We are now about 130 years into the automobile era. Starting with Karl Benz’s patent in the 1880s the automobile quickly became widespread with Henry Ford’s model of mass production scaling up the market 100 years ago. Since then there have been waves of significant changes. The first stage was about mechanics and engines and […]
[Note: Much of this column was first published in issue #37 of the Shift Age Newsletter] 2015 will turn out to be the peak year of fossil fuel use. By 2020 it will be clear that the decline in consumption of fossil fuels began this year. It therefore will be the first year of flat […]
In the last column here, I looked at the transformations Elon Musk is bringing to the automotive, battery and energy businesses. In this column we look at the breakthroughs he is working on in solar energy, space exploration and Internet connectivity. One of the issues with or counter arguments about electric cars was that even […]
I have been an admirer, yes, even a fan of Elon Musk ever since I first learned about Tesla Motors ten years ago. I state that because now it seems that Elon Musk is everywhere in the media – on-line, magazines, a best selling biography [which I have purchased but yet to start]- simply because […]
NOTE: The column below was published on January 1, 2010, or 01-01-10, a very interesting digital date. I am republishing it for several reasons. First, it has become a very powerful metaphor when giving speeches or leading corporate and government retreats. The concept of transformational change as described below makes change, large and small, more […]
In the last column here, I forecast that humanity may well have entered a new era of lower cost energy. This could last for just a few years or could become something much more long-term. This is due to a combination of factors and trends. The only real question is the duration. Here is a […]
As many of you who have read my writings over the years know, I have written quite a bit about energy, sources of energy and the price of oil. In fact one of the first forecasts that gave me widespread recognition was made in the Spring of 2006 when I suggested that by 2008 […]
We are entering a new stage of the rapidly evolving global economy. The first stage has lasted some 25 years, beginning in the very late 1980s. As we move from 2014 into 2015 and 2016 there will be fundamental shifts in both the global economy and almost equally importantly, how we perceive it. By 2017, […]
Thousands of crumbling bridges, millions of gaping potholes, billions of dropped calls, limited bandwidth, a fragile electric grid, antiquated nuclear power plants, water and sewer systems that are decrepit and dangerous. This is not the foundation for another “American Century”. It is the disaster of the infrastructure in the United States half way through the […]
[This column was first published in the Shift Age Newsletter #27] Eight years ago I first began to write and speak about the future full time. Then, as always, I was asked about what accurate forecasts I had made. This told me of course that my legitimacy to some degree would be based upon this. […]