Review of The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power
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Charlotte Geel
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Review of The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power" by Roger Duncan and Michael E. Webber.]
What might our daily lives look like in a not so far future? That is the picture that Roger Duncan and Michael E. Webber intend to depict in The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power. Giant solar and wind farms charging the batteries of unmanned electric flying taxis and powering sentient buildings monitoring your brain thoughts and collecting every single piece of data from your lives for the sake of your health, security, convenience and to do your household chores.
In a world in which perpetual growth is the Holy Grail, The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power comes to offer us a technical response to keep up living a western-type life where consumption is the undisputed king of kings, where power generation is likely to rise indefinitely, where the internet takes up more and more of our daytime and where the masses gradually trade their abilities to create something of their own for a perpetual quest for instant gratification. The narrative is zero carbon centered, and no other approach is touched upon.
The authors have made a huge and impressive research work on the rising technologies that might transform buildings, transportation and power in the western world during the course of the 21st century. The almost comprehensive pile of references relating to each technology and the names of the companies developing it provide a solid base for further inquisitive work.
However, most of the book is best summed up as a dull list of so-called exciting technologies (together with their intended purposes) that will solve all our current energy problems whereas, in my opinion, it merely describes the dystopian world of the one percent technocrats on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other hand. In this paradigm the former travels at tremendous speeds in suborbital capsules and the latter enjoys complete obliteration of privacy in the name of energy efficiency and CO2 regulation. The authors seldom give an unbiased opinion on the roll-out of such or such technology. They rather content themselves with pointing all the arguable improvements in term of carbon reduction those technologies bring. Often, some drawbacks are pointed out but are always comically dismissed as mere trifles standing in the path of progress. It makes it a really frustrating scientific approach.
I rate this book two out of four stars for the monotony and the obviously biased point of view of the authors, who won't discuss the fact that they are firm believers in the carbon narrative. This book is best suited for people from the western world, that are fully in line with the mainstream narrative of man-made climate emergency due to CO2 emissions. It could also quench the thirst of the bystander interested in building a counter argumentation in response to the numerous arguable points encountered throughout the pages. It contains a ton of information for anyone eager to invest his money and his time in the renewable energies or in some of the creepy technologies of the future. While the book is accessible to the layman, some science jargon will require some research to clear it up. This book has seemed to me extremely well edited as I have not found any errors.
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The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
What might our daily lives look like in a not so far future? That is the picture that Roger Duncan and Michael E. Webber intend to depict in The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power. Giant solar and wind farms charging the batteries of unmanned electric flying taxis and powering sentient buildings monitoring your brain thoughts and collecting every single piece of data from your lives for the sake of your health, security, convenience and to do your household chores.
In a world in which perpetual growth is the Holy Grail, The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power comes to offer us a technical response to keep up living a western-type life where consumption is the undisputed king of kings, where power generation is likely to rise indefinitely, where the internet takes up more and more of our daytime and where the masses gradually trade their abilities to create something of their own for a perpetual quest for instant gratification. The narrative is zero carbon centered, and no other approach is touched upon.
The authors have made a huge and impressive research work on the rising technologies that might transform buildings, transportation and power in the western world during the course of the 21st century. The almost comprehensive pile of references relating to each technology and the names of the companies developing it provide a solid base for further inquisitive work.
However, most of the book is best summed up as a dull list of so-called exciting technologies (together with their intended purposes) that will solve all our current energy problems whereas, in my opinion, it merely describes the dystopian world of the one percent technocrats on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other hand. In this paradigm the former travels at tremendous speeds in suborbital capsules and the latter enjoys complete obliteration of privacy in the name of energy efficiency and CO2 regulation. The authors seldom give an unbiased opinion on the roll-out of such or such technology. They rather content themselves with pointing all the arguable improvements in term of carbon reduction those technologies bring. Often, some drawbacks are pointed out but are always comically dismissed as mere trifles standing in the path of progress. It makes it a really frustrating scientific approach.
I rate this book two out of four stars for the monotony and the obviously biased point of view of the authors, who won't discuss the fact that they are firm believers in the carbon narrative. This book is best suited for people from the western world, that are fully in line with the mainstream narrative of man-made climate emergency due to CO2 emissions. It could also quench the thirst of the bystander interested in building a counter argumentation in response to the numerous arguable points encountered throughout the pages. It contains a ton of information for anyone eager to invest his money and his time in the renewable energies or in some of the creepy technologies of the future. While the book is accessible to the layman, some science jargon will require some research to clear it up. This book has seemed to me extremely well edited as I have not found any errors.
******
The Future of Buildings, Transportation and Power
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
