Alfonso Alfaro’s Reviews > Energy and Civilization: A History > Status Update
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 423 of 552
The consequences go beyond evident obedience as the spreading power of techniques has already made a large part of humanity irrelevant to production processes & only a small part of the labor force is now required (w/the help of computers) to design & produce items destined for global mass consumption. As a result many people are now commonly employed in selling a product rather than designing, improving & making it.
— 5 hours, 47 min ago
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Alfonso’s Previous Updates
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 441 of 552
Georgescu-Roegen's was not hopeful: "Perhaps, the destiny of man is to have a short, but fiery, exciting and extravagant life rather than a long, uneventful and vegetative existence.
— 5 hours, 31 min ago
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 434 of 552
Societies focusing more on human welfare than on frivolous consumption can achieve a higher quality of life while consuming a fraction of the fuels and electricity by more wasteful nations.
— 5 hours, 34 min ago
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 429 of 552
They have been behind the heavy subsidies that for decades have gone to producers of fossil fuels and nuclear electricity, and now they are behind the new subsidies promoting the constructions of photovoltaics and wind turbines.
— 5 hours, 38 min ago
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 429 of 552
By shaping and often vetoing or disabling, government policies and fixing prices, these groups work against the optimized use of all resources, and inevitably they have a notable effect on the development of energy resources and on the efficiency of their use.
— 5 hours, 39 min ago
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 429 of 552
Special interest groups have become certainly the most important microparasites in modern affluent countries. They range from various professional associations and labor unions with restricted entries to oligopolistic industrial cartels and lobbies.
— 5 hours, 41 min ago
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 428 of 552
Japan's minor coal resources, limited hydroelectric potential, and virtual absence of hydrocarbons force it to be a major energy importer, and in order to reduce its vulnerability to high fuel prices and import interruptions it became one of the world's most efficient users of energy. Its government bureaucracies have promoted state cooperation with industries, technical innovation, and value-added exports.
— 5 hours, 44 min ago
Alfonso Alfaro
is on page 423 of 552
This world gives us unprecedented benefits and almost magical freedoms, but in return, modern societies must not only adapt to it but submit to its rules and strictures. Every person now depends on this techniques, but not a single individual understand them in its totality; we just follow their dictates in everyday life.
— 5 hours, 52 min ago