"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Don't Confuse Convenience and Efficiency
Powering any device with a single source of energy will be even more of a losing proposition in the future than it is now. Rather, power grids should be powered by renewable energy best suited to local conditions, and the power should be distributed to devices. Not a very exciting answer. But it's simply the truth that there's very little overlap between "objects best-suited to work as consumer electronics" and "objects best-suited to generate electricity from natural sources of power". Sure, you could rig up a clothesline to harvest power from the wind, but the big savings of the clothesline is the power you don't use in running a dryer, and the effort spent retrofitting clotheslines to work as makeshift generators will almost always be better spent building actual windmills.
I think there's a temptation to over-engineer solutions to energy problems. After all, "let's replace our power plants with other, more renewable power plants" isn't a very exciting answer. A mini power-plant in every pocket sounds more exciting. It may well be more convenient. But let's not mistake convenience for efficiency. I have yet to see a solution for vampire electronics that is overall more efficient than just building TVs where you have to actually flip a switch on the TV to turn it on. Efficient is clearly not what the market desires, and there's the rub. It's easier to mistake convenience for efficiency than to create an innovative consumer product that both increases efficiency and sells.
Furthermore, one of the big problems facing the world is that introducing complexity to solve problems can create additional problems. Adding additional complexity in an innovative way does not avert that problem.
So, how about "design a new way to not power something you use every day"? Or "design a way to not use something you power every day"?
I think there's a temptation to over-engineer solutions to energy problems. After all, "let's replace our power plants with other, more renewable power plants" isn't a very exciting answer. A mini power-plant in every pocket sounds more exciting. It may well be more convenient. But let's not mistake convenience for efficiency. I have yet to see a solution for vampire electronics that is overall more efficient than just building TVs where you have to actually flip a switch on the TV to turn it on. Efficient is clearly not what the market desires, and there's the rub. It's easier to mistake convenience for efficiency than to create an innovative consumer product that both increases efficiency and sells.
Furthermore, one of the big problems facing the world is that introducing complexity to solve problems can create additional problems. Adding additional complexity in an innovative way does not avert that problem.
So, how about "design a new way to not power something you use every day"? Or "design a way to not use something you power every day"?
Views: 31
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Comment by Jen Shaffer on March 30, 2010 at 11:06pm
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You've made some really important points here about not over-engineering. Too bad more folks wouldn't take this to heart.
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