Fuelling the future.

In his short story ‘Let There Be Light’, the science-fiction author Robert A Heinlein introduced the energy source that would power his Future History series of stories and novels. First published in Super Science Stories magazine in May 1940, it described the Douglas-Martin sunpower screens that would provide (almost) free and inexhaustible energy to fuel the future in subsequent instalments of his alternative timeline. It was simple, robust and reliable technology. ‘We can bank ’em in series to get any required voltage; we can bank in parallel to get any required current, and the power is absolutely free, except for the installation costs,’ marvelled one of the inventors as they worked out the new technology’s potential for rupturing the social order of the future.

Installation of the first successful solar panel and
 solar battery (a solar array), for the Georgia telephone
 carrier Americus, 4 October 1955.

The sunpower screens were clay-coated panels that absorbed sunlight and turned it into electricity with almost 100 per cent efficiency, or worked the other way to turn electricity into light. Like most of Heinlein’s Future History stories, this one offered readers a calculated blend of technology and culture. The sunscreens weren’t technology from nowhere – they fitted into a particularly American history of invention that emphasised individual ingenuity against corporate and collective power: in the popular imagination, they were the descendants of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. The story was stamped with Heinlein’s own distinctive brand of anti-corporate politics that emphasised individuals’ responsibility for making their own futures.

Read the Aeon story - “Fuelling the future.”

Jade’s trolls told her to 'make a sandwich'. So she did, at the South Pole

On Wednesday morning, 16-year-old Jade Hameister will don her school uniform and start year 11 like tens of thousands of other students across Australia.

Melbourne 16-year-old Jade Hameister has just completed
 the polar hat trick, and has a message for the men who
 told her to make them a sandwich in response to her
girl power TedX talk.

But when it comes to sharing their summer holiday stories, Jade is probably the only one of her peers who can boast a case of frostnip and skiing to the South Pole among her achievements.

Read Melissa Singer’s story from the Melbourne Age - “Jade’s trolls told her to 'make a sandwich'. So she did, at the South Pole.”

(Jade Hameister did not set to prove anything about climate change, but her experiences in visiting the North and South Poles and the crossing of Greenland left her convinced about the threat of global warming and ignited a thirst to better understand this conundrum - Robert McLean)

'Socialist newspaper' has many interesting stories and letters

A friend recently described The Age as a “socialist newspaper” and maybe it is and maybe it needs to be, but at least it has some interesting stories and letters, and I say that being aware of “confirmation bias”.

Today’s paper had several interesting letters, including these two:

 

 

Rolling back three decades of environmental leadership

Australia appears to be rolling back three decades of global environmental leadership, according to U.S. conservation biologist, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy

Prof Thomas Lovejoy.

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Dr. Lovejoy is presently in Australia for scientific talks and has said we, that is you and me and the rest of humanity, are deluding ourselves if we believe many of the stories presently being put about in relation to climate change.

He argues that the proposed “safe” two degree increase in global temperatures above that of the pre-industrial era is clearly misleading.

In a Radio National interview today with host, Fran Kelly, he has suggested with should be aiming for 1.5 degrees if we are to maintain a livable world.

Dr. Lovejoy introduced the world to the term “bio-diversity”.