3-6-07 Making Fire

Somewhere back in the dim mists of pre-history, humans discovered how to make fire. We still make fire, and use it for just about everything. The whole world runs on fire. We are a "fire society" that has learned how to make hotter and more efficient fires with different fuels, thoughout the ages.

This is a paradigm of our existence that's so basic, it's often overlooked in everyday life. Oil, natural gas, coal, alcohol, hydrogen, wood, and several other substances are used to "make fire" and produce heat. We burn these things in fires that we control. The various technologies we have for controlling fire is quite amazing, when you take a good look at it. Finding a source of energy that we use which isn't generated by fire is actually very difficult.

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is nuclear energy. Einstein's fantastic theory, that the whole universe is actually made out of energy, has changed the way we think. But it hasn't changed the way we think THAT much...

A few short decades after Einstein's breakthrough in theoretical physics, the prospect of harnessing the energy that the universe if made out of finally burst upon the consciousness of the world on August 6, 1945. This was the day that an atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. The "Atomic Age" had begun.

Six decades later, however, the only thing that "nuclear energy" is used for is heat. We've learned how to control the nuclear chain reaction so that it doesn't explode, but it does produce a great deal of heat. It is, essentially, only another form of "fire" that we've learned how to control. The heat from the nuclear chain reaction is used to boil water into steam. The steam is used to make a turbine spin. The spinning turbine is hooked up to an electrical generator, and this is how we get electric power out of "nuclear energy" ...pretty much the same old fire society paradigm that's been running along, now, for thousands and thousands of years.

We live in a whole universe that is, literally, made out of energy. But we only use the heat from a radioactive chain reaction in the same way we would use heat from any other fire...

There are alternative fuels such as alcohol and hydrogen that can be used to make fire, but they are still completely within the "fire society" paradigm, as well.

It's only when you start to look at energy sources that aren't based upon coming up with something to burn that we actually start thinking "outside the box". If you take a peek "outside the box," there are fires that are already burning which can be harnessed.

The Sun is radiating energy from the fusion of hydrogen, and this "fire" will be burning for a very long time. We know how to turn this radiant energy of sunlight directly into electricity at this time. But it's a lot less efficient or cost effective, so far, than simply "making fire" by burning things such as oil, coal, or natural gas.

There is also a "fire" already burning inside the Earth, and it's referred to as "Geothermal" energy when looking at how anyone might harness that. It's "free heat" and it'll be there for a very long time to come.

Looking just a bit further outside the box, there is wind power and tidal power. If fully developed, Solar, Wind, Geothermal, and Tidal power sources could be used to supply more power in the form of electricity than the entire world could ever possibly need for thousands of years.

Generating usable power without burning something, without starting a fire and controlling it, is apparently a very difficult concept for this civilization to grasp, however. It seems simple enough, but the existing scene in our civilization is completely wrapped up in the "fire society" paradigm.

Until the cavemen who control this fire society can be brought to understanding and realize the need for change, we will continue to "make fire" and burn away this planet's limited resources.