Leaving the "Age of Fire". When?
Discussion
Since the earliest days of Humans on our planet, some 40,000 years ago, humans have been relying on Fire as there primary energy converter. As our understanding of science and technology improved, we were able to harness that power, in ever more efficient and creative ways. Through the Bronze, Iron, and Middle Ages, we started to use Heat to improve our lives, and further our knowledge.
From the late 1600's onwards, science started on an ever steepening learning curve, and in the late 1800's we developed Heat Engines to harness that power. At the same time, Scientists, and writers began to consider, theorise, and write about other, higher sources of energy, those based on the very energy within matter itself. In the Late 1940s we first learnt how to crudely release that energy, moving humanity into the nuclear age, and by the late 1960's we learn't to extract that energy in a more controlled, and peaceful manner.
Here, in 2014, the limitations of our futures seem to be more economic and political than purely technological. We are however, starting to move from a basic "fire" based economy to one that is begining to leverage both renewable and more fundamental energy sources.
So, are we living at the moment we move out of the "Fire Age" and into the next chapter of the evolution of the species? It's actually quite exciting to think that we might be living at a turning point in our evolution!
From the late 1600's onwards, science started on an ever steepening learning curve, and in the late 1800's we developed Heat Engines to harness that power. At the same time, Scientists, and writers began to consider, theorise, and write about other, higher sources of energy, those based on the very energy within matter itself. In the Late 1940s we first learnt how to crudely release that energy, moving humanity into the nuclear age, and by the late 1960's we learn't to extract that energy in a more controlled, and peaceful manner.
Here, in 2014, the limitations of our futures seem to be more economic and political than purely technological. We are however, starting to move from a basic "fire" based economy to one that is begining to leverage both renewable and more fundamental energy sources.
So, are we living at the moment we move out of the "Fire Age" and into the next chapter of the evolution of the species? It's actually quite exciting to think that we might be living at a turning point in our evolution!
Simpo Two said:
Does leverage mean 'use' or is it cleverer than that?
We may be able to split the atom but almost everything we do is still fire-based, ie chemical burning in oxygen.
"leverage" is really to use something to increase the force, or rate of application. So we have used exothermic chemical reactions for hundreds of years now, for example, dynamite to blast out hundreds of tonnes of rock from a quarry, that would have taken men with pickaxes months to do!We may be able to split the atom but almost everything we do is still fire-based, ie chemical burning in oxygen.
Indeed, we are still in the Age of fire, but i think we are on the edge of moving out of it. In fact, for the continued existance of man at our current population density, we MUST move out of it.........
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