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[Pseudolus]

Does anyone else suspect that major, promising technologies are being suppressed, squashed or witheld?

Take thermodepolymerization (TDP), for instance. It rapidly replicates conditions that created oil deep underground. It can quickly turn just about any organic material into an oil or diesel like product. Years ago, they were talking about producing oil for $10-20 per barrel. Yet, when you go to the changing world technologies website, they seem to give the runaround as to why this major technology hasn't taken off. (last I read, they blame bureacracy and an increase in the cost of turkey offal they were cooking into oil). They don't explain why they aren't using it on old tires, household trash, ag waste etc.

We are in an era of massive change. No economic activty is immune from becoming outdated. Necessarily, this MUST challenge existing profit centers and economic monopolies/oligarchies. (energy/pharmaceuticals) We hear about algae based fuels being produced very economically. We hear of TDP. We hear about huge advances in enzyme technology making it possible to make ethanol from sawdust, the whole corn plant or grass clippings. We hear about companies developing bacteria that digest anything and excrete burnable fuel. Does any of this ever seem to affect big oil or their share prices? We hear of AMAZING cancer research. There are dozens of ways they are successfully treating lab mice. Yet I have coworkers all the time dying of cancer. You would think these major discoveries would affect share prices of big pharma. Ditto heart disease and advances in enzyme therapy that clears out the vascular system.

At what point will the major economic centers finally be dethroned or challenged? At what point will advancing technology make dozens of very profitable medical patents worthless? We seem to hear about lots of change and amazing research. When will that translate into a cheaper, more independent lifestyle for the rest of us and a devolution of power? We should be seeing big, centralized profit centers being overthrown with all this change.

Rant off

[Mind]

Undoubtedly there are some forces outside the free market that manipulate the development of new technologies at times, but most of it just boils down to profitability. With respect to energy, fossil fuels are very cheap, dense, and efficient sources of energy. Over the last couple of decades there has been nothing that can beat the price of easily accessible oil. Right now, oil is finally becoming more expensive to produce and alternatives are becoming competitive. I review a lot of the press surrounding bio-fuels, and unfortunately most of it is hype (trying to lure in investors). Almost every article avoids the question of cost, or they say it could easily become competitive with fossil fuels - in a couple years - with further refinement - greater mass production - new investment - better technology - etc - etc - etc.