The oldest curriculum
The Vedic tradition calls it prana — the breath that animates all living things. The Chinese call it qi — the vital force flowing through body and world. The Lakota call it wakan — the sacred power pervading nature....
The afternoon oil went negative
On April 18, 2020, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude went negative. Sellers paid buyers to take delivery. The energy content — 5.8 million BTUs, enough to heat a house for two months — had not changed....
The correlation nobody explains away
In 1973, the price of oil quadrupled in three months. GDP in every industrialized nation fell. Unemployment rose. Inflation rose. The Keynesian models shattered on contact with a physical constraint....
The forgetting
A barrel of oil contains 5.8 million BTUs. A human laborer produces about 0.5 kilowatt-hours per day. One barrel replaces roughly four years of human muscle. A gallon of gasoline costs three dollars. Four years of human labor costs a quarter-million....
The cheapest electricity in history
In 2024, a solar panel cost less per kilowatt-hour than a coal plant in every major economy on Earth. The International Energy Agency, which had underestimated solar deployment every single year for fifteen consecutive years, called solar "the...
The television said no danger
March 12, 2011, 3:36 p.m. The roof of Reactor Building 1 blew off in a hydrogen explosion visible from twenty kilometers. The television said no danger. TEPCO said no danger....
The numbers
73 deaths per terawatt-hour. The entire history of the technology. We have memorized this the way a doctor memorizes a dosage.
France built its fleet in thirty years. French electricity costs half of Germany’s. French grid carbon: one-sixth. These are measurements....