: : Can you magic up raw materials to support this lifestyle, Frenchy?; and if you can't can you tell us where this global Western-style capitalism is coming from?:
: Here's another example; a half century ago anyone who said that there would soon be a major shift in economics and in fact, in the daily lives of ordinary people based on sand would have been considered a prime candidate for the looney bin.
Why? Our economies have been based on dead biomass since the year dot; and still are.
In talking of a 'major shift of economics', you somehow miss seeing that our requirements in terms of power or raw materials haven't changed at all; they have increased.
Like I said, the increase in the amount of raw materials used globally between the years 1988 and 1989 was greater than the world's total usage of raw materials between the years 1930 and 1940.
Merely making handwaving statements about new economic paradigms doesn't change the fact that we are running up a global overdraft at an unprecedented rate.
As for predicting the future; of course some people saw the possibility; people like Babbage in 1841 and Turing in 1941. But there are limits. Much as I'd like to, I simply can't grow wings and fly; the only way to do so is to use a second-best solution like an aircraft.
There are some things that science simply cannot do, Frenchy; we cannae break the laws of physics.
: Today the computer industry is based on silicone, sand, and a healthy dose of human capital; imagination, initiative, and risk taking.
Wrong. It's based ultimately on power. Electricity. Without it, there is no power to make injection-moulded bits of plastic; no power to light up cathode-ray tubes; no power to power the telephone lines.
Take the combustion of biomass away and you've got a big and complicated paperweight.
(oh, and it's silicon; not silicone; mixing the two up is a very bad idea. Specifically, it's silicon wafer doped with boron and germanium and the like; I could explain the theory to you.)
Farinata.
(care for a lecture on MOSFET, Frenchy?)
