Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper
How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong
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Narrated by:
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Steven Menasche
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By:
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Robert Bryce
About this listen
In the face of today’s environmental and economic challenges, doomsayers preach that the only way to stave off disaster is for humans to reverse course: To de-industrialize, re-localize, ban the use of modern energy sources, and forswear prosperity. But in this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make things Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper is providing consumers with Cheaper and more abundant energy, Faster computing, Lighter vehicles, and myriad other goods. That same desire is fostering unprecedented prosperity, greater liberty, and yes, better environmental protection.
Utilizing on-the-ground reporting from Ottawa to Panama City and Pittsburgh to Bakersfield, Bryce shows how we have, for centuries, been pushing for Smaller Faster solutions to our problems. From the vacuum tube, mass-produced fertilizer, and the printing press to mobile phones, nanotech, and advanced drill rigs, Bryce demonstrates how cutting-edge companies and breakthrough technologies have created a world in which people are living longer, freer, healthier, lives than at any time in human history.
The push toward Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper is happening across multiple sectors. Bryce profiles innovative individuals and companies, from long-established ones like Ford and Intel to upstarts like Aquion Energy and Khan Academy. And he zeroes in on the energy industry, proving that the future belongs to the high power density sources that can provide the enormous quantities of energy the world demands.
The tools we need to save the planet aren’t to be found in the technologies or lifestyles of the past. Nor must we sacrifice prosperity and human progress to ensure our survival. The catastrophists have been wrong since the days of Thomas Malthus. This is the time to embrace the innovators and businesses all over the world who are making things Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper.
©2015 Robert Bryce (P)2014 Gildan Media LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
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Thought provoking
- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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The Third Industrial Revolution
- How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World
- By: Jeremy Rifkin
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Jeremy Rifkin presents an insider's account of the next great economic era: the Third Industrial Revolution, when a new ethic of sustainability will revolutionize the world we live in.
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Lamenting "The Third Industrial Revolution"
- By Joshua Kim on 05-01-12
By: Jeremy Rifkin
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The Zero Marginal Cost Society
- The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism
- By: Jeremy Rifkin
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In this provocative new book, Rifkin argues that the coming together of the Communication Internet with the fledgling Energy Internet and Logistics Internet in a seamless twenty-first-century intelligent infrastructure—the Internet of Things—is boosting productivity to the point where the marginal cost of producing many goods and services is nearly zero, making them essentially free.
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Not a convincing argument-just stories & ideology
- By Pierre Parent on 07-26-17
By: Jeremy Rifkin
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It's Better Than It Looks
- By: Gregg Easterbrook
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people who pay attention to the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more. Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising.
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Too political
- By Anonymous User on 07-12-18
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The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
- By: Alex Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Epstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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For decades environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We're taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives.
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A different point of view
- By Ballofyarn on 01-12-17
By: Alex Epstein
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Jump-Starting America
- How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream
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- Unabridged
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The untold story of how America once created the most successful economy the world has ever seen and how we can do it again.
By: Jonathan Gruber, and others
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Age of Discovery
- Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance
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- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Age of Discovery explores a world on the brink of a new Renaissance and asks: how do we share more widely the benefits of unprecedented progress? How do we endure the inevitable tumult generated by accelerating change? How do we each thrive through this tangled, uncertain time? From gains in health, education, wealth and technology to crises of conflict, disease and mass migration, the similarities between today's world and that of the 15th century are both striking and prophetic: we have been here before.
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A monotonous text disguised as casual reading.
- By Rob on 07-29-16
By: Ian Goldin, and others
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
- The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War
- By: Robert J. Gordon
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- Length: 30 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.
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Over-detailed, with no engaging message
- By BehA on 01-31-17
By: Robert J. Gordon
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Apocalypse Never
- Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- By: Michael Shellenberger
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.
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Environmentalist with integrity!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
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Fossil Future
- Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less
- By: Alex Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Epstein
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right.
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Strongly Recommend
- By Kevin on 06-14-22
By: Alex Epstein
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Energy
- A Human History
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
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Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.
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No more accents, please!
- By Ned Gulley on 08-30-18
By: Richard Rhodes
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The Rational Optimist
- How Prosperity Evolves
- By: Matt Ridley
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.
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Personal
- By Robert F. Jones on 09-15-17
By: Matt Ridley
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What listeners say about Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Devin
- 06-21-14
Packed With Useful Information
Would you consider the audio edition of Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper to be better than the print version?
I do not own the print version. I imagine the print version's footnotes would be handy for someone who wanted to dig deeper on the numbers.
What other book might you compare Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper to and why?
It has up to date information on a variety of subjects, full of solid numbers that are given greater meaning when dropped into their respective historical contexts. Its a blending of a credible magazine like Scientific American and a sober history text for each topic.
Have you listened to any of Stephen Menasche’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No. He captured the tone of the writing.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I was astonished at times. Challenged, incredulous, even a little angry at others. And I had a few great laughs.
Any additional comments?
Aside from gaining a handle on the state of a lot of the newest innovation, its well worth the read/listen to get a more sober perspective on the great energy debate. With so much hyperbole and wish-based thinking (on both sides, from the technoutopians to the basically anti-human growth crowd) it was nice to have something grounded in the physics.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Dell
- 07-09-14
Best Energy Path to the Future
Would you consider the audio edition of Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper to be better than the print version?
Some aspects of the print version are better. I could not find any PDF with the audible version and there are a number of graphs in the book that could use a printable copy.
Who was your favorite character and why?
There are many people quoted, but the author is telling the story himself and is the only one with more that one dimension
What about Stephen Menasche’s performance did you like?
He did a great job.He has a good sense of the meaning of what he is saying.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I was surprised by the number of topics in the book since I have read a book by the author before. I was really looking for his reasoning about why to go N2N. So when he had mentioned over and over again that wind can't help I was happy to reach the energy part where he identified the problems and prospects for nuclear. In particular the quotes from several environmentalits supporting nuclear after the Foucoshima event. Of course I needed to know how he arrived at and what position he took on global warming.
Any additional comments?
Author Robert Bryce admits that he cannot properly evaluate the models used in predicting global warming(he is concerned that no one else can do it). He, however, then tells how we need to recognize that wind is a very poor source except for remote locations. To meet the needs of the worlds future growth in energy demand he sees natural gas and nuclear power.(his N2N). He has collected many quotes for both sides of his story, many of which give deep insight into the question.
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4 people found this helpful
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- DDG-15
- 07-04-23
Affirmation
Read most of this book on the 4th of July, after having put it off for quite a while. So glad I did. With all of our social problems and continuous “renewables will save everything” rhetoric, I needed an affirmation of reality. The facts are still the facts. How reassuring.
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- Howard
- 03-15-15
That's what I have been saying.
I have had a sense of what this book is about, and have been arguing it's case since the 80's. It is wonderful to here it all laid out with facts and figures. Listening to this book has been a sanity saver and a thought promoter.
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- SESTO22
- 07-22-14
Title should be Debunk the myths!
What made the experience of listening to Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper the most enjoyable?
The data behind all the assertions.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Author
What does Stephen Menasche bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Emotion and appropriate skepticism and emphasis in the right places.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
see my title/headline
Any additional comments?
should be a must-read for all high school kids, to actually educate them on the 'reality' of energy, science and technology, and what it ACTUALLY has done for mankind!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Grant
- 08-02-14
I thought I was getting a book on the future.
Instead I got a chronicle of smaller, faster, lighter, cheaper things, the vast majority of which I had already known about. A complete waste of my time and money.
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6 people found this helpful