A non-fossil alternate history for civilization and computing

viznut.fi

12 points·marttt··4 comments

This is just some half baked fiction. Utopian socialism because communism isn't there? Communism doesn't exist because...

I honestly think if we depended on trees that much, we'd just end up with less trees. Not with solar panels.

agree.

Just one example: Why isn't the breakthrough that replaces coal... charcoal made with electric heating, say at massive hydro plants and with coppiced tree farms. It's almost a battery technology at that point, much more efficient than burning more trees to make even more trees into charcoal, and now coal can be shipped across the world. The demand would be enormous.

And why exactly did the Confederacy win the Civil War?

Yes we would have run thru the forests of the world in record speed. Simply moved factories after trees until they're all gone.

Railroads would have been running on wood until we ran out, ditto with steam ships.

Electric wind turbines would have become the major electric energy source very early on. Solar would still be 50-100 years off.

Bioethanol would have become a big thing before 1900, same energy content as coal, so maybe even before we ran out of tree. However as so much land area would be dedicated to growing bioethanol, the food glut we've had sine 1950 would not have occurred, so global population would be substantial smaller.

Not necessariliy. Sustainable wood harvesting for fuel was common even in medeival europe. Once forests were cut back, coppicing was used:

https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-pa...

https://acoup.blog/2020/09/25/collections-iron-how-did-they-...

That second link is all about charcoal production for steel making. Once you have steel and charcoal, you can make steam powerered anything.

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