The Crash Course, Revised Edition

CHAPTER 20Why Technology Can't Fix This

By now, some of you are certainly thinking that I've seriously underestimated the role technology and innovation will play in our future. Perhaps I have, but my background as a scientist keeps intruding into my optimism about the ability of technology to solve the predicaments we face.

In truth, I love technology and what it has brought us over the past centuries and will bring us in the future. I will stand up and applaud new discoveries and new advances as loudly as anyone when they are rolled out and deployed. But we need to be clear‐eyed about what technology can do and, most importantly, what it can't do.

Fact 1: Technology Does Not Create Energy

Technology can help us do things more efficiently and effectively than in the past, and it can help us do far more with less. It can entertain and connect us in ways that we couldn't have conceived of only a decade ago. It can boost productivity. It can help us transform and use energy through innovative applications. It allows us to connect instantly with each other in new and exciting ways. But one thing it cannot do is create energy.

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So says the First Law of Thermodynamics. Energy can only be transformed from one form to another, such as when coal is turned into electricity, which becomes the cold air blown into a dentist's office in summer. Someday, perhaps and hopefully soon, fusion technology will create more energy than it uses. The magic ...