EAT THE LIGHT: The Fourth Age of Solar Commences

News Type: Opinion — Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:43 PM EDT

technology, solar-power, singularity, ray-kurzweil, exponential, geoff-olson, joel-bellenson

From the article: Eat The Light: The Fourth Age Of Solar

Vancouver BC based writer, political cartoonist, and journalist - Geoff Olson recently sat down to interview the Chief Bio-Science Advisor to Mark Achbar's next film (Director of "The Corporation") - and respected colleague of Ray Kurzweil - Joel Bellenson.

The Topic - The Fourth Age Of Solar
The Bioneers have also picked up the mind blowing story!
http://www.bioneers.org/node/2858

So what are The Four Ages Of Solar?

"The story of life on Earth is ultimately about a long-term relationship between light and matter. In the first age of solar, plants evolved the capacity to transfer the electromagnetic energy of sunlight into the high-energy chemical bonds of sugars and carbohydrates.

In the second age of solar, a few hundred million years later, the monochrome, brownish-green world of the late Jurassic gave way to an explosion of colour with the emergence of the angiosperms - the flowering plants. The plants directed some of the photosynthetic energies of their green-coloured tissues into the production of lurid landing pads, alerting insects through their brilliant hues. With the symbiosis of insect pollination, evolution took a whole new direction, giving the wilderness a coat of many colours in the process. [Charles Darwin called flowers an "abominable mystery" because they appeared so suddenly, and spread so quickly, in geological time.]

The third age of solar began 10 thousand years ago, when several populations in the Near East abandoned their nomadic way of life for year-round settlements. These small settlements, the seeds of future city-states, were made possible through the use of domesticated animals and seasonal stockpiles of grain. The energy of the sun, bound up in the chemical bonds of plant carbohydrates, was deposited in silos and granaries like money in a bank. A cascade of cultural consequences followed, with institutional mechanisms for measuring, allocating and protecting the stockpiles: cuneiform script, local governance, taxation and standing armies. We are still in the third age of light, but now the vast bulk of our energy comes from fossil fuels. These fuels also began as organic material and they hold the energy of ancient sunlight in their chemical bonds.

Civilization is now on the cusp of the fourth age of solar. We now have the opportunity to abandon the unsustainable, finite resources of fossil fuels for a truly abundant, freely available form of energy. We're doing it by following the evolutionary example of the plants."

More Interesting Reading For Curious Primates:

Now for the the exciting part...

The ages of solar are moving exponentially.

Joel and his partner Dexter Smith are famous for founding DoubleTwist, Inc. and acting as key players in preventing the Human Genome from becoming patented by Celera Genomics. And they did it within a fraction of the time and only a hundredth the cost, using a more resourceful approach.

As Robert Anton Wilson noted so aptly - "known resources" are not given by nature; they depend on the analytical capacities of the human mind. We can never know how many resources can be obtained from a cubic foot of the universe: all we know is how much we have found thus far, at a given date. You can starve in the middle of a field of wheat if your mind hasn't identified wheat as edible. Real Wealth results from Real Knowledge, which is increasing faster all the time."

The human genome finished much earlier than expected, because technology moves exponentially, not linearly. Skip ahead to learn how exponentials also apply to solar - right now.

Not so quick - world nuclear war, global warming and ocean levels rising, do pose serious challenges to humanity. However, if William Yuanm, a 12 year old boy can innovate a 3d solar cell 9x more efficient than anything prior, and 500x more efficient than conventional panels it might make one wonder if some type of cosmological balancing act may be taking place.

Permalink to full story here: http://www.geoffolson.com - eat the light

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4.1

{"commentId":3218526,"authorDomain":"Brad-Leclerc"}

Brad Leclerc

Damn cool stuff.

{"commentId":3218526,"threadId":"373137","contentId":"1929165","authorDomain":"Brad-Leclerc"}

3 votes

#1 - Tue Sep 30, 2008 2:07 AM EDT

{"commentId":3243435,"authorDomain":"doubledemon"}

Double Demon

Indeed.

{"commentId":3243435,"threadId":"373137","contentId":"1929165","authorDomain":"doubledemon"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Wed Oct 1, 2008 2:24 PM EDT

{"commentId":3263639,"authorDomain":"amjrmd"}

AJ in Missouri

Good post, one of the guys that wrote this (wrote the autobio on Ray Kurzweil) thinks a lot like Kurzweil. If you ever get the chance read his books, especially "The Singularity - When Technology transcends Biology". Good stuff

{"commentId":3263639,"threadId":"373137","contentId":"1929165","authorDomain":"amjrmd"}

3 votes

#2 - Thu Oct 2, 2008 3:11 PM EDT

{"commentId":3266115,"authorDomain":"maybememe"}

Maybe Meme

Kevin Kelly to Ray Kurzweil, you're a total thinkist...

http://www.maybememe.com/post/52789888/kevin-kelly-lets-ray-kurzweil-know-hes-a-total

{"commentId":3266115,"threadId":"373137","contentId":"1929165","authorDomain":"maybememe"}

1 vote

#3 - Thu Oct 2, 2008 5:05 PM EDT

{"commentId":3335139,"authorDomain":"amjrmd"}

AJ in Missouri

That may be, lol, but the reasoning in Kurzweil's book is pretty reasonable, and people used to say that he was crazy about technology's rate being exponential rather than linear, but he's been right so far. I don't think we'll be stopping anytime soon, now do I think we'll see the AI he refers to by 2045, maybe. I'm a computer engineering student, and our teachers talk about this kind of stuff all the time. We've got multiple classes on how AI works and program it. One of my best friends is in our Intro to Robotics class, and what they've learned is pretty cool. This is just basic undergrad stuff, who knows what kind of things the grad students and researchers are working on.

{"commentId":3335139,"threadId":"373137","contentId":"1929165","authorDomain":"amjrmd"}

1 vote

#3.1 - Mon Oct 6, 2008 10:54 AM EDT

{"commentId":3266186,"authorDomain":"maybememe"}

Maybe MemeDeleted

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MAYBE MEME

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EAT THE LIGHT: The Fourth Age of Solar Commences

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