Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Energy Revolution

The generation known as Millenials, aged 14-31, will likely be the first generation to ever live through multiple technological revolutions. As human technology continues to advance at an exponential rate, the frequency of technological revolutions is also increasing at an exponential rate.

Previous generations have experienced technological revolutions sparked by the discovery of electricity, the creation of of steel and the railroad system, and the development of the assembly line. For us Millenials, we have grown up using the most recent technological advancement, the Internet. The colossal power of the Internet to instantly deliver information has irreversibly changed the lives of all people living in societies that are wealthy enough to have it.

So what is the next technological revolution us Millenials will live through? The Energy Revolution. With non-renewable fossil fuels rapidly depleting, developed societies that rely almost entirely on fossil fuels for production and transportation will soon be forced to make dramatic changes to their infrastructure. Alternative forms of energy, such as nuclear or solar, may be the backbone to such changes. Or perhaps a newly-discovered form of transferable energy will become the primary energy provider of the future. Either way, within the next 40 years, developed societies will be forced to completely overhaul their production and transportation systems, so as to allow those systems to operate on a primary energy source other than oil.

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