Seven Generational Ruminations

The plug-in hybrid concept is the first step to allow the hybrid vehicles be an honest improvement. Hybrid vehicles, as they're being sold by the car companies, offer little real benefit. They still support dependence on oil, and the battery pack isn't large enough for a significant electric-only driving range.

The plug-in hybrid adds a second battery pack and jiggers the control systems to allow a significant electric-only driving range. But this concept isn't coming from the car companies, but from enthusiasts.

(amazon.com)

Sometimes comic strips capture truth in an interesting way. I gather from how people talk about those "new hybrid cars", the common perception is the hybrids will solve all sorts of problems. That the environment will be a lot better, that they'll spend less on gasoline, that peace will reign throughout the planet, that sort of thing.

But, will it really do so?

Hopefully you saw Fahrenheit 9/11, the movie by Michael Moore that was prominent in 2004. His main topic throughout the movie was to explore cronyism and how that created the war in Iraq. The main example is the laundry list of business ties between the Administration, the Saudi royalty and even to the bin Laden family.

The "Open Source" meme is making widespread change in the computer industry. Nobody can doubt that, and the change is moving step-by-step through the whole of the computer industry. It means a change from the former normal business practice of having proprietary advantage over your competitors, and using secrecy to preserve that advantage. But I think society as a whole loses from the secrecy, because what's allowed science and technology to flourish is for each succeeding generation to stand on the shoulders of science. But in the computer industry the secrecy actively prevented succeeding generations to stand on the shoulders of giants.

It's interesting to look at an investors viewpoint on "energy" and the oil supply issue. The Potential Emerging Energy Crunch (by Sol Palha) He lists several potential energy sources and points out how they all have problems preventing wide use right now. The issue is the high oil prices we saw over the last year, and he is trying to say the energy prices will continue to be high for the forseeable future, and that there is one solution: Uranium and Nuclear Power.