John Quiggin on Nostr: Andreessen’s enthusiastic support for nuclear fission is a revealing error. On any ...
Andreessen’s enthusiastic support for nuclear fission is a revealing error. On any objective basis, nuclear power is a dead duck, a C20 technology with a string of failed revivals in C21. New additions have barely kept pace with closures of old plants.
By contrast, solar PV is the biggest single example in support of techno-optimism. From essentially zero, it’s reached the point where annual additions are around 400 GW a year, almost as much as the *total* installed capacity of nuclear. Costs of plummeted and, after some generous initial support from government, most of the process is being driven by markets. There is no better case of creative destruction than the rise of solar PV
Andreessen’s failure to recognise this illustrates two points
He’s ignorant and doesn’t choose to inform himself, instead gullibly following sources that pander to his confirmation bias
He’s driven not by rational belief in the progress of technology but by rightwing culture war politics
By contrast, solar PV is the biggest single example in support of techno-optimism. From essentially zero, it’s reached the point where annual additions are around 400 GW a year, almost as much as the *total* installed capacity of nuclear. Costs of plummeted and, after some generous initial support from government, most of the process is being driven by markets. There is no better case of creative destruction than the rise of solar PV
Andreessen’s failure to recognise this illustrates two points
He’s ignorant and doesn’t choose to inform himself, instead gullibly following sources that pander to his confirmation bias
He’s driven not by rational belief in the progress of technology but by rightwing culture war politics