[doodah]

Hi again ... just checking in quickly to see what's new. OK, collecting enough references here to keep me deep in research for a while!

Must reiterate ... solar, wind, steam, water... we talk about them here that they will generate electricity to drive our currently existing electrical devices. At best, I am now looking at those alternate means as a temporary jump off the grid ... until there is an electromagnetic pulse when all the electrical devices will be useless, as well as the solar, wind, steam, water set up to drive them.

BIG JUMP needed here! Truly alternate! No electricity or electrical devices.

I'm not saying I won't go to solar if I can or any of the others ... as an in-between thing, but I don't think it will be permanent.

Going back to early industrial times, there was mechanical power ... like water-driven mills for grinding grain (the same kind of mechanical power horses or oxen provide when they walk round and round in circles and grind grain in older cultures, turning two stones with the grain in between). Early power in America was steam from burning something ... coal, wood.

We're thinking here that solar, wind, etc. will provide electricity.

Any thoughts about what else it could do? Water can provide direct mechanical energy, as in the mill. Wind can also provide direct mechanical energy, as in lifting water out of the ground (windmills), no electricity involved. Solar can cook directly, no electricity involved.

Still haven't solved the problem of providing light! So far, it's either candles or some form of electric, or the mysterious globe found in the pyramids that we need some remote viewers to take a look at to see how it works.

Also, we've engaged so far three of the four denser elements: water, fire, and air. Earth energy could be geothermal, but I don't live near any hot springs.