Techno-Triumphalism

A couple years back, James Howard Kunstler wrote in his weekly blog:

The religion of the Futility Economy is Techno-Triumphalism, which is the belief that an endless sequence of magic tricks performed by shaman scientists can defeat the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which rules the universe -- which true scientists ought to know cannot be defeated. Their colleagues, the shaman economists believe in parallel magic tricks, such as the idea that increased borrowing can "solve" a problem of runaway over-indebtedness. These are the actions that currently engage the people in charge of things in our society.

I know that Jim is aware of the term "Smart Grid," but I'm not sure he realizes just how well he actually understands the logic behind it.

In his post this week (Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide), he concludes with the following:

There are really only two outcomes I can see in all this. Either money becomes extremely scarce or the money that's there becomes worthless. In either case you're broke, and what remains for all these nations is a fight over the table-scraps of the late and great industrial orgy.

I know a lot of people think that technology will save us from all this. The story line there is that we'll all be "connected." We'll all network up over the smart-phone and "communicate" and "share" and "innovate." Connection has become a pointless end in itself. It's what you do when the world is collapsing around you. Wouldn't it make more sense to learn how to grow potatoes and train a mule?

If utilities were actually interested in making the grid more reliable, improving the quality of electricity being delivered to their customers, and preparing for a future that will most certainly include higher rates and less reliable sources of fuel to generate power, wouldn't it make more sense to leave the meters alone and focus on making the grid itself more resilient? Or put a few thousand dollars into an educational campaign to show homeowners and businesses how to reduce their power bill and their electromagnetic fields at the same time?