Sure, Yankee, you're entirely right in your remarks. The "Wired" cultural point of view may be OK for ipods and cell phones but as far as alternatives to oil go, this technogeek stuff isn't going to cut it. This reminds me that in this online interview with Tom Ashbrook, Daniel Yergin mentioned as examples of technology innovation cell phones and PCs as if these inventions were even remotely comparable to what has to happen with energy issues. That's when the emptiness of the technology argument really came home to me. There's a nice discussion of this at the Energy Bulletin titled Open letter to Daniel Yergin on optimism and addressing Peak Oil seriously.

What did I miss? Why are you no longer 'Ianqui'?
yergin's answer to the question of the hirsh report:

   "...Yergin's response, "I wonder what...I'm not sure what report that is, but I expect there to be a few reports coming out from the U.S. Government, from the geological side, that I think are more confident about the resources...."

yeah sure, yergin's never heard of the hirsh report...and we're in iraq to instill democracy...don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain, dorothy!