The Oil Drum

"After 200 years of fossil fuels, it looks like the inevitable return to a solar civilization could be rocky."

Bacteria will win in the end.

My area is finance, and here is the message: The history of betting on paradigm shifts is poor. Even if you are able to identify an actual paradigm shift, your chances of betting correctly on the outcome are slim.

in the end, nature's rules win.

The only thing that you can be certain of is that everything is uncertain.

First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics rule; Humanity has been climbing the enthalphy ladder throughout history; since the Industrial Revolution on fossil fuels.

LOL! When I was in engineering school, they used to say:

1. F=ma
2. pV=nRT
3. You can't push on a rope.

Learn any two of those three, and you graduate.

My degree is in mechanical engineering, and here's how I would sum up the field:

"If all else fails, try kicking it."

But my favorite is probably the Laws of Thermodynamics, a la Ginsberg:

1. You can't win.
2. You can't even break even, either.
3. You can't get out of the game.

And perhaps most apropos, Freeman's corollary:

Every major philosophy that attempts to make life seem
meaningful is based on the negation of one part of Ginsberg's Theorem.

1. Capitalism is based on the assumption that you can win.
2. Socialism is based on the assumption that you can break even.
3. Mysticism is based on the assumption that you can quit the game.

General computing: Base 2 is best.

Building computers: Small impurities in silicon crystals can be used to make great switches.

Systems: Computers are really communication devices, not adding machines, so connect them together.

I also have a couple that explain almost all everyday events, though not quite within the rules of Feynman's challenge:

1/ Google knows everything.
2/ Society dramatically underestimates the value of shared, self-driving, electric cars.

- Nature must, in the not far distant future, institute
bankruptcy proceedings against industrial civilization,
and perhaps against the standing crop of human flesh, just
as nature had done many times to other detritus-consuming
species following their exuberant expansion in response to
the savings deposits their ecosystems had accumulated
before they got the opportunity to begin the drawdown.
William Catton, Overshoot

Economics "should be" the study of how people (emotional creatures) trade with one another and plan for the future.

These are the two most important things - think of the future have a sense of humor.

I always like that Navajo proverb

"We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

There's also a billion saying about the importance of a sense of humor, like this simple one:

"Every survival kit should include a sense of humor"

Do not allow corporations to become confused with humans.

and for those in the military: if you can't take a joke you should not have joined.

MY Thermo-Gene Collision sentence: In the USA, 150 million wheelbarrows will be more helpful for a longer period of postPeak time than 150 million rifles because eventually--each less barrel of crude means an additional 25,000 brute force hours of labor.

I also like that other quote [but I don't know the author]: "It will take all of us, and it will take forever, but isn't that the point?"

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

Economics can be summed up in the acronym TANSTAAFL! There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!

This DUET (Deep Universal Eternal Truth) can be translated as follows: All human actions that have benefits also have costs.

Another translation: All actions have opportunity costs.

Yet another translation: Scarcity rules.

The end of fossil fuels will clean our air, destroy the middle class and bring back slavery.