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Originally Posted by iggy_oi
Yes. The technology has improved over time due to investment, as has every advancement in oil and gas extraction technology. It costs money for research and development.
You’re going to have to specify how you define the word endless in this context.
We can probably agree that fossil fuels provide a lot of energy relatively inexpensively compared to a number of alternatives, and that if you didn’t know there was a long term downside to its use there’d be no reason to invest in a cleaner form of energy.
Research and development requires investment capital. Had the truth been known earlier it’s almost a certainty that you would have seen an earlier uptick in the investment of green technology, much like we’ve been seeing recently. Think of how much even internal combustion engines have evolved in the last 100 years, 50 years, 25 years or even the last 10 years and ask yourself do you seriously think even as little as an extra 5 years of earlier research in a green tech wouldn’t have had an impact? Because if that’s the case it sounds like you’re essentially arguing that green energy technology hasn’t advanced at all in the past 5 years. Which is certainly not the case.
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"Endless" as in no amount of "we need this" would have changed progress. The demand for a better battery has always been around, and the reward would be massive for whoever did it.
I just disagree that we would be further along. The battery and generation advancements have all required cutting edge microprocessors(no getting around that limit quicker), material sciences(also would not have accelerated with market pressures) and critically, the extraction of material and the manufacturing advances. I just don't see the argument that throwing more demand at those sectors would have significantly affected their ability to develop any quicker.
From the people here who clearly disagree with my assessment, I'd be interested to see your alternate timeline had we started shifting in the early 80's. Let's say we are at the phase of transition we are now, back in 2000. What technologies would be where we are now, back then? What advancements would allow them to circumvent the shortcomings of the fields I mentioned earlier? I'm curious what that world looks like. And don't just say "like now, but 20 years earlier" because that would be impossible.