simon on solutions
No Petroleum, No Problem? – Dr. Simon Michaux, Geological Survey of Finland # 259 – 3 hr video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDbPTOImipo]:
simon michaux
Dr. Simon Michaux is a professor of geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland. After having spent several years in private industry, he was laid off during one of the regular busts that inevitably accompany booms in the mining sector. In that period, Simon found a new appreciation for the material basis of civilization while taking temporary work as an organic farmer. When he returned to intellectual work as a professor, he brought this real-world understanding to geopolitical assessments, presenting his analyses to everyone from economists to UN delegations. Ultimately, what separates Simon from his peers is his ability to suggest a realistic solution set to the difficulty of planning a technologically accelerating future within the confines of a fundamentally finite material ecosystem. He lays out a set of alternative approaches to nuclear power, combustion power, and engines that will absolutely make you stop and reconsider the possibilities. His presentation begins with the idea that we may be running out of petroleum, but that doesn’t mean we have to be running out of fuel. A subsequent podcast will explore Simon’s ongoing work to demonstrate his principles in an idealized city-of-the future in the desert of Peru. More on his Prometheus Project to come, very soon.
notes/quotes:
how we do industry.. corp culture.. what is money for.. how do we use it.. what’s our decision making practice.. we all talk about it like they’re all rules of nature.. but they’re not.. just happen to be rules this current patch of society put together.. which means we can burn them to the ground and make something else..
needs to be sans any form of measuring, accounting, people telling other people what to do
working in org farm.. where diff things work together symbiotically.. and if not.. work to balance that out
shilo: he actually has a solution set that doesn’t involve humans bad and we’re all screwed.. has 4 part plan w how to deal w combustion and power..
4 min – anastasia: most complete/optimistic solution i’ve ever seen
5 min – a: on promethean project.. building city of 10 000 in peru
7 min – how i got here.. phd in mining engineering.. in australia.. went to europe found circular econ.. (problems with it).. it’s an opening to something else.. what could that something else be
9 min – no comp plan for industrial reform.. fossil fuels.. this many solar panels, wind farms.. none of this existed.. that was one of the blind spots.. when you hear about cir econ.. like green econ in back ground and vv.. but no one worked out sizes..
10 min – circ econ: change existing linear econ.. ie: could we get raw materials from waste.. problems: system always expanding.. what want next larger and diff form.. recycle small fraction of things..
ellen macarthur foundation – circular economy et al
16 min – why green rev will fail
bright green lies.. the green project..
24 min – getting involved in govt work
1:29 – resourcing the transition (metal, recycling, mining, can we expand quickly – next 25 yrs).. or a fundamentally diff plan..
1:39 – what are alts..
1:42 – if chance for doing this have to be open minded.. people don’t rate idea.. they attack the person
michaux diff via unorthodox law
1:51 – fossil fuels phased out.. green transition faces bottlenecks.. so .. purple transition
1:52 – so what do we do.. we want electricity generation, transport, and manufacture, low footprint, design for recycle, minimal waste.. once do that can rest
1:56 – thorium molten salt reactor – works for nuclear power
these are things that make prometheus project possible..
2:32 – novel battery tech.. make out of something else..
2:36 – ammonia internal combustion engines
1:46 – closing.. time on farm helped me break out of normal lane of conventional career.. our existing leadership has a momentum.. so people have a latitude of action until they are replaced.. so what has to happen has to be outside system.. *so outside western world.. easier to go start again.. than adjusting existing system.. set off chain reaction.. since building from scratch.. what you build can be looked at
*or perhaps ie: a sabbatical ish transition .. like squatting a city for a year
2:48 – so what’s needed is *an innovation hub.. that has permission to look at unorthodox ideas.. many of them we already know .. but have been rejected.. those need to be turned into **pilot scale engineering ideas so people with money can look and say this works.. that’s what we need to break out of this.. so i want to build that.. that becomes the prometheus project
*actually.. just need that space for everyone..
ie: how we gather in a space is huge.. need to try spaces of permission where people have nothing to prove to facil curiosity over decision making.. because the finite set of choices of decision making is unmooring us.. keeping us from us.. ie: whatever for a year.. a legit sabbatical ish transition
**if have to pilot and prove things work in order to get money to try something diff.. already too many strings/compromises.. need ie: a quiet revolution (possible scenario) .. kind of like your #1 in prometheus project:
1:21 – simon (to attract people to deliver capital) ie: 1\ legacy impact investor that wants to see humanity change.. wants to be associated with that.. lot of money out there looking for that place to land.. know how bad system is.. if show plan on ground that’s considered credible.. may get too much money 2\ royalty streams on what you produce .. might take 20 yrs to get there.. what i’m proposing is industrial permaculture.. raw materials from local (this is circular).. use to manufacture cool stuff.. sell to rest of market.. revenue used to run city.. once past running cost.. rest directed back to investors as royalties..
need #1.. but with *no strings.. if going with 2.. not a legit leap.. for (blank)’s sake
*so somebody with tons of money.. that wants change .. and would just facil a year’s billion or whatever.. but would need to be anonymous.. because don’t want people actually dealing with an thoughts about money ness
shilo: one of my fav convo about
a: optimistic in practical way.. everyone gets to en of presentation and say.. yeah.. dire
2:50 – prometheus will look at climate, regrowth, resources, money problems.. changing everything in one step
a: people need something they can believe in.. green transition became institutionalized.. everyone talking and locked into tribes.. so having something that id’s the problems and then dreams so big
2:51 – the hawaii report.. one scenario of 10..
2:52 – a walk in the light green – an unconventional solution set.. quantum foam at subatomic level.. rainbow serpent.. aboriginals dreamed a new world.. so what’s upon us is another new dream time.. got to dream an entirely new world from entirely first principles and that’s what’s upon us at a really fundamental level
michaux dream law
2:55 – first time ever i’ve been talking about challenging stuff.. and they haven’t run screaming (in finland).. so planets aligned.. 20 yrs behind me of development.. and window opened.. for first time.. everything was easy.. for 6 yrs now more productive than any other time.. things had been developing in my head.. so writing it down.. so easy.. i don’t know if i’ll always be able to be so productive.. prepared minds ness.. society ready to hear things considered crazy now.. ready to listen.. and that changes things..
warning ness et al
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be you. 