The Buggy Whip Effect
Years ago when cars were introduced and manufactured, there was a space on the very first autos for the buggy whip – a holdover from the old technology of horse and carriage. We look back on that now and chuckle, yet we are seeing this same phenomenon unfolding today. Old technology dies hard.
As we approach an era of magnificent inventiveness that will have a major effect on global economies, we see the gap between the fossil holdouts of old and the new thinkers who are aware that life is going to change unalterably in the near future.
Our politicians and business leaders grasping at old solutions speaks volumes of Einstein’s comment that one cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it. The idea that oil is our only savior is ridiculous. I was talking to an economist earlier today who was puting alternative energy down, and stating that we weren’t there yet, and that we were subsidizing them. Okay….true. But we are also subsidizing oil, and that doesn’t need any more R&D. We subsidize many commodities, so that argument is a way of holding out the buggy whip and insisting that we have to do it the old way because what is coming isn’t quite ready yet.
Recently I saw a promising documentary about algae. It is cheap, easily grown and harvested, and has the molecular structure that lends itself to diversity for fuel needs. Boone Pickens is focusing intently on wind power, which has already proven itself quite adequate in the Netherlands. Solar continues to morph into smaller and smaller cells needed for capturing the sun so that it is more efficient and less intrusive, and the dreaded nuclear energy has shown itself to be updated into a much safer fuel than what we’d earlier dealt with. France is producing much of its energy with nuclear, and supporting Germany’s energy needs, too,
Hydrogen is another player in this emerging technology, and it will be interesting to see how all of them eventually shake down. In the meantime, we are living in a fantastic juxtaposition between the old and new. We aren’t quite either/or anymore, and like the first autos that weren’t yet assured in their own identity, we are seeing the buggy whips of old thinking hanging on for dear life because what is yet to be is not a done deal.
No doubt, we are in for an interesting ride. With our economy in chaos and uncertainty all around, it remains to be seen how we move into this bold new world. One thing is for sure: Things they are a changing, and the sooner we stop digging in our heels in resistance, and open our arms to embrace what is possible, the sooner we’ll embark upon a world worth saving!
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