By Dr. Jay Lehr June 6th, 2022 Books, Technology 35 Comments
If you have time to read two books in the coming year make them The Cloud Revolution, and Fossil Future.. The first is reviewed below and the other review will appear next week here at CFACT.org. Fossil Future. will arm you for life with the information to discuss the human caused climate change FRAUD with neutral friends who will listen. The Cloud Revolution, will disabuse you of lingering pessimism resulting from the present world takeover of truly communist factions hoping to destroy capitalism. You will become the most popular among your friends as you succeed in raising their hopes for the future. As a sidebar to my readers who think I am being too strident mentioning Communism, let me quote Alexander Trachtenberg, the head of the American Communist Party at a rally in Madison Square Garden, New York City in 1944.
“ When we get ready to take the United States, we will not take you under the label of Communism. We will not take you under the label of Socialism…We will take the United States under labels we have made very lovable, we will take it under Liberalism, under Progressivism, under Democracy. But take it we will.”
In the United States they are doing this under the guidance of billionaires, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and most of the jet setters who just attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. There they continued their plot to change the world into a system they can rule. You see, many if not most, mega-rich people are sure they can run your life and the world better than you, or us, because they so cleverly made tons of money. Surprisingly, they have nothing, tangibly, to look forward to in the future, having all that money can buy, other than Increased Power. They know that only Communism, by whatever its name they choose, can achieve this for them. Capitalism with all its faults can not readily become a Tyranny, though the current US administration is doing its best to make it so.
These two books I am recommending, if not insisting you read in the coming months, will arm you to be a great warrior on behalf of liberty, both to fight the climate change, anti-fossil fuel fraud, while lifting yourself and your friends out of the pessimism gripping our nation. Both are extremely well written comprehensive texts, but both are 400 page books. Few will be able to look forward to a quick read. I strongly recommend my own 10 pages a day reading plan for great books. That way you you become energized daily with new, often exciting information, that whets your appetite for the next days read.
So now on to Mark Mills’ masterpiece, The Cloud Revolution.
When I review books, I always calculate the number of references and notes as it is a quick indicator of how comprehensive the author went about his work. Mark’s Cloud Revolution has 823 of them which puts it in the top 10 of all books I have reviewed over the years (which is about 500). This is a result of my having had a book review column in the journal of Groundwater for 25 years.
I was particularly interested in Mark’s detailed acknowledgements in order to learn of all the folks who helped him. Hillary would not have been a total idiot when she said, “it takes a village”, had she been talking about outstanding books.
The conventional wisdom on how technology will change the future is wrong, argues Mark Mills in his book The Cloud Revolution, who lays out a very different and hugely optimistic vision of our future. The mainstream forecasts, which you should try and avoid, fall into three very wrong scenarios, all quite pessimistic: the new normal getting food from a motorcycle driver and buying a car with a Bitcoin is as good as it gets; a dystopian future with jobs destroyed by robots and the digital world leveling business; 3- a technically ignorant world where wind, solar power and electric cars reign.
According to Mills, a convergence of technologies will drive an economic boom over the coming decade (editors note: when we get rid of the power in the hands of this administration, which we surely will). Not a single invention will make this so, but a convergence of new knowledge in three primary domains: microprocessors, materials, and machines.
Microprocessors are increasingly embedded in everything. Materials from which everything is built are emerging with near magical qualities, and machines are undergoing a complimentary transformation. Accelerating and enabling all of this is the Cloud, history’s biggest infrastructure which is itself based on the building.
Blocks of next generation microprocessors and artificial intelligence (AI). On this term (AI) he writes how exaggerated its malevolence is. Happily Mills explains its terminology to have been a big mistake offering false fears.
In doing so he explained the similarities of the technologies that first brought forth the Roaring 20’s where information (telephones), materials (plastics and pharmaceuticals ), and machines (cars and power plants) launched a great century—in spite of the wars that held us back as wokism is doing today.
The world of techno-pessimists leads to demands for more government control, socialized medicine, more mandates to achieve preferred social outcomes and far bigger safety nets. Very different actions are called for if you believe instead that a new boom is imminent, and that unbridled capitalism (there are no true fee markets, only freer ones) is the only mechanism that can unlock the complex and intertwined dynamic of markets that leads to a new mass flourishing. (Editors note: I do not usually write notes in my reviews but both authors Mills and Epstein in their books mentioned the unusual word “flourishing” so you will find the definition below. It is a must for Epstein’s book as it uses it more than 3 dozen times).
The new normalists don’t see anything on the horizon with potential economic or social impacts equivalent to the dawn of electrification or plumbing. To counter these folks who may make up a majority, its not enough to explain that progress has always happened. Its also not enough to just list amazing inventions because inventions and services yet to emerge won’t be on any such list. We need hard evidence to counter the new normal claim. This is clearly the purpose of Mark Mills’ wonderful book in which he succeeds beyond what I thought possible.
This time at the center of the information journey we find not a single tool like the radio or telephone or the smart phone. We instead find the microprocessor, a general purpose information tool whose sizes range from a spec in one’s eye, to a dinner plate, all with capabilities ranging from simple counting to a main-frame of old on a single chip. They are the building blocks of The Cloud.
Less aware to the average citizen is the fact that today instead of relying on a fixed catalogue of available materials or undergoing trial and error attempts to come up with new ones, engineers can turn algorithms running in super computers to design unique materials, based on a “material genome” with properties tailored to a specific need.
This book is, in effect, a survey of the patterns, evidence, and implications of revolutions in technology’s three spheres which are, microprocessors, materials and machines. Mills does not attempt to catalogue every consequential innovation, instead he focuses on key innovations that either instigate or typify foundational changes. He builds on the famous business philosopher Peter Drucker who believed that the future is built on the past. Mills says “Our near future was invented in the recent past.” You may be amazed by how many great inventors were actually building on the work of past folks with less ability to promote their genius.
While in the exploration of the recent past, Mills does mention specific companies and individuals but he makes clear that he does not wish to pick winners or losers. Of course, its the entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders who literally capitalize on and thus socialize the benefits of revolutionary innovations. His purpose, however, is to reveal the overall scope and depth of the epoch-shifting innovations now coming.
Mills divides his book into four parts: explaining how many things can be forecast; describing the nature of the Cloud that so few understand; focusing on the revolutions occurring in information, materials and machines; and speculates on how these things will impact activities, business, work, travel, health, safety and entertainment.
Of course anything that purports to be a forecast faces the familiar aphorism that has been attributed to everyone from Nostradamus and Mark Twain to Niels Bohr and Yogi Berra: “Prediction is very difficult, especially if its about the future.”
Buy The Cloud Revolution, read it a little at a time and you will thank me. You are welcome.
Note 1- Human Flourishing is defined as an effort to achieve self actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger community of individuals, each with the right to pursue his or her such efforts.
Note 2: Portions of this article were excerpted from the book THE CLOUD REVOLUTION: How The Convergence of NEW TECHNOLOGIES Will Unleash The Next ECONOMIC BOOM and a ROARING 2020s with permission of the author Mark Mills and the publisher Encounter Books. I strongly recommend this book to everyone fighting for the preservation of life in America. It has been made possible by our abundance of fossil fuels. Now the leftist, liberal, progressives and yes communists are attempting to limit the well being of human-kind.
PART II
By Dr. Jay Lehr June 13th, 2022 | Books, Energy | 48 Comments
If you have time to read two books in the coming year make them The Cloud Revolution, and the Fossil Future. The latter is reviewed below and
Fossil Future will arm you for life with the information to discuss human-caused climate change exaggerations with neutral friends who will listen. The Cloud Revolution will disabuse you of lingering pessimism resulting from the present world takeover of truly communist factions hoping to destroy capitalism. The human caused climate change fraud is a path to the destruction of capitalism and the installation of communism. Yes, you read that correctly. It is time to tell it as it is.
If you think I am being too strident mentioning communism let me quote Alexander Trachtenberg, the head of the American communist party at a rally in Madison Square Garden, New York City in 1944.
When we get ready to take the United States, we will not take you under the label of Communism. We will not take you under the label of Socialism…We will take the United States under labels we have made very lovable, we will take it under Liberalism, under Progressivism, under Democracy. But take it we will.”
In the United States they are doing this under the guidance of Billionaires, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and most of the jet setters who just attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos Switzerland. There they continued their plot to change the world into a system they can rule. You see, many if not most, mega-rich people are sure they can run your life and the world better than you, or us, because they so cleverly made tons of money. Surprisingly, they have nothing, tangibly, to look forward to in the future, having all that money can buy, other than Increased Power. They know that only Communism, by whatever its name they choose, can achieve this for them. Capitalism with all its faults can not readily become a Tyranny though the current US administration is doing its best to make it so.
These two books I am recommending, if not insisting you read in the coming months, will arm you to be a great warrior on behalf of liberty, both to fight the climate change, anti-fossil fuel fraud, while lifting yourself and your friends out of the pessimism gripping our nation. Both are extremely well written comprehensive texts but both are 400 page books. Few will be able to look forward to a quick read. I strongly recommend my own 10 pages a day reading plan for great books. That way you become energized daily with new information that whets your appetite for the next days read.
Alex Epstein is a trained philosopher and indeed this text is a philosophy book aimed at presenting a complete view of a scientific discipline, rarely fully understood by anyone. He captured the knowledge he sought beginning in 2007, in his initial 2014 book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuel. He hits the high points of that book in this book’s introduction. Thus, those who read that book will know where he is beginning this new project. His goal with every section, paragraph and sentence is to arm the reader with the intent of utilizing fossil fuels to maximize “human flourishing” of the world’s population.
At a time when government, education and financial institutions are attacking fossil fuels, Alex provides the ammunition to fight the myths and presents common sense solutions that advance the cause for reliable sources of energy. He identifies “human flourishing” as the standard by which we should evaluate any climate policy and attitude toward sources of energy.
This term appears in the book’s sub-title and is repeated constantly throughout the text so I will define it here. Human Flourishing is defined as an effort to achieve self actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger community of individuals. Each then has the right to pursue his or her such efforts. It conjures thoughts in my mind of our Declaration of Independence where Thomas Jefferson said each of us has an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. The climate scare has to be considered the biggest obstacle to that pursuit in decades.
In his first book as well as this one he makes the controversial prediction that fossil fuel use would grow, not shrink. The benefits of increasing fossil fuel use far outweigh any conceivable negative impacts. If the book has any weakness in my opinion, it would be his open mind toward the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on the Earth’s temperature though he does convey the fact that if there is any impact, it is completely insignificant.
Epstein’s prediction of increasing fossil fuel is based on his conviction that it will have a unique ability to provide low-cost reliable energy in a world where far more energy will be needed for the billions of people who still use almost no energy. He explains how low-cost reliable energy empowers us to use machines to improve our lives, our environment and our health.
In an interview with conservative billionaire (almost an oxymoron) Peter Thiel, developer of PayPal, during the launch of this book, the author referred to the infamous initials ESG (environment, social and governance) as important to connect with the initials CCP (Chinese Communist Party). Scoring their population on their conduct is really where ESG began. He also made a brilliant comment that threads through this entire book that “technology is trying to make more with less” while everything connected to the fossil fuel fraud is trying to make less with more and thus impoverishing a population.
All through Fossil Future, Epstein successfully takes on the insanity we have been exposed to by calmly replacing it with a philosophic point of view from which all lies fall away. I so admire this approach as my own 60-year history in the energy field has prevented me from going about this debate without losing my cool and walking away.
Understand that Epstein tells us that the countries most avidly embracing fossil fuel elimination are the world’s freest countries. Contrast this with unfree China whose goal is to rule the world, uses 85% fossil fuel and uses it to manufacture most of the solar panels and wind turbines beginning to stifle our ability to maintain our standard of living.
While the world is now universally told how bad carbon dioxide resulting from the burning of fossil fuels is, Epstein explains in details how they result in higher environmental quality and human flourishing. In contrast he details the apocalyptic consequences of eliminating fossil fuels promoted he says by The New York Times, The Washington Post, financial institutions such as Blackrock, corporations such as Apple and of course the United Nations.
As a trained philosopher the author has studied the history of ideas extensively and admits to being haunted by the fact that some of the worst ideas in history such as slavery, racism and eugenics were successfully spread as the consensus of experts. It turns out that it is not that the research experts perform to produce these ideas are so in error but rather it is because the system we rely on to tell us what the experts think is significantly distorting what the experts think. In climate science this is further complicated by the fact in complex sciences there is hardly anyone actually expert in every phase of the discipline.
The fundamental principle of the human flourishing framework is that it should be the primary moral goal of our evaluations. It is a long term and wide ranging goal that thinks generations ahead. The anti-human goal of eliminating fossil fuel is immoral.
There will be a few days in your life when you do not read or hear now some of the many lies about fossil fuels and carbon dioxide, our molecule of life. Don’t even consider sitting down to read this book in a single sitting. It can’t be done. But if you want to do your part in saving our way of life, our standard of living, our capitalist political system AND THE LIVES OF THE LESS FORTUNATE ALL OVER THE WORLD, get a 10-page dose of Alex Epstein’s philosophical approach to this subject each and every day.
Note 1- Human Flourishing is defined as an effort to achieve self actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger community of individuals, each with the right to pursue his or her such efforts.
Note 2: Portions of this article were excerpted from the book FOSSIL FUTURE: Why Global Human lourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas-Not Less, with permission of the author Alex Epstein and the publisher Portfolio/Penquin. I strongly recommend this book to everyone fighting for the preservation of life in America which has been made possible by our abundance of fossil fuels before the leftist, liberal, progressives and yes communists have attempted to limit the well being of human-kind.
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