I’ve long thought of myself as an energy determinist, perhaps even something of an energy reductionist, inclined to explain the extraordinary hockey stick of economic growth over the last several centuries primarily through the lens of the increasing availability of the “holy trinity” of coal, oil, and gas. As my friend Doomberg regularly opines, “Energy is Life.” More recently, however, I’ve become something of a prime mover determinist, for energy alone can accomplish remarkably little without the means to transform it into useful work. Plutarch recounts that during Alexander the Great’s conquests of the Middle East, he marveled at the flammability of the petroleum seepages he encountered in Mesopotamia. However, beyond primitive incendiary applications, later developed into Greek Fire, petroleum remained little more than a curiosity for Alexander, who had no tanks or trucks with Otto or Diesel engines to harness this fossilized sunlight and turbocharge his force projection through mechanized mobility. After reading @Stefan Link’s Forging Global Fordism at the suggestion of subscriber Engineer Guy, I am now firmly in the camp of the manufacturing determinists. The invention of prime movers accomplishes relatively little until they can be mass produced cheaply and in enormous quantities... For the full essay check out my Subst@ck link below.