The bigger picture is this: it’s not just energy. Scientists and engineers are now approaching the point where everything a human being needs to have a decent life will be produced with very little labor at low cost.

The age of scarcity is ending. And so is the rationale for tyrannical systems like those in China, Russia or American capitalism. As different as these systems are, they only make sense as a way of distributing from limited and scarce resource.

They are rapidly becoming archaic and those who benefit from the old ways are trying to preserve scarcity—through patents and centralized control of power using power plants…and every method they can think of.

It’s a losing strategy by businessmen and politicians—unskilled people in powerful positions. The true drivers of progress are scientists and engineers and the forces they are releasing cannot be stopped.