... this fantastic discovery was being used, essentially, to "make fire".
Yes, it's true, the world uses water power and wind power and solar power today. But the ratio of those renewable energy sources of power and non-renewable energy sources is still way off; we're still just "making fire" for the overwhelming majority of the world's power sources.
Even now, as I look back on the half century of my life, the world's so-called "high technology" and all the wonderful things it's brought us, at the bottom of it, is still this fire society paradigm, this fundamental and old idea that in order to generate power you've got to make fire.
Why the modern world is still a "fire society" after all the fantastic discoveries that have been made in physics over the past century is certainly a good question, in my estimation. It leads to some fairly simple facts. But those facts are difficult to convey when, down there at the bottom of it all, most people don't realize that they're living in a "fire society". Most people think we're living in some successor to the "atomic age" where the magic of technology is at work.
There's a fire burning somewhere making heat, and the heat is boiling water to make steam, and the steam is driving a turbine to make a generator turn, and the electricity from that generator is connected to huge wires that criss-cross the countryside, sooner or later reaching the place you are and providing the electricity for the computer screen you're looking at. Everything you have and everything you eat was processed and transported using power generated by fire.
It'll be 2007 in a few days. And all the wonders of our modern technology are still run, basically, by fire...
Welcome to the future (same as it ever was).
I had thought there was some far more advanced magic occuring under the hood, and I had hoped that someday I would understand it. But this! This was a tremendous let-down for me!
It soon became apparent that everything we had in this modern age of technology was, at the bottom of it, just a matter of making fire with various things. We make fire with gasoline to drive pistons inside automobile engines. We make fire with coal and natural gas, and use the heat to boil water and make steam, and use the steam to turn turbines, and use the power of the turbines to turn generators in electric plants. We make fire with diesel fuel inside big engines to make explosions, and those diesels are used to turn generators that make electricity, and that electricity is used to run the electric motors that drive the engines in trains. Everywhere I looked, the beginning of the chain of power sources all went back to making fire.
I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's as the "atomic age" was coming to fruition. Atomic power, I thought, would be the more advanced magic. But it turned out that I was wrong about that, too. When I learned that the only difference between an atomic bomb and the power source for a nuclear reactor was simply that the same chain reaction that could result in a horrific explosion was simply being controlled, and that it was only the heat that was being used, I was again disappointed. It was an even bigger let-down. The heat from the controlled nuclear chain reaction is used to boil water and make steam, and the steam is used to turn turbines, and the turbines are used to turn generators to make electricity...
So there it was. Einstein's great breakthrough showing that the universe is made out of energy, and that there's so much energy comprising matter that you have to multiply the speed of light by itself to come up with such a huge number that will give us some idea of just how much energy that really is... this fantastic discovery was being used, essentially, to "make fire".
Yes, it's true, the world uses water power and wind power and solar power today. But the ratio of those renewable energy sources of power and non-renewable energy sources is still way off; we're still just "making fire" for the overwhelming majority of the world's power sources.
Even now, as I look back on the half century of my life, the world's so-called "high technology" and all the wonderful things it's brought us, at the bottom of it, is still this fire society paradigm, this fundamental and old idea that in order to generate power you've got to make fire.
Why the modern world is still a "fire society" after all the fantastic discoveries that have been made in physics over the past century is certainly a good question, in my estimation. It leads to some fairly simple facts. But those facts are difficult to convey when, down there at the bottom of it all, most people don't realize that they're living in a "fire society". Most people think we're living in some successor to the "atomic age" where the magic of technology is at work.
There's a fire burning somewhere making heat, and the heat is boiling water to make steam, and the steam is driving a turbine to make a generator turn, and the electricity from that generator is connected to huge wires that criss-cross the countryside, sooner or later reaching the place you are and providing the electricity for the computer screen you're looking at. Everything you have and everything you eat was processed and transported using power generated by fire.
It'll be 2007 in a few days. And all the wonders of our modern technology are still run, basically, by fire...
Welcome to the future (same as it ever was).
posted by Jeff Barnard at 3:14 AM
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