@MontereyJack,
Quote:In 1827, Hungarian Anyos Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic rotating devices which he called electromagnetic self-rotors. In the prototype of the single-pole electric starter (finished between 1852 and 1854) both the stationary and the revolving parts were electromagnetic. He formulated the concept of the dynamo at least 6 years before Siemens and Wheatstone but didn't patent it as he thought he wasn't the first to realize this. In essence the concept is that instead of permanent magnets, two electromagnets opposite to each other induce the magnetic field around the rotor. Jedlik's invention was decades ahead of its time.
Once you have that the giant dams are inevitable as soon as the capacity to build them is available and the political will exists to choose to do so.
Spengler looks into these social processes which he sees as inevitable. I predict that once there is world government and an orderly reduction in population the hydro-electric production of usable energy will dominate the world with giant schemes in mountainous, unpopulated areas of the world all connected up, much as the internet is, to where we choose to live.
"Ghosts of 'lectricity howl in the bones of her face." Bob Dylan.
"Idiot wind, blowin' in a circle round my skull
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol." Bob Dylan.
"Her pleasure knows no limits
Her voice is like a meadow lark
Her heart is like an ocean
Mysterious and dark." Bob Dylan.
"Man makes destiny--woman is destiny." Oswald Spengler.
We are Faustians. We have a pact with devilish forces. And with no soul we have nothing to lose.
"We're going all the way till the wheels fall off and burn." Bob Dylan.
"This is all a big mistake." Bob Dylan.
"Something's outa whack." Bob Dylan.
okie wrote-
Quote:If we were not meant to do all of this, our brains would not allow us to do it.
Spiro Agnew said something to that effect. He used "God" instead of "our brains" which amounts to the same thing.
Anyway- what is necessity except invention's Mom?
The argument, as I said, is about careers, pork and looking good. Or, if you like, avoiding the blue collar. A dynamite proposition as Veblen explained. And that necessity is psychological and inevitable (destined) in a democracy.
You have to laugh.
