Silicon Valley is better for "brave, new world" revolutionary innovation, but not necessarily for "better, faster, cheaper" evolutionary innovation. Advances that require building on years of previous knowledge require more stability than the Silicon Valley environment can provide.
Example: more successful microprocessor design is done in either Oregon, Haifa, Austin, New York (IBM), etc. than in Silicon Valley.
I recommend "Normal Accidents" by Charles Perrow and "Out of Gas" by David Goodstein.
Highlights:
Charles Perrow has a good analysis of why nuclear power (the real agenda of the Hydrogen Economy boosters) is considered so dangerous. He identifies four classes of human accident victims:
system operators (example: airplane pilots)
system participants (example: airplane passengers)
bystanders (example: people on the ground hit by falling aircraft)
unborn and future generations
Notice that there are no fourth-class victims in an airplane accident. But nuclear accidents have the potential for many fourth-class victims.
"Out of Gas" (by a Cal Tech professor) includes a thorough explanation of the physics of energy, entropy, and various energy sources. It clearly explains that hydrogen is not a source of energy showing that the only real energy source is nuclear (from the sun and from the earth's core). Everything else, including oil, is an energy storage medium. It's slow going but very informative. He doesn't offer any quick solutions.
David Goodstein's other interesting point is that we are going to experience oil shortages very soon. Not when the last drop of oil is pumped out, but rather when we start using more oil than we're discovering.
Much as our great-grandparents lived through the transition to an oil-based economy and lifestyle, we or our children will probably live to see the post-oil economy. I don't know what the post-oil world will look like, but I strongly doubt that we will smoothly transition to equivalent lifestyles in the the so-called Hydrogen Economy. Think about $100/barrel oil and plan accordingly.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.newyorkerstore.com/October-12-2009/I-wasnt-texting-I-was-building-this-ship-in-a-bottle/invt/133708
Silicon Valley is better for "brave, new world" revolutionary innovation, but not necessarily for "better, faster, cheaper" evolutionary innovation. Advances that require building on years of previous knowledge require more stability than the Silicon Valley environment can provide. Example: more successful microprocessor design is done in either Oregon, Haifa, Austin, New York (IBM), etc. than in Silicon Valley.
I recommend "Normal Accidents" by Charles Perrow and "Out of Gas" by David Goodstein.
Highlights:
Charles Perrow has a good analysis of why nuclear power (the real agenda of the Hydrogen Economy boosters) is considered so dangerous. He identifies four classes of human accident victims:
"Out of Gas" (by a Cal Tech professor) includes a thorough explanation of the physics of energy, entropy, and various energy sources. It clearly explains that hydrogen is not a source of energy showing that the only real energy source is nuclear (from the sun and from the earth's core). Everything else, including oil, is an energy storage medium. It's slow going but very informative. He doesn't offer any quick solutions.
David Goodstein's other interesting point is that we are going to experience oil shortages very soon. Not when the last drop of oil is pumped out, but rather when we start using more oil than we're discovering.
Much as our great-grandparents lived through the transition to an oil-based economy and lifestyle, we or our children will probably live to see the post-oil economy. I don't know what the post-oil world will look like, but I strongly doubt that we will smoothly transition to equivalent lifestyles in the the so-called Hydrogen Economy. Think about $100/barrel oil and plan accordingly.