If Darwinian life was triggered by a huge influx of free energy, then perhaps the Darwinian system of the free flow of capital, through trade and subsequent free flow of ideas was also fueled by the ultimate flexible, portable energy source – oil.
If one plotted the number of books written per year against energy consumption there would surely be a correlation.
We are now at a stage where the flow of ideas across the ether as bits and bytes uses far less energy than physically moving things.
Like the intangible, ideas based, industry of marketing that drives the sales of Nike sneakers in the US that are physically made in South East Asia, the buck for this non scarcity based economics currently stops in a traditional manufacturing economy based upon scarcity.
I wonder if the change to 'services' based economies are enough to produce growth without oil, growth of culture and ideas not energy expenditure or whether the buck always stops with energy.
link »