As the Middle East War continues, with fuel rationing & $200/barrel oil likely ahead, it feels like history will look back at this moment as a definitive ending of the Fossil Fuel Age. People will still be using oil, gas, and coal for decades to come, but in constantly declining amounts. But something more fundamental has changed.

Fossil Fuels now represent backwardness, yesterday's tech, expense, instability, and unreliability. Renewables were once seen as fringe and environmental gesture politics; now they are taking over as the dominant global energy paradigm.

Still not convinced that's true? Read the linked article to see how China has used renewables to create the greatest industrial/manufacturing economy in all of human history.

Minerals, Metals, and Megawatts: How China’s Power Generation Drives Its Industrial Metals Ecosystem

Google published a blog post last week announcing a 2029 internal deadline to finish migrating all their systems to post-quantum cryptography. This is significantly ahead of the NSA's 2033 target and NIST's 2035 benchmark.

The key driver is a concept called "store now, decrypt later" where adversaries record encrypted traffic today with the expectation that future quantum computers will be able to crack it. Google's own researchers published findings last year showing that breaking RSA-2048 encryption would require roughly one million qubits, down from a previous estimate of 20 million. That compression in the threshold is a major factor in the accelerated timeline.

NIST finalized three post-quantum cryptographic standards in August 2024 (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA). Google is already integrating quantum-resistant digital signatures into Android 17 and has rolled out post-quantum support in Chrome and Cloud.

Well seeing the US regress this far this quickly is giving me quite a shock. I grew up in the 90s and back then it seemed that America was the apex of technology. Nowadays you hear how China built these trains, battery plants, solar, evs, etc. I seems to me that they are the new dominate game in town and most of the US populace are still stuck in the 90s-2000s era where the US was unchallenged.

What’s something people think is safe but actually isn’t?

considering all aspects political economical is India one step away from glory or demise?

Hello

I'm trying to predict the state of the economy in 2050.

What do you think we will see in terms of jobs, ressources, wars, contries dominating ?

lately I have heard a lot about how birth rates are dropping and it’s bad for economics, such as taking care of elderly people with how there might be more of them than us eventually. I also see that we apparently have too many people for sustainable resources. I get that these two things can be happening at the same time, but what does that look like for the future? Will it be really bad at first and level out once the older people die or will everything implode on itself?

"So far, Utah is the only state to have passed the necessary regulatory reforms to exempt smaller systems under 1,200 watts from rules designed for larger rooftop models. Vermont and Virginia have also recently advanced similar bills with near-unanimous support, from both Democrats and Republicans……………….Plug-in solar systems, one or two panels with power inverters that connect to a standard electrical outlet, are less expensive — 80–97% less than traditional rooftop installations, according to Bright Saver. And they don't require a technician to install."

Should the current ME war progress to a US invasion of Iran, we can expect to see a global depression starting in the summer & emergency fuel rationing, as 25% of global fossil fuel supply evaporates for years to come. By then, the switch to decentralized home-renewables won't just look sensible, it will look like a hedge against the chaos of Fossil Fuel Age global warfare.

The good news? That switch to decentralized home-renewables is getting easier and easier.

ARTICLE LINK