For a while, working on Improving Batteries to tackle the Climate Crisis was one of the coolest, technically interesting & (seemingly) moral calling for a young lad with a technical bent. The CO2 is still being pumped into the air by the gigatons but meanwhile the battery revolution has given way to the drone revolution which is quickly obsoleting all non-drone militaries, handing power to China over NATO, and opening the way for unprecented terrorist attacks.
Unforeseen consequences are the norm. A lesson for EAs in there.
EDIT: it appears the central claim of this shortform is wrong.
The type of batteries used for grid-scale energy storage are not important to drones. FPV drones use high density, high power batteries that owe their development to mobile phones. And Shaheds, powered by piston engines, don’t have batteries at all.
Disagree that improving batteries was ever popular vs wonkish. Definitely disagree that average climate change advocates discussed this.
I went to college in 2012-2016 at a liberal arts college (emphasis on liberal, folks certainly cared about climate change). I can’t recall a single conversation about working on battery tech. I can recall several on geoengineering & pumping white sulfur into the atmosphere.
I feel that’s excessively pessimistic. Battery tech continues to be one of the pillars of decarbonization, and without advancements in battery tech we’d surely be in a worse position.
And the advent of drone warfare is as much due to basic technological advances as it is to the ukraine war forcing competent R&D to happen.
For a while, working on Improving Batteries to tackle the Climate Crisis was one of the coolest, technically interesting & (seemingly) moral calling for a young lad with a technical bent. The CO2 is still being pumped into the air by the gigatons but meanwhile the battery revolution has given way to the drone revolution which isquickly obsoletingall non-drone militaries, handing power to China over NATO, and opening the wayfor unprecented terrorist attacks.Unforeseen consequences are the norm. A lesson for EAs in there.
EDIT: it appears the central claim of this shortform is wrong.
https://claude.ai/share/b981a632-dea8-4478-ad69-2f44e928ae58
Thanks to @Thomas Kwa for pointing this out.
The type of batteries used for grid-scale energy storage are not important to drones. FPV drones use high density, high power batteries that owe their development to mobile phones. And Shaheds, powered by piston engines, don’t have batteries at all.
Disagree that improving batteries was ever popular vs wonkish. Definitely disagree that average climate change advocates discussed this.
I went to college in 2012-2016 at a liberal arts college (emphasis on liberal, folks certainly cared about climate change). I can’t recall a single conversation about working on battery tech. I can recall several on geoengineering & pumping white sulfur into the atmosphere.
I feel that’s excessively pessimistic. Battery tech continues to be one of the pillars of decarbonization, and without advancements in battery tech we’d surely be in a worse position.
And the advent of drone warfare is as much due to basic technological advances as it is to the ukraine war forcing competent R&D to happen.