Role of energy in technological dynamics

Abstract

• Role of energy in economic transformations • Energy resources and their availability • Fossil fuels egemony • Quality of energy sources • Energy budget of the planet • Steady state economy • Efficiency in energy management • Renewable sources and their applications • Biofuels and synthetic biology • The nuclear dilemma Our planet is an open system, subject to an energy flux that favours the emergence of some complex structures, thanks to the support of internal cycles involving energy and matter transformations. The description of their alternance can be pursued through the narrative of their evolution, starting from simple activities, and then moving towards large scale systems, more complex and more connected. The interchanges occur through deep technological transformations, whose dynamics affected the economic development and different aspects of human history. In this framework the warning on the perils of climate changes due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is evidencing the necessity of limiting their use, despite the implied enormous infrastructural changements.