Excerpt: About the 'Accelerated Age'
In 1976, the U.S. was home to around 218 million people—more than eighty-seven times as many as there were in 1776. It covered an area more than ten times the size of the original colonies. It was vast and rich—with more navigable rivers and waterways and more and better farmland than any other country on Earth. It had abundant natural resources. It enjoyed a temperate climate. Geographically isolated from its enemies, it had, in any case, no reason to fear them, because it was armed to the teeth.
In those two hundred years, the United States went from a precarious, fledgling republic to an economic and military colossus that dominated the world. In doing so, it illustrated just how unusual those two hundred years were, coinciding as they did with the greatest technological revolution in human history—one made possible by a fossil-energy endowment built up over eons, and “liberated” during those years.
Those two hundred years were anything but normal—in a special sense. What made them abnormal was energy—first coal, then oil and gas, and later nuclear power. This era was the historical equivalent of “jump drive” for humanity—a speed faster than the limit. When a situation is anything but normal, it’s more likely to get all fucked up. That’s my argument. This was an abnormal era: abnormal in energy intensity, abnormal in its rate of economic growth. I call it the ‘Accelerated Age.’
In those two hundred years, the United States went from a precarious, fledgling republic to an economic and military colossus that dominated the world. In doing so, it illustrated just how unusual those two hundred years were, coinciding as they did with the greatest technological revolution in human history—one made possible by a fossil-energy endowment built up over eons, and “liberated” during those years.
Those two hundred years were anything but normal—in a special sense. What made them abnormal was energy—first coal, then oil and gas, and later nuclear power. This era was the historical equivalent of “jump drive” for humanity—a speed faster than the limit. When a situation is anything but normal, it’s more likely to get all fucked up. That’s my argument. This was an abnormal era: abnormal in energy intensity, abnormal in its rate of economic growth. I call it the ‘Accelerated Age.’
