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Umang J's avatar

The automation paradox reminded me

of this Asimov short story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feeling_of_Power

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Liberty's avatar

I haven't read that one, but I just read the plot summary on Wikipedia.. wow!

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AT's avatar

Quite interesting, do you have a source for cradle to grave energy costs for EV vs ICE, as I had seen lots of people saying that the energy cost of making batteries was so much higher than making an ICE it evened out - but again not sure where they were sourcing their data from. Thanks

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Liberty's avatar

I saw the studies a few years ago while doing research for a different work, so I don't have them at my fingertips, but they should be fairly easy to find.

I remember back in the day when hybrids were just coming out, the BS argument used to be that a Hummer was greener than a Prius because of the batteries.

Always seemed bonkers to me when you think of how many gallons of fuel a vehicle will burn over the 15-20 years that ill will be on the road, multiple times the weight of the vehicle itself..

Why would batteries be that special vs making steel to make an engine and transmission? Why couldn't you run the factories that make batteries on clean power too over time?

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AT's avatar

Yeah, that was the one I remembered Hummer vs Prius, always felt off but didn't have the time to check it out more deeply.

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Liberty's avatar

My read on this is: People just make up these memes that contain a tiny grain of truth that is distorted beyond recognition to troll or because if makes them feel good about their decisions, and then they go viral because people love a good counter-intuitive gotcha ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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