Could we reboot a modern civilization without fossil fuels? (2016)

Post by ajot » Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

fredophile wrote: post #31

My impression is that the big road block to unlocking something like the industrial revolution is the precision of your tools. During the industrial revolution there were big advances in metal tools. Maudslay's development of a metal lathe that could be used to make metal tools was a huge step forward. I think if you can reach this point of development you should be able to make continued progress using non-fossil fu…

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

bilbo0s wrote: post #23

swiley wrote: post #15

Who cares about fuel, you can get a lot of energy from renewable resources and nuclear just fine, the later mostly requiring metallurgy and concrete. Much more interesting are petrochemicals, many are possible to synthesize without petroleum but it's way less economical.

How do you do the metallurgy, manufacture the concrete, or synthesize the petrochemicals in the absence of fossil fuel energy? Examples given in the article were on the scale of post nuclear conflict societal collapse. No ports, no highways, no railways, no dual use infrastructure at all. No more fossil fuel deliveries happening. No deliveries of anything. Rebuilding in that environment would be challenging in the ex…

Post by vitiral » Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 6:03 PM UTC

Post by OJFord » Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 6:30 PM UTC

vcxy wrote: post #19

grugagag wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English is werid, for example loose and lose make no sense pronunciation-wise, they're pronounced the same. I've seen plenty of people use loose instead of lose for this reason. I learned English as a second language and the emphasis was on written first so quite a lot of times my spelling was better than that of native speakers. And that makes no sense, one shouldn't learn English that way, write it first then speak…

In fact they are not pronounced the same. English is weird, sure, but I think if you have that kind of misconception then it's going to seem far stranger. "Loose" rhymes with "juice", "lose" rhymes with "news", if that helps.

Post by mikewarot » Mon, Nov 23, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

lawrenceyan wrote: post #43

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlimited only if you don't take time into account. A big reason for the switch from charcoal to coal in steelmaking was running out of trees to make charcoal from.

Not really an issue. Knowledge steadily accumulates over time. The key foundations of human intelligence and ingenuity will always remains regardless of whether or not fossil fuels exist for us to exploit. Non-renewable resources only served to speed up our industrialization.