If there is one thing that I consider separates our society for all others in the past, it is a profligate use of energy. It is the incredibly cheap (historically speaking), easily accessible, stored, high-grade energy that lets our society do the things we do at the scale we do it.
The huge populations that support huge and diverse cultures of people, the instant connectivity and the insane throughput of material resources we have, all would be impossible if we used and harnessed energy in the same way any human society did less than 200 years ago. Continue reading The horse-powered household