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sunstone commented on GM and Ford, Driving to Beat Tesla, Turn on Each Other   wsj.com/articles/gm-ford-... · Posted by u/avonmach
hcknwscommenter · 4 years ago
No sane person of any political persuasion thinks humans are "solely" the reason for climate change. I would even include both Jill Stein and Donald Trump in the category of "sane" in this context (but not most others). This is the most strawman comment I think I've ever seen on the internet.
sunstone · 4 years ago
Without humans sending great gobs of CO2 into the atmosphere the climate at this point would be starting to tip into another ice age. So, yes, all scientifically aware humans agree that the current cause of climate change is human induced. It can be argued though that warming is better than freezing. Personally, I expect say 100 years from now when warming is on the wane we'll start burning fossil fuels just to avoid an ice age. But in the mean time CO2 is a bad thing. The golden mean is what we are seeking.
sunstone commented on Ford’s first electric F-150 delivery   bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/IdEntities
osigurdson · 4 years ago
Tesla truck is for people that want a Tesla truck. No need to psychoanalyze and try to establish motivation. People can buy whatever they want.
sunstone · 4 years ago
Cybertruck was not love at first sight for me. But after 24 hrs I signed up because of the value. 4x4, adjustable suspension, locking bed, 240v, pneumatic air and much more for $50k. Plus the usual no gas bill and very low maintenance. It's a deal.
sunstone commented on Bicycles Have Evolved. Have We?   newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/fortran77
SoftTalker · 4 years ago
Steve Jobs said almost the same thing about the Segway. He said it we would design cities around it. How often do you see one in use? The reality is that most people don't like to cycle. They like to drive. They like to be protected from the rain, cold, heat, and other vehicles as they move from place to place. Especially if they have kids, or elderly passengers, or have to move stuff with them, or have to travel any appreciable distance. eBikes are good for out-of-shape people who think they want to start cycling, and not much else.
sunstone · 4 years ago
In 2020 the Netherlands bought more ebikes than pedal bikes for the first time. They also paid on average $2000 for their ebikes compared with $1000 for their pedal bikes. So in terms of dollars (or Euros) the market in the Netherlands is now 66% ebikes.

What people in the Netherlands found was that an ebike would allow them to do errands up to a distance of about 15km whereas with a pedal bike the distance was more like 5km before they would take their car.

My experience is similar. Ebikes in practice are more like a smaller car than they are like a bigger bike, when the roads or bike paths are suitable.

sunstone commented on Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?   nytimes.com/2022/05/24/bu... · Posted by u/gumby
sunstone · 4 years ago
On the other hand productivity in the developing world has been spiking markedly.
sunstone commented on Why isn’t new technology making us more productive?   nytimes.com/2022/05/24/bu... · Posted by u/gumby
Barrin92 · 4 years ago
Because new technology is as Thiel often quips limited to the world of bits rather than the world of atoms. Paul Krugman once asked, if you go into an average house right now and you take out all the screens, could you tell that you're not in the 80s?

Gordon in the Rise and Fall of American Growth gives a similar example, what if you went into a time capsule between say 1890 and 1950 compared to 1960 and 2010? In one case you're going to see skyscrapers, commercial airplanes, nuclear power plants, electricity everywhere, cars going at amazing speeds. In the latter case what's the difference, people paying with their phones and different fashion mostly.

'Innovation' in the internet age, say the last 30 years has mostly been limited to enable hedonistic digital consumption with very little impact on how we fundamentally move through the world. The difference between a car right now and a car 30 years ago is that you can now play angry birds on a tablet. A 100 years ago to 50 years ago meant going from horse carriages to trains and from weeks on a ship to hours on a plane. Today the average person crosses the Atlantic no faster than we did decades ago.

That's why productivity growth is low, the world hasn't changed that much. There's still marginal improvements obviously which do add up over time but the 'unprecedent pace of innovation' you hear about from tech evangelists is nowhere.

Another interesting thought experiment is, how many digital services, modern tech and so on would you be willing to trade for something mundane, say your dishwasher, a hot shower, the toilet, a car, soap, if you could only have one or the other? I think it really puts into perspective how much or rather little value those 'innovations' add.

sunstone · 4 years ago
I would trade my dishwasher for Google.
sunstone commented on How big a deal was the Industrial Revolution? A human historical view   lukemuehlhauser.com/indus... · Posted by u/ArdelleF
sunstone · 4 years ago
Between the steam engine and the telegraph it's fair to say it was the biggest step change over a hundred years in the history of humans so far.
sunstone commented on Low-cost, battery-like device absorbs CO2 emissions while it charges   techxplore.com/news/2022-... · Posted by u/PaulHoule
filoeleven · 4 years ago
So about 0.00237 football fields, then.
sunstone · 4 years ago
If it's a tiny tiny football field.
sunstone commented on Russian troops are proving that cell phones in war zones are a bad idea   taskandpurpose.com/analys... · Posted by u/Stratoscope
sunstone · 4 years ago
Pretty sure it has nothing to do with Starlink.
sunstone commented on Is It Safe to Ship Thousands of Electric Cars on Big Ships?   autoweek.com/news/industr... · Posted by u/helsinkiandrew
sunstone · 4 years ago
If it's safe to ship tons of LNG on big ships there's almost certainly a way to ship batteries safely. It might take a few 'incidents' though before best practise becomes clear.
sunstone commented on The effect of flossing on the oral microbiome, gum disease, and bad breath   bristlehealth.com/post/br... · Posted by u/david_l_lin
leobg · 4 years ago
> Oral B 4000

Which one? The Pulsonic (sonic) or the Smart (rotating)?

sunstone · 4 years ago
The Smart.

u/sunstone

KarmaCake day1691February 3, 2011View Original