Tom Murphy
Discussion
John Thackara:
"If you suspect, but cannot prove, that modern life simply does not add up, you’ll love Tom Murphy’s work. His focus, as a physicist, is to understand whether the impossibility of indefinite physical growth – for example in energy, food, or manufacturing – means that economic growth in general is also fated to end or reverse. He remains perplexed by our collective blindness to a simple fact: It takes energy to obtain energy – the very commodity that is in short supply. He concludes in a matter-of-fact way: “Global transportation means pushing through air or water over vast distances that will not shrink. Cooking means heating meal-sized portions of food and water. (and so on). Can all of these things be done more efficiently? Absolutely. Can (these efficiency gains) go on forever to maintain growth? No.” (http://www.doorsofperception.com/infrastructure-design/design-in-the-light-of-dark-energy-a-reading-list/)
More Information
- Murphy posted a very handy chart that ranks competing energy sources against a series of criteria: Alternative Energy Matrix
- See also these three texts, which go together: