Technology: Cryptos, Renewables, Medicine, Communications, Military

Technology is advancing at a rate that rivals or surpasses the stereotypical 21st century future man. In the 1800s and 1900s, Western civilizations built boats that can move upstream, laid railroad tracks across a continent, connected Europe and North America with a telegraph cable, created mass killing weapons, eradicated deadly diseases and parasites, harnessed nuclear power, landed on the moon in a tin can, reached almost absolute zero in a lab, observed the darkest depths of the ocean, and surveyed portions of the universe that are already obliterated.

Humans are becoming more efficient at everything. Most importantly, we developed a way to store all of humankind's collective knowledge that can be accessed precisely in an instant - the Internet - the ultimate infrastructure that isn't even physical.


What are the fruits of our technological infrastructure? Several main technology fields that show promise are renewable energy sources, communications tech advances, cryptocurrencies, medicine, and military.

Renewable Energy

Tesla Motor Company: Personal gas powered vehicles are set to be rivaled by electric Tesla-esque vehicles. Tesla motor company made prolific advances over their competitors in the electric car industry, and gathered an impressive collection of patents. Tesla is on the cutting edge of this field, not just in prototypes, but actual consumer ready, practical vehicles with ranges competitive with gas equivalents that are available for <$50k. Just recently, Tesla opened their patents, which ordinarily would seem like corporate suicide. However, allowing other companies to use their patents adds competition to the market, which exponentially increases the progress of research and quality of the market.

Oil is going to become obsolete, regardless of whether or not there are renewable energy sources to replace it. There is a finite amount of it on the planet that our consumption habits surpass. Advances and increased public awareness in wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear are paving the way for oil being used in industry and manufacturing only.


The obsoletion of the oil controlled Western superpower would be the most earth shattering thing to happen in geopolitics short of a nuclear attack.

The United States and some of its allies are run on government spending, mainly defence, and on corporations which are fueled by oil. The middle eastern countries and some of their allies are run by oil. How much would geopolitics change if western countries no longer imported oil?

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I'll continue the rest later, but feel free to discuss renewable energy.

 

I'm proud to live in a country, that albeit a small one (Scotland), is set to produce 25% of Europe's renewable energy; utilising mostly wind and wave. It actually inspired me to choose an education in engineering since it's providing so many jobs here. It's easy to adopt the "it wont happen in my lifetime" attitude but one cannot deny that oil prices will continue to rise & rise til there's none left.

Anyone who makes zero effort to utilise renewable energy in some way, or being conservative with normal consumption is just lazy. That could even be being more eco friendly, reducing the pollution to better and aid the future.

 

Where is the argument?

We fathom the limits of technology, knowingly that it's progression will become static. This however does not mean we will need to create unnatural resources. As long as Earth is alive, so will sustainable resources, including oil. We will find other organisms to extract it from, eg: diatoms.

 

Well I think that once the cost of oil reaches a certain point consumers will be less likely to purchase gas powered products and move towards electric transportation

 

I think that renewable energy is the future - that is, wind, solar, wave - but not nuclear. It's not safe, not cheap and not peaceful.

The problem with renewable energy is that it's not currently as effective as traditional forms of energy - oil, gas etc. so it needs a lot more investment and research. Oil and gas too are at present much more profitable, and so they'll continue to be plundered by oil giants until it's no longer profitable to do so. Capital isn't guided by ethical concerns, instead only with where it can make a profit. And that's bad news for our planet because climate change is very real and so far we are not doing enough to challenge it.

A big part of the problem lies with the structure of our geopolitical and economic systems. The incentive to preserve our planet and the continuity of human existence should be enough to persuade anyone that we must invest in renewable energy, but unfortunately that hasn't proved to be sufficient for global corporations who choose to either deny or remain ignorant of the stark facts.

And you rightly mention the fact that US hegemony is largely reliant on control of oil and a powerful military industrial complex. It's no secret that the US is a declining empire - and a lot of what has been done in the middle east and Europe over the past few decades has been about preserving it. I expect the face of global politics will look quite different in the next 50-100 years; that is, if the US fails to insulate itself from the devaluation of the dollar.