June 18, 2024

The politics of science and technology is an incongruous muddle due to ignorance. Political positions are based on assumptions that are absurd. And there are so many complexities involved, that none of the claims and consequences can be straightened out.

One of the problems is the assumption that more research will turn lead into gold. Battery research is of that nature. No significant progress has been made with batteries over several decades, while propagandists muddle the subject. That's because no significant progress on batteries is in the range of scientific possibilities. Yet nonscientists assume that more research will always solve problems, much like computer space and speed are always increasing.

The reason why batteries will never be a solution to energy problems is because of the amount of metal, fluids and space required. Those requirements do not reduce down significantly with any research. The electrons in batteries will always require a lot of metal, fluids and space, while the miss is a mile. Batteries would need to be improved by a factor of about fifty to be realistic solutions, while the research does nothing more than trade one problem for another.

Another ungodly problem being totally missed is the impossibility of producing charging stations. The only significant charging at this time is at residences using old fashioned systems designed for toasters. Increasing the demand will eliminate the ability to use residential charging stations, while charging stations elsewhere are beyond absurd due to the impossibility of getting the energy of transportation systems located along highways.

Nonscientists don't grasp what electrical energy is. They have been assuming for more than a century that it is just something always available at the end of a cord. That result doesn't scale up. Would ten times as much energy require ten times as large of a cord? More or less. What about a million times as much? That's what transportation involves.

Except that the problem is vastly worse than that, because 70-90% of electrical energy is lost due to heat before being applied to a purpose. For toasters, who cares. For transportation, the wasted electrical heat alone would fry the planet before moving the transportation system.