The Oil Drum

160 comments on DrumBeat: February 10, 2007

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AlanfromBigEasy on February 10, 2007 - 10:30am

I wonder if we could run our electrified railroads off the power savings from SEDs ?

Perhaps tax every other form of television EXCEPT SED 28" screen or smaller. Large screens (including SEDs) get a luxury tax (increases with size, small tax for 32" or 35", thousands for 55"+), all types except SEDs get a "energy waste tax" (varies by power wasted, CRTs taxed more, LCDs taxed less) and we give a tax credit for buying a medium or small screen SED for several years to speed the transition.

Less waste heat from the TV means less air conditioning needed.

IMVHO (back of envelope) SED TVs + more compact fluorescents could save enough to run the current railroads PLUS a large % of heavy truck inter-city freight. SEDs alone might run the main lines today.

Best Hopes,

Alan

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fleam on February 11, 2007 - 4:27am

This may be something TPTB are working on much harder than we realized.

Case in point: A few years ago in a large apartment building I'm living in, the power goes out. It's dark, it's still early evening, nuthin' much to do, no TV to watch, so.... people get their flashlights and glowsticks and a few have candles, and start getting together and talking. Little groups form, and start getting to know each other. Oh, I live here, Wow, you're right around the corner from me, Hey, I've seen you in the parking garage, you have that so and such car right? Remember that time in the library... etc.

If it stays out, for a few days, sure you get some pissed off people, but the main thing is you end up with these social networks that have formed. You may have people realizing how much time they waste watching TV and sitting around, you may end up with, after time, if these social networks are not snuffed out, POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS.

However, in the case I saw, after a few hours the lights came back on and we went back to our TVs and not knowing each other and never saying Hi or making eye contact. We went back to being good Americans.

It may however be harder to keep people good Americans, not knowing and not trusting their neighbors, if those darned TVs keep fritzing out everytime the power goes out - which will only happing more often in our decaying Empire.

Hence, the low-power TV. We may see TVs that can run off of the UPS you may already have for your computer, TVs that can run off of a car batt, TVs that can run day/night off of a $100 solar cell array like they sell at Fry's, charging during the day.

We may see much more effort and exotic materials put into this than there would be otherwise, because TVs give TPTB that valuable social control.

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Aniya on February 12, 2007 - 1:43am

Hi fleam,

I like your story. You may be interested in these folks: http://www.tvturnoff.org/. They used to be called "TV Free America", which I liked a lot better. Then they changed their name. Still, maybe check them out. "Live free - turnoff TV".

I really enjoy TV-free life myself. As one of my neighbors used to say "I may not accomplish anything in my life, but when I look back, I'll say - 'At least I didn't spend it watching TV'"

When you write:
"However, in the case I saw, after a few hours the lights came back on and we went back to our TVs and not knowing each other and never saying Hi or making eye contact."

I wonder what it would take for someone to make these kind of get togethers something that happens...?