Another great quote, via Dad:
"Electricity was not discovered by incremental improvements to the candle."
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She gave a keynote address to the 2005 Pittcon Conference. She was discussing that we CAN solve "the energy situation", but it will require creativity and new approaches. She's a professor of physics and electrical engineering.
2 Comments:
Meg... you're verging on fighting words. Your quote is cute, but essentially rhetoric. Incremental changes are probably the best way to deal with the energy problem, and to hope for a sudden wunder-solution is... well, irresponsible. It harkens back to when everyone thought atomic energy would be the new, great solution to energy problems worldwide, 'cept it came with its own barrel of problems.
I'm ready to argue energy policy anytime you are. Just say the word. :-)
--S.
p.s. While not the candle, there's a fair argument that the lightbulb was created due to incremental changes to the gas lamp, starting in 1801 with the work of Sir Humphry Davy, an English chemist. Over a hundred years of incremental changes later, GE started producing the modern lightbulb in... I think 1906, but I could be wrong.
Of course it's rhetoric! My impression is that her point was simply to get people thinking and to emphasize that although current incremental changes may be the way to go, thinking outside the box is also an important step in coming up with alternative energy sources. And the fact that no current alternative energy source appears to be viable on a national or global scale doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. She was giving a speech, not writing a white paper on how to solve the energy crisis.
And yeah, I am in no way prepared to debate energy policy. Sorry kiddo.
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