Third Industrial Revolution - Rifkin.

Started reading Jeremy Rifkin's Third Industrial Revolution, TIR. Not exactly what expected, but in many ways what was long sought. Chiefly about renewables distributed generation supplanting old central models.

Five pillars of TIR:

1. renewables.
2. micro-power at buildings.
3. storage - hydrogen emphasized, but arguments works just as well for any way of storing electrons or converting electrons to storage.
4. Internet of Things, IoT, for energy grid.
5. transportation to take advantage of new electron sources and storage.

Distributed Systems, Small is Beautiful

Have been thinking about distributed "systems" lately... and how small components for such systems can be better, or how they are better. There are many systems in which resources can be distributed. This entry is about setting the stage for a series of entries on distributed ways of doing things, ways where small can be beautiful.

Here is a taste of the sort of systems meant:

• Computation or control.


• Storage.


• Housing or shelter.


• Workplace, office or shop.


• Transportation.


• Energy.

The question/issue might be about temporality of resources - permanent or transient, owned or leased/borrowed. Or maybe it is a question of scale and how big each element should be in the hierarchy.