, Columnist
A Totally Real, Non-Magical Way to Save $230 Billion
Think only a magician could make $230 billion disappear?
Photographer: Ron Burton/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Arthur C. Clarke’s third law says that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” In an age when war and robots are making energy increasingly scarce, a technological breakthrough that can satisfy the electricity demand of, say, Europe without a using a single lump of coal or solar panel sounds magical.
But the technology in question is actually so mundane that my simply naming it will probably put you to sleep, or at least drive you back to TikTok. It’s energy efficiency. Please don’t go.