Peak oil

When I was back in Sweden last week my mum and I walked into the local grocery store and realized beef was £25/kg. I knew about rising food and fuel prices and the riots and starvation in the developing world, but I hadn't personally experienced it - I'd even laughed at the Americans finally having to cut down on their mad consumption and sense of entitlement, and had basically felt that a bit of dieting, however painful (and deadly for the people at the bottom), might ultimately do the world some good. Now I'm trying to learn more.

Amos Nur gave a brilliant talk at Stanford lately on the topic of peak oil and it's relation to living standards and war. It's a shame there's no video but it's fairly easy to imagine the graphs he sometimes refer to and he's a good speaker.

Amos Nur - The Emerging Global Oil Panic (1hr, iTunes)

The conclusion, basically, is that the slowdown in the US economy and the rising cost of fuel and food worldwide, is not a temporary or cyclical problem, and certainly nothing that Obama can solve by good-will and pacifism alone. We are simply running out of our primary source of energy. The years between now and the technological solution(s) that allow a shift to alternative sources of energy will be tricky, especially if scarce resources are as closely related to war as Mr. Nur argues.

Omte back in the lab

Daniel Nocera and Angela Belcher - The Role of New Technologies in a Sustainable Energy Economy (1h32min, iTunes). I found this one particularly interesting because Daniel is both an expert in energy and a provocateur regarding the climate change solutions we usually hear about. For example, everyone would have to adopt the lifestyle of the people of Equatorial New Guinea for worldwide energy expenditure to approach a level that's even remotely manageable in terms of green energy. Which makes the silly Earth Hour seem... well, silly. Daniel's solution is new technology, specifically solar power. I agree. And so did the Londoners.

Christine Peterson - Thinking Longer-Term About Technology (58min, iTunes). A very good talk about if and how we can predict future technologies. Mentions something called prediction markets that have made a business out of this. Christine founded Foresight Nanotech Institute and says she has a blog but I can't find it.

Craig Venter - Joining 3.5 billion years of microbial invention (1h49min, FORA.tv). Man Craig is becoming a rock star. Easy to see why though.

Mind as body

Craig Venter - Advancing the Genomic Revolution (1h26min, iTunes). I'm starting to like Venter more and more, here he's describing the sequencing of the human genome a few years ago. Did NOT know he was on the Celera team.

Chris Phoenix - Molecular Manufacturing (1h2min). Interesting talk, interesting speaker, interesting haircut. Overoptimistic? He says molecular manufacturing is ca 10 years away with singularitarian spinoffs to be expected. One quote in particular stood out: "If we get into an arms race with this technology I'm not at all sure that we'll get out of it. I do not know how to avoid it. This is a serious problem. And.. I don't know how to say it pessimistically enough: there is no known solution to keep us out of an arms race that would lead to devastating war."

Phoenix's presentation includes this 4min demonstration of what molecular manufacturing is aiming for. Science fiction? Sure. Damn cool? Oh yea.


Here's a short example of how to live a green life (solar panels and goats included) and still be a funky person with an internet connection. From BoingBoing TV. The dude also has a blog.


Finally... There is a very good interview on BBC Hard Talk running today, with Chinese writer and human rights defender Liao Yiwu. Liao is censored all over China, spent four years in prison for his books and has been translated to many major languages. The interview is available here but it's in stupid RealPlayer format. For a good analysis of this very salient topic, search for Human Rights and Political Reform in Contemporary China (1h2min, iTunes) with our own Börje Ljunggren (whooo).