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Sustainable living and other random thoughts
Posted 06-25-2008 at 12:55 AM by Apollyon
I've spent a lot of time thinking about sustainable living, and energy, and general infrastructure independence.
Here are some thoughts I've had
1. Infrastructure independence is prohibitively expensive for individuals.
By infrastructure independence I mean things like energy, communications, water, plumbing, etc. These are very expensive for individuals. I've priced energy production and storage to about $10,000/KW. However I if you get small communities of people together, they can pool their resources and build these things. For instance, Toshiba sells a small nuclear reactor which is good for 20 yrs and can generate enough power for a community for $20 million. There are probably better and cheaper alternatives, but you get the idea.
2. We need like minded people who don't want to be part of the rat race.
Lets face it, the way society is structured isn't working out for most ppl. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and all the time people are becoming unhappier. Marriage and families are dissolving, and this is considered normal. People need to start thinking outside of the box that has been constructed for them by corporations and governments who feed off of them. Government is basically parasitic and under the control of corporate interests. We shouldn't count on them for anything, including our health, physical security, etc. We need to take control and responsibility for these things ourselves.
3. Unfortunately we will still need health care.
Health care is prohibitively expensive for individuals. So unfortunately we can't completely cut ourselves off from society. We'll need doctors, nurses, midwives, drugs, medications etc. I have no idea what to do about that except perhaps develop a philosophy of holistic healthy living and prevention rather than medication. Also unfortunately, there really isn't a good idea whether so called alternative medicines or ways of living are valid or not.
4. Why do people build houses that are stupid, badly designed, and ugly boxes?
I can't stand most homes these days. The shapes don't make sense to me. Box shapes maximize the surface area to volume ratio thus increasing heat exchange with the environment. If we wanted to do that, we might as well live outside without the benefit of shelter. Why don't builders design homes based on solid engineering and scientific principles? I want to build my own home so badly. Every year, ppl's homes are getting damaged, destroyed, wiped off the map, sucked up by tornadoes, swept away by rivers etc. Why the heck does that always happen? I assume its because the builders want to build as cheaply as possible to meet the minimum government standards, or even less. I don't want to buy a half a million dollar home designed on that basic principle. I'd rather build it and design it myself, with the help of an appropriate architectural firm of course. So many things have gone wrong from what I've seen. A housing development here has started to sink because they built on a marsh and swampland. You'd think people would have better sense than that. But they don't care. They just want to sell houses to suckers and to hell with you after they've got your money. This is not a good basis for perhaps the most expensive and important purchase that people will ever make in their lifetimes.
Well, thats all I have for now. I'll keep writing stuff if anybody is interested.
Here are some thoughts I've had
1. Infrastructure independence is prohibitively expensive for individuals.
By infrastructure independence I mean things like energy, communications, water, plumbing, etc. These are very expensive for individuals. I've priced energy production and storage to about $10,000/KW. However I if you get small communities of people together, they can pool their resources and build these things. For instance, Toshiba sells a small nuclear reactor which is good for 20 yrs and can generate enough power for a community for $20 million. There are probably better and cheaper alternatives, but you get the idea.
2. We need like minded people who don't want to be part of the rat race.
Lets face it, the way society is structured isn't working out for most ppl. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and all the time people are becoming unhappier. Marriage and families are dissolving, and this is considered normal. People need to start thinking outside of the box that has been constructed for them by corporations and governments who feed off of them. Government is basically parasitic and under the control of corporate interests. We shouldn't count on them for anything, including our health, physical security, etc. We need to take control and responsibility for these things ourselves.
3. Unfortunately we will still need health care.
Health care is prohibitively expensive for individuals. So unfortunately we can't completely cut ourselves off from society. We'll need doctors, nurses, midwives, drugs, medications etc. I have no idea what to do about that except perhaps develop a philosophy of holistic healthy living and prevention rather than medication. Also unfortunately, there really isn't a good idea whether so called alternative medicines or ways of living are valid or not.
4. Why do people build houses that are stupid, badly designed, and ugly boxes?
I can't stand most homes these days. The shapes don't make sense to me. Box shapes maximize the surface area to volume ratio thus increasing heat exchange with the environment. If we wanted to do that, we might as well live outside without the benefit of shelter. Why don't builders design homes based on solid engineering and scientific principles? I want to build my own home so badly. Every year, ppl's homes are getting damaged, destroyed, wiped off the map, sucked up by tornadoes, swept away by rivers etc. Why the heck does that always happen? I assume its because the builders want to build as cheaply as possible to meet the minimum government standards, or even less. I don't want to buy a half a million dollar home designed on that basic principle. I'd rather build it and design it myself, with the help of an appropriate architectural firm of course. So many things have gone wrong from what I've seen. A housing development here has started to sink because they built on a marsh and swampland. You'd think people would have better sense than that. But they don't care. They just want to sell houses to suckers and to hell with you after they've got your money. This is not a good basis for perhaps the most expensive and important purchase that people will ever make in their lifetimes.
Well, thats all I have for now. I'll keep writing stuff if anybody is interested.
