Time into Space
This post will necessarily be abstract, hopefully insightful as well.
Our main contention is that with energy descent "time" will slow down and "space" increase.
Here we are using time and space as two aspect of one phenomenon. Much like the theory of relativity explains "space/time". They work upon one another so that if one increases the other decreases. We will simply assume this is the case without further explanation.
In the human realm on this earth we use energy to move through space. Whether we are walking, riding a horse, or driving a car energy is used; calories are burned. The fewer calories we have at our disposal the more limited we are in travelling through space, that is spatially. Thus our access to energy is directly proportional to our ability to move through space, and by extension our very perception of space itself.
The exploitation of hydrocarbons has completely altered our perception of space. We can hop onto an airplane and within hours travel thousands of miles. For example by plane from San Francisco to London takes about twelve hours and requires six barrels (42 gallons each) of oil. In terms of energy expended these 250 gallons of oil are the caloric equivalent of 500,000 days of hard labor for one man (using 10,000 calories per day). Assuming a person could walk from San Francisco to London (straight across the Atlantic) if he walked this distance of say 6,000 miles at 10 miles per day. Then it would take him 600 days. For ease lets say he burns 10,000 calories per day walking.
There you have it! With oil we have turned a 600 day walking experience into a twelve hour flight. This is how space has been turned into time. However this situation has temporal limitations because hydrocarbons are limited resource. Enter peak oil and the phenomenon of energy descent. As we already know peak oil is the point at which half of the oil has been extracted from the planet. The term energy descent describes the second half of this period. "Descent" is used because the curve of the graph of per capita energy availibility is now in decline. We have been ascending this curve for well over 100 years and now we are at the top. There is now where to go but down.
This energy curve is directly linked to our perceptions and experience of time and space as we have already explained. The ascending period is one in which space is turned into time. This is because we could convert energy into speedy travel and reduce the amount of time it takes to move from one place to another. The descending period will see a correction in which time will be converted back into space. What will this look like? Much like the past...
The world will become a big place once again. Cheap airplane travel, and cheap gasoline are gone for good. It will take more money to get to far away places. More money or more time. The currrent situation will have to correct itself. First we will probably try to use uranium and radioactivity to create electricity. As the considerable drawbacks become apparant, then coal will become king once again. Railroads will revive, because they are quite efficient. Eventually the horse will once again take it perennial place as the most effective and sustainable mode of transport, besides walking.
Our main contention is that with energy descent "time" will slow down and "space" increase.
Here we are using time and space as two aspect of one phenomenon. Much like the theory of relativity explains "space/time". They work upon one another so that if one increases the other decreases. We will simply assume this is the case without further explanation.
In the human realm on this earth we use energy to move through space. Whether we are walking, riding a horse, or driving a car energy is used; calories are burned. The fewer calories we have at our disposal the more limited we are in travelling through space, that is spatially. Thus our access to energy is directly proportional to our ability to move through space, and by extension our very perception of space itself.
The exploitation of hydrocarbons has completely altered our perception of space. We can hop onto an airplane and within hours travel thousands of miles. For example by plane from San Francisco to London takes about twelve hours and requires six barrels (42 gallons each) of oil. In terms of energy expended these 250 gallons of oil are the caloric equivalent of 500,000 days of hard labor for one man (using 10,000 calories per day). Assuming a person could walk from San Francisco to London (straight across the Atlantic) if he walked this distance of say 6,000 miles at 10 miles per day. Then it would take him 600 days. For ease lets say he burns 10,000 calories per day walking.
There you have it! With oil we have turned a 600 day walking experience into a twelve hour flight. This is how space has been turned into time. However this situation has temporal limitations because hydrocarbons are limited resource. Enter peak oil and the phenomenon of energy descent. As we already know peak oil is the point at which half of the oil has been extracted from the planet. The term energy descent describes the second half of this period. "Descent" is used because the curve of the graph of per capita energy availibility is now in decline. We have been ascending this curve for well over 100 years and now we are at the top. There is now where to go but down.
This energy curve is directly linked to our perceptions and experience of time and space as we have already explained. The ascending period is one in which space is turned into time. This is because we could convert energy into speedy travel and reduce the amount of time it takes to move from one place to another. The descending period will see a correction in which time will be converted back into space. What will this look like? Much like the past...
The world will become a big place once again. Cheap airplane travel, and cheap gasoline are gone for good. It will take more money to get to far away places. More money or more time. The currrent situation will have to correct itself. First we will probably try to use uranium and radioactivity to create electricity. As the considerable drawbacks become apparant, then coal will become king once again. Railroads will revive, because they are quite efficient. Eventually the horse will once again take it perennial place as the most effective and sustainable mode of transport, besides walking.
posted by pjack | 10:30 AM
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