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Powering the Future

How We Will (Eventually) Solve the Energy Crisis and Fuel the Civilization of Tomorrow

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About this listen

In Powering the Future, Nobel laureate Robert B. Laughlin transports us two centuries into the future, when we’ve ceased to use carbon from the ground. Boldly, Laughlin predicts no earth-shattering transformations will have taken place. Six generations from now, there will still be soccer moms, shopping malls, and business trips. Firesides will still be snug and warm.

How will we do it? Not by discovering a magic bullet to slay our energy problems but through a slew of fascinating technologies, drawing on wind, water, and fire. Powering the Future is an objective yet optimistic tour through alternative fuel sources, set in a world where we’ve burned every last drop of petroleum and every last shovelful of coal.

©2011 Robert B. Laughlin (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Earth Sciences Engineering Future Studies Science Social Sciences Pollution

Critic reviews

“The value of the book rests in the author’s thought-provoking assessment and his relentless faith in the earth…A work of intricate research free of hype, offering serious pros and cons with a sometimes whimsical flourish.” ( Kirkus Reviews)
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A well written and well presented audio book. Full of relevance and insight and loaded with science. it holds well for the future.

powering the future

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a bit aged from science perspective at mid 2021 but good explain history and base of energy industry.
futurist and sometimes science fiction vision of future of energy and related industry. particulary liked vision of ROV and ocean exploration.
not as much technical as i thought.
easy listening and encourage to think. Good one

good review

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Mr Laughlin's book distills a lifetime's work into a summary of the fundamentals of fuel science, the economics of the business, the human behaviours that have driven the development of the energy business to date, the landscape of available alternatives to oil and the likely development of the energy market if democratic systems and their associated market dynamics continue to operate as they have to date. You may not like the future he anticipates; he may not be too keen on it either, but this book is enormously valuable in both entertaining and informing the listener. It is also exceptionally well narrated.

Fascinating, informed, objective

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Very good, in depth and at the same time approachable review of potential future and current energy sources. Great energy myths buster at the same time.

Thorough

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It makes some good points but is quite out of date and requires some updating in the light of innovations made in renewable and the storage of energy.

Out of date

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