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Houston, You’ve Got A Problem — Silicon Valley

If you missed the Wall Street Journal’s attack on Vinod Khosla’s bet on biofuels, you needn’t worry too much — there is more to come, much more. Silicon Valley is a public relations lightweight and the WSJ’s spat with Mr. Khosla is testimony to how much the digirati need to learn if they want to win the war for control of our energy future. Here is a quick-and-dirty survival kit I’ve put together for those novices in northern California. Read them, learn them, live them. The future could depend on it.

#1 — Energy is a political commodity

The vast majority of people in America and probably the world probably could not tell you what kind of company Sun Microsystems is. It would be hard to find (probably impossible) a mentally competent person who didn’t know what food or energy was. The implications that flow from this difference are critical. Everyone cares and appreciates the stakes involved in energy issues. A person can decide whether to join Facebook, but nobody can realistically decide whether to buy gas. Expect them to feel much more strongly about anything that affects what affects them.

#2 — Stay away from the science

The “wow” factor alone was frequently enough to convince consumers and the public more broadly that this or that internet application or nifty gadget contributed positively to the quality of life. Nobody knew how it worked and nobody cared (at least for the most part). When science collides with nature, people need to understand it or they won’t accept it. The GMO experience revealed how deeply this need to understand cuts. People want to know they’re safe and unless they understand the impact of science on the world, they won’t accept it.

See also — Khosla Is On the Dole