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msb-0316 The "Nuclear Meltdown Family"

Page history last edited by Charles-A. Rovira 15 years, 9 months ago

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Direct Link to episode -> http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/msb-0316_The__Nuclear_Meltdown_Family_.m4a

Daft Punk Discovery Helmets

. .

Intro

Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

Survey

Feedback comes first, so...

There are a number of web sites on oil and on renewable energy.

One of the "best" is called "The Oil Drum." [ http://www.theoildrum.com/ ] They have podcasts and a good media distribution mechanism (lots of books and links.)

And we'll get back to 'em soon.

Basically, renewable energy is any energy that you get a net "gain" from. (If your ass is getting shot off in foreign parts, you might not be willing to define "gain" in quite the same way.)

Part of the problem is is that the gain is quite probably less that what you get from oil.

Pound per pound, oil is just about ideal for both the conveyance and the generation of energy.

But this show is not about that this time, this show is about the re-formation or revival of the nuclear family but its going to be somewhat changed by necessity.

---- "Clockwork Family" by: "Dan Warren" http://www.myspace.com/danwarren1

FeedForward

To [name withheld] (you're going to torture me like this ain't cha?) The New York Times had an "article" [ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/technology/19patient.html?ref=technology ] about the biggest stumbling block to the adoption of computerized patient records being the doctors themselves.

Benefit to the patients be damned, doctors are "not" going to invest in themselves or in their profession.

The uptake in computerized patient records occur when firms reach a number of doctors large enough to make them targets of lawsuits. (When you have enough doctors, [like 50 or so,] you know one of them is going to screw up and maybe somebody'll end up taking a dirt nap.) The cost benefit says that then you computerize. That way you can roil the waters with a computer shaped paddle.

Notice how benefit to the patient is never mentioned...

Its of no benefit to the doctor.

---- "Twisted Family Ties" by: "Delina" http://myspace.com/delinarissin

FeedMe

---- "Family Relations" by: "Ernie Payne" http://www.black-and-tan.com/

"Thesis:"

The coming energy shift, (its not a crisis, its a shift, get a grip on yourself,) means a lot of things are going to have to change.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room is that the population has to drop from its level current of 6.5 billion down to about 2 billion. Fortunately time will take care of this. Unfortunately, that means that a lot of people are "not" going to be realistic about it. Time heals all wounds and wounds all heels.

I'm am seriously not upset about the fact that two thirds of the population is going away, eventually three thirds of the population is headed for a dirt nap.

But the remaining third has got to do better than we did.

The first thing that's going to have to go is the idea of being, uh, "fruitful and multiplying".

Its counter indicated for now and it won't be a good idea later when the population has stabilized at something sustainable "post-petroleum".

The next thing that's going to have to go is the idea of a suburban/urban population.

In the economies of scale the urbs have it.

The suburbs are not going disappear but the idea of a commute is very much past its "sell by date".

---- "Family Vacation" by: "The Four Bags" http://www.thefourbags.com/

"Synthesis:"

Lets examine the processes at play here.

On the one hand, we have an inescapable fact. Oil is "not" a renewable resource. (Oh I know about the modified "e. coli bacteria" that are happily excreting crude oil in a lab in California, but I don't think that it will get to be more than a replacement for our industrial uses for oil, [namely making lubricants and fertilizer.])

On the other hand we have a plethora of denials, delusions, faiths (literally as well as figuratively) beliefs, disbeliefs, doubts and doubters.

Frankly, there are a lot of people who have a lot to lose if we don't do this right and rush things beyond necessity.

"But not as much as they stand to lose if we don't do anything."

That things will work themselves out is a given.

That things will go on without us is also a given, for a few billion years anyway. (Then the sun runs out of hydrogen.)

But I'd prefer an immediate future where human beings are "not" extinct.

That means if we're not going to go away entirely, or devolve into a few random clusters of hominids, we've got to come to some understanding.

Technology doesn't have to disappear and it probably won't.

But the sense of "the yawning open road" probably has to and will. The wanderlust that seized the imagination of the average AmeriCanadian, reinforced by the Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" is going to return to its humbler origins of the wandering minstrel.

No to mention that the internet infrastructure makes communication possible, so the bad parts of alienation, ignorance, isolation and loneliness are not going to drag us down.

We can share in a larger sense of belonging and of family because, as the world grows again, as the means of transport become prohibitively expensive, we will be united in a mesh of glass fibers.

---- "Family of Strangers" by: "Steve Stellavato" http://www.stevestellavato.com/

"Conclusion:"

The population on the earth will have to shrink as it simply can't be maintained.

In some cases, its going to be a sensible process.

People will simply forgo the survival of their own personal genetic lines in favor of survival of some kind, of some "kin". They will ... collaborate.

Child rearing will become communal and people will share in the pleasure as well as the sheer work that bringing a new life into the world entails. Being an uncle or aunt will mean more than it currently does.

In other cases its going to be an incredibly messy business.

People will engage in spectacular acts of barbarism and senseless misbehavior simply because they didn't "get the memo" that the oil's running out or they plumb didn't believe it. And, boy are they going to be "pissed"!

Sadly, competition for any scarce resource is pretty much guaranteed to bring out the worst in people.

Its not going to be pretty.

Luckily, because there won't be any oil left, its pretty much self-limiting and the pockets of such behavior won't be spreading.

---- "Family and Friends" by: "Rob Szabo" http://www.robszabo.com/

Outro

"Toxic Islands" http://www.vbs.tv/shows/toxic/garbage-island/

----

Theme and 'incidental music' from:

"msb_theme",

by: "Guy David",

http://www.guydavid.com/

no album,