Ancient Wood Fuel Fire
Cave people saw forest fires, then using shatter rocks with sharp edges, bashed at wood trees to cut down wood, then used this wood to capture fire from natural fires, but brought the burning wood back to their camp site, igniting other wood, and for most of human history burning dry wood the basis of modifying landscapes, setting up the conditions for eventual civilization with larger human populations.
Coal Power Industrialization
Next innovation in exploitation was coal, a mineral that can be burned for heat and light and steam to make power, Coal Thermal Power Plants exist and operate today, as an entire train car full of coal only costs a few hundred dollars, some 20X cheaper than oil based fuels or petrochemical fuels, or 1/3 the price of natural gas. In a way, exploiting carbon to expand development forming eventually the first industrial revolution.
Gasoline, Diesel & Jet A Hydro-Carbon Party
Then someone important struck crude oil or petroleum, which kicked off the hydrocarbon revolution, energizing the second industrial revolution, during which time nuclear weapons then nuclear power were developed. Immense improvements to electrification and telecommunications during the OIL AGE, enabled a more rapid 3rd industrial revolution.
Intelligence Encoded into Electricity
By the time the DOT COM boom over, we were starting into the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Say 5G, Robots, Artificial Intelligence, E-commerce Amazon Mega Monopoly, eBay, Alibaba, 3D printing
Robotic Surgery, Automatic Drug Discovery, New FRC Nuclear Fusion Power by Helion, Radical Chip Making Innovations down to smaller than 1 nanometer features in just a few years now. In essence, we are abusing hydro, wind, geothermal, coal, natural gas, oil, both kinds of nuclear or atomic, and a mix of other solar, energy storage, grid N+1, HVDC, superconductors, MRI machines, liquid hydrogen, we have gone to the edge of the start of a Type 1 civilization, where we move beyond finite chemical rockets to nuclear space propulsion for deep space access, during the 5th industrial revolution, with a NASA Artimis moving human activity to the surface of the Moon soon :) Holy grail of automotive gasoline & diesel engines, thermal efficiency of 70%, noting even Atkinson in Toyota Hybrid only about 43% thermal efficiency best case at specific RPM's and operating conditions, so much room for progress remains, just as LLM's are taking away jobs, while AGI poised to take away even more jobs, and ASI creepy and satanic level might even kill off mankind to better itself, who knows, only God!
History of Science & Technology
An incredible book called The Lever of Riches by an Economics Professor, I took a class in college about the history of technology, and watched hundreds of episodes of the original TV series Modern Marvels on The History Channel, much of which informed the topics of this post, noting that our ability to produce useful heat, power & electricity are primary inputs to economic development, creating wealth and prosperity, specifically how Helion's FRC Fusion Power Plants are poised to revolutionize the future of electricity and deep space propulsion :)
Meet Men who started Financial Crisis of 2008 | Lehman Brother | Fraud | Finance
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