Staff

A guide for the perplexed

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E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful, once required reading in the appropriate-tech movement, has lost none of its relevance in the thirty years or so since the period of its greatest popularity. Some of its core ideas may turn out to be essential in making sense of the murky economic territory on the far side of Hubbert’s peak.

Freezing…and why not to

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Freezers are vulnerable to either localized (and by localized this can be as local as “my husband accidentally kicked the cord out and we didn’t notice until it was too late) or widespread power outages. The reality is that if you keep food in your freezer, sooner or later, you will probably have an extended power outage.

Star Trek and the future of science fiction

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I don’t know what kind of future movies, television and YouTube have, as improving technology runs up against decreasing energy and economy. I don’t expect them to vanish in the next few decades, though, although they might be available to fewer people. Science fiction fills the top-grossing movie lists and whole sections of the bookstore, and probably won’t go away as a genre either. But what would it look like? If it predicts a future of small farms and small towns — like, say, Mayberry – is it science fiction anymore?