My pleasure!

In reply to this comment by BreaksTheEarth:
Thanks for the promote!

In reply to this comment by Fusionaut:
*promote

Thanks for the promote!

In reply to this comment by Fusionaut:
*promote

Thank you for this interview. I don't think the questions were horrible. Robert Wright certainly holds some strange views, but I think he defends them rather well. At least, he manges to challenge Dennett enough to inspire him to rephrase and clarify his views. I found that made the conversation rather interesting.

Your video, TED Talks: Robert Wright, has made it into your personal Highest Rated Videos listing. Congratulations on a job well done. For you contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Your video, Owen Gingerich interviewed by Robert Wright, has made it into your personal Highest Rated Videos listing. Congratulations on a job well done. For you contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

I'm glad to see that you enjoyed the interview with Rebecca Watson that I posted a while back--and thanks for promoting it! I wasn't expecting a top-15 hit, but I was kinda disappointed that it died with just my own vote on it. Hopefully more people will check it out this time...

P.S., I also really liked Robert Wright's talk at TED. (your favorite sift)


In reply to this comment by jwray:
*promote

Tags for this video have been changed from 'dan dennet, robert wright, atheism, philosophy, consciousness, free will' to 'daniel dennett, robert wright, atheism, philosophy, consciousness, free will' - edited by mauz15

U-238 is 138 times more abundant than U-235. U-238 breeder reactors work, but are more expensive to operate than U-235 reactors. Reprocessing spent fuel to extract the half that's unused is currently more expensive than mining fresh uranium. But as oil runs out, energy prices will go up, and more expensive ways of generating energy will expand. Uranium power generation based on breeder reactors could power the world's current rate of energy consumption for at least a thousand years with current proven uranium reserves, but nobody's even bothered to look at more expensive ways of recovering uranium. In the long run solar will have to be part of the solution. The earth receives 4*10^24 Joules of energy per year from the sun, while our worldwide fossil fuel consumption in 2004 was 4*10^20 Joules.

Solar thermal generator plants can store energy via phase change to be more reliable. For example, Solar Tres stores 6,250 tonnes of molten sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate (assuming a density of 3g/ml that's about a 10m x 10m x 20m tank). This is enough to provide a 16 hour buffer for the generator (600 megawatt-hours). So it can generate continuously at peak capacity except in winter. Electricity demand is always higher in summer than in winter, because in the winter your random electrical appliance electricity use supplements your environmental controls (almost all used electricity is converted to heat) while in the summer all of your electricity use works against your environmental controls (generates more heat that your AC has to remove).

If about 0.1% of the surface of the earth were converted to solar power stations, that could supply all of our current energy use. But the rate of consumption is increasing exponentially as population increases exponentially and THAT MUST STOP. Who's going to vote for the global 2-child policy that will probably be necessary to avoid annihilation of the environment and subsequent annihilation of mankind? Mankind needs another big round of moral progress to save itself from itself.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'interdependance, Robert Wright, economics, international politics' to 'interdependence, Robert Wright, economics, international politics' - edited by calvados

Also Check out Robert Wrights interview/debate with Daniel Dennett :
http://www.videosift.com/video/Daniel-Dennet-discusses-atheism-runs-70-min

Tags for this video have been changed from 'dennet, atheism, philosophy' to 'dan dennet, robert wright, atheism, philosophy, consciousness, free will' - edited by fissionchips

It's fun to watch Robert Wright go back and forth from being stumped to interjecting his opinions. Not that I don't respect his intelligence, it's just amusing to watch.

Hi, I found this on google video, and thought it might interest you.
[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7139268560599794053&q=robert+wright]