"After 200 years of fossil fuels, it looks like the inevitable return to a solar civilization could be rocky."

Bacteria will win in the end.

My area is finance, and here is the message: The history of betting on paradigm shifts is poor. Even if you are able to identify an actual paradigm shift, your chances of betting correctly on the outcome are slim.

in the end, nature's rules win.

The only thing that you can be certain of is that everything is uncertain.

First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics rule; Humanity has been climbing the enthalphy ladder throughout history; since the Industrial Revolution on fossil fuels.

LOL! When I was in engineering school, they used to say:

1. F=ma
2. pV=nRT
3. You can't push on a rope.

Learn any two of those three, and you graduate.

My degree is in mechanical engineering, and here's how I would sum up the field:

"If all else fails, try kicking it."

But my favorite is probably the Laws of Thermodynamics, a la Ginsberg:

1. You can't win.
2. You can't even break even, either.
3. You can't get out of the game.

And perhaps most apropos, Freeman's corollary:

Every major philosophy that attempts to make life seem
meaningful is based on the negation of one part of Ginsberg's Theorem.

1. Capitalism is based on the assumption that you can win.
2. Socialism is based on the assumption that you can break even.
3. Mysticism is based on the assumption that you can quit the game.

General computing: Base 2 is best.

Building computers: Small impurities in silicon crystals can be used to make great switches.

Systems: Computers are really communication devices, not adding machines, so connect them together.

I also have a couple that explain almost all everyday events, though not quite within the rules of Feynman's challenge:

1/ Google knows everything.
2/ Society dramatically underestimates the value of shared, self-driving, electric cars.

- Nature must, in the not far distant future, institute
bankruptcy proceedings against industrial civilization,
and perhaps against the standing crop of human flesh, just
as nature had done many times to other detritus-consuming
species following their exuberant expansion in response to
the savings deposits their ecosystems had accumulated
before they got the opportunity to begin the drawdown.
William Catton, Overshoot

Economics "should be" the study of how people (emotional creatures) trade with one another and plan for the future.

These are the two most important things - think of the future have a sense of humor.

I always like that Navajo proverb

"We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

There's also a billion saying about the importance of a sense of humor, like this simple one:

"Every survival kit should include a sense of humor"

Do not allow corporations to become confused with humans.

and for those in the military: if you can't take a joke you should not have joined.

MY Thermo-Gene Collision sentence: In the USA, 150 million wheelbarrows will be more helpful for a longer period of postPeak time than 150 million rifles because eventually--each less barrel of crude means an additional 25,000 brute force hours of labor.

I also like that other quote [but I don't know the author]: "It will take all of us, and it will take forever, but isn't that the point?"

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

Economics can be summed up in the acronym TANSTAAFL! There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!

This DUET (Deep Universal Eternal Truth) can be translated as follows: All human actions that have benefits also have costs.

Another translation: All actions have opportunity costs.

Yet another translation: Scarcity rules.

The end of fossil fuels will clean our air, destroy the middle class and bring back slavery.

"Treat all others as you wish others would treat you"

If you can shift to tomorrow what you must do today, do it and you will get another free day.

Future is current geo-biological energy flux strength effect on the balance of cerebrum:cerebellum x leadership.

How about "Sorry."

"This time, it's different", but, be prepared if it's not.

RC known to you as ThatsItImout

Smoke’em if you got’em at the crude contango, after the final feast
But don’t cry wolf at a precipice moon, while dancing with the beast

At the core of every life form is a battery (from simple plants and bacteria to complex mammals) that has evolved from the elements comprising the Earth and the energy from the Sun, in order to compete in the planet's many environmental niches for scarce resources, and thereby store enough of the sun's energy to replicate at an opportune time, and ultimately realize the single meaning of life: to pass on the DNA and perpetuate the ability to conserve.

"Karl Marx was right."

Not sure which Geologist but the quote is,

If you dont deal with reality, reality will deal with you.

E=MC2. If we are going to have any hope post fosile fuels..

Life on earth has spent 2 billion years (via evolution and natural selection) optimizing energy efficiency; study nature for energy solutions.

Electrons occur at 1.235590E+20 Hz in the electromagnetic spectrum (ω=mc^2/ℏ); protons are at 2.268679E+23 Hz.

"It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most adapted to change."

~ Darwin

Round things are finite. The earth is round.

Leanan, you beat me to the three laws of thermodynamics per Ginsberg. My favorites!

Toynbee Ideas in Movie 2001 Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.

Next time care less about economics and more about people

Don't expend resources you can't replace.

actions speak louder than words

Stein's Law: "If something can't go on forever, it won't."

Sums up peak oil and industrial civilization as a whole pretty well I think.

Focus on increasing your HROI (Happiness return on energy invested)*

*For the neuroscientists in the crowd, the derivative DROI (Dopamine return on energy invested), could be more technically correct.

Eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now: the present is the only thing that has no end.

-- Erwin Schrodinger

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

-- H.L. Mencken

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

-- Franz Kafka

Many of us think that happiness is not possible in the present moment. Most of us believe that there are a few more conditions that need to be met before we can be happy. This is why we are sucked into the future and are not capable of being present in the here and now. This why we step over the many wonders of life. If we keep running away into the future, we cannot be in touch with the many wonders of life.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

All of these people speak of the present moment as the ultimate reality, and it is, but more importantly, their words imply we must start living a life in tune with the planet now, that there is no future moment where we suddenly fire off a starter's pistol and live like we actually love the planet. The time is now.

Namaste.

-- Cherenkov

"An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you."

This is a probabilistic universe...well, except when it is deterministic.

(I'm sure I stole that from somewhere, but I couldn't tell you where...so I'll not claim authorship.)

The only battle that matters is the battle for your imagination
-di Prima

Start getting more efficient today, and keep doing it until you're dead.

A project actually already exists in the spirit of this challenge here. The KEO program was launched in order to provide a time capsule for the people of earth 50,000 years from now. Everyone on earth has been invited to submit a message, which will be encoded on DVD and launched into space, from where it will return in about 50,000 years. So for all those who are viewing this a purely hypothetical exercise, this is a chance to actually fulfill the challenge (that is assuming the project actually gets off the ground i guess). In addition to that, each person is allowed up to 6000 characters, so you can go into a bit more detail.

It was somewhat fortuitous that I stumbled across this today, as submissions are due to close at the end of this year (not far off now). Whether your message actually gets read may be entirely down to chance, but there's no doubt about it, the idea certainly has merit.

The website is at www.keo.org

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

How about a "Yerginism" No matter where you go, there you are!

Tell me what you know.

Well, Art is Art, isn't it, still, on the other hand, water is water, and east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does; now you tell me what you know.

Don't believe in anything unless it has been proven experimentally ...

You don't need to know all the answers....no one is smart enough to ask you all the questions.

and

School is just society breaking the spirits of the stupid.

finally

Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them.

... We have nothing to fear except

... the realization

... that we are lemmings on the run

... and now we stand

... on the precipice of our destiny.

___ Ask not

___ what your country can do for you,

___ because it won't.

The 3rd Law of Thermo-conservatism:

"Ignorance must be conserved at all cost."

For a more thorough understanding of this profound concept, go here.

Why on God’s green earth should we listen to these [Peak Oil] extremists? I mean, seriously. There isn’t a justification for trusting them. The only conclusions we can arrive at is that they’re either woefully inept in their predictions or they’re simply lying through their teeth. I tend towards the latter rather than the former because, although they are liberal extremists without a lick of common sense, the truth is that they aren’t that stupid.

The earth has seen greater disasters than men, don't worry; Entropy will sort it all out for us ;-)

Mind the gap.

-- London Underground Announcement

42 :)

80-20-rule: 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of the disposable time, the remaining 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the time.
Or: 80% of the productivity can be achieved by doing 20% of the tasks:)

"winters come and winters go summers come and summers go" and the wheel of the year turns on and on."
From the Tomten by Astrid Lindgren

When luxuries become necessities, that's when the screaming starts.

"The justest man in the world is not allowed to be judge in his own cause." -- Blaise Pascal.

An important doctrine of the scientific method, and also a very important legal and ethical principle. And unlike more general moral commandments, even very selfish people could potentially realise its importance (at least as it pertains to others!) and benefit from it.

"Oops, sorry about that whole Earth debacle: our bad!"

All governments lie.

it was the salmon moouse.

Global oil depletion is an opportunity disguised as a problem.

Nothing is as durable as a bad idea.
- H.L. Mencken

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
- anon

The primary purpose of all governments and religions is control.

If only one: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."

If restricted to a Peak Oil sentence: "The laws of physics trump the laws of economics."

I tell my draughtspeople this wrt Architecture, but it probably applies to any design profession:

"You're a champ when you deliver the work early, but you're a chump when they call to complain about the mistakes."

"If dirt were dollars, we'd all be in the black."

and

"They don't build hearses with luggage racks."

-Don Henley.

I have a couple: (Yes, they are mine)

1. Things are the way they are because they were the way they were, but not entirely.

2. Verbs trump nouns; always, because nouns are frozen and reality isn't. "I will ..." leads to better plans than "I am...".

3. No situation is so bad that you can't make it worse by doing something stupid.

Here are some favorite quotes:

-Helen Keller: Security is mostly superstition. It doesn't exist in nature. Life is a great adventure or it is nothing.

-Rousseau (loose quote): A good way to enslave a man is to make him obsess over trivia.

-Eric Fromm: A commonly occurring individual problem is in reality an unacknowledged collective problem.

-WeatherGlass?: If you don't know it, you can't recognize it.

-?: It is better to light a candle than to curse others for stumbling in the dark.

-WeatherGlass: If God had meant people to watch TV, he wouldn't have given them brains.

forces shape energy conversions
neuronal activity shapes forces
thought shapes neuronal activity

All generalizations are false.

This is actually less flippant than you might think, if you consider what is required to sustain racism, sexism, etc.

Cooperation and sharing is a better survival strategy than fighting over scarce resources.

See "The Human Potential for Peace", a book by anthropologist Douglas Fry.

...find a girl and go see the world...

Do what your can, every day, for a better world.

Belief is irrelevant.

Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.
--Garrett Hardin

Someone already mentioned my favorite by T.S. Elliot, so here are a few of my runners-up:

Einstein: Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

H.L. Mencken: An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

Arthur Schopenhauer: Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

"I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so."

Complexity is expensive so keep it simple, stupid.

An objective and unfiltered understanding of the past provides the information needed to make the best choices in the present and thus the best chance for a comfortable future.

I'm double-dipping here, but a favorite quote is:

"In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." -- The Iroquois Confederacy

My previous contribution:

"We have to kill consumption before consumption kills us."

There's no such thing as truth. At best, you can stand on a stack of facts.

I apologize for all the selfish, greedy, shortsighted, and stupid idiots that ruined your world.

An aphorism from an engineer is like a blueprint from a poet.

All you need to know is your One True Thing

... if you are a single minded person

"...What's done cannot be undone.." Lady Macbeth

"We as a civilization are all too much like someone addicted to a drug that will kill if continued and kill if suddenly withdrawn."

James Lovelock, "The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis ans the Fate of Humanity" (page 6)

The most important question to answer is: How much is enough?

My favorite quote of the year goes to Westexas sometime last week when he finally couldn't take it anymore:

What part of the impossibility of an exponential growth rate in a finite world do you people not understand?

Sums it up very well!

Even Feynman can be wrong -- not only is there no one true thing in physics, Feynman's candidate isn't even true -- atoms are not atoms, at least ultimately, in any sense the average person would accept, according to quantum mechanics.

we copulate and die, everything after that is preached or proven.

There comes a time when we think our youth is gone - but years after, we know it was much later.

The past isn't worth dying for.

If enough people predict something, it won't happen.

J.G. Ballard

One of my favorites from [name the movie]

"Coffee is for closers"

On life:

Adapt or die. Mother Nature doesn't care which you pick.

The problem with Evolution is that it doesn't work fast enough.

The only question I have to answer:

What do I really want to do with whatever time I have between now and whenever I die?"

Robert Benchley:

Death ends a life, but not a relationship.

My favorite for years has been

Think global, act local

Computer architecture: If things are slow, cache.

Justice Scalia: 'Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist. That's why I don't want to have to deal with global warming' .

(From the folks over at realclimate.)

Power corrupts.

I'm not so egotistical/bright to claim I'm the 1st....

The golden rule:

"He who has the gold makes the rules."

Black body radiation:

"all the energy on the earth comes from photons from the Sun or from long-dead solar bodies"

After looking about what goverments do to thier citizens:

"Don't trust the government"

From energy bulliten this week:

'what if the best humanity can do/the most magical souce of energy IS oil'?

My Father:

"in 100 years, will anyone care?"

He then breaks it down for 1,5 and 10 years.

No one quote will speak to everyone. Well, other than:

"In the long run we are all dead."

It has always been true that blood matters more than anything else.

In theory, all things work in theory.
and
The average human being loses at least 1/3 their intelligence as soon as you place them in front of a computer.

The crown of art is modulation. --Paul Valery

"The maximum is not optimum."

--Garrett Hardin

Civil Engineering:

Water flows downhill. Money can make it go uphill.

A couple favorites:

"Each possession I own is but a stone around my neck." - Einstein

A sage old capitalist businessman once advised me such; "When you sit down to make a deal, look around the table and figure out who's getting screwed. If you can't figure it out, get up and walk away because it's probably you."

Choose ELP or ELP will choose you.

There is NOT such a thing like smart self-hurting !

Do not know if translating this motto of mine makes a sense in english.
In italian it really does !

Pietro

We all know that a bad life is just as difficult, just as full of work,
obstacles, and hardships, as a good one and the only choice is the kind of life one would care to spend one’s efforts on.
- John Erskine

Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.
- James Allen

All assumptions must be questioned.

Life is like a shit sandwich.

The more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat.

Etched into a Burger King table - 1975.

"No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that's in the right and keeps on a-comin."

Texas Ranger Captain W.J. McDonald

Preview si my friend.

Energy from the sun is free but everything else comes on loan from the earth; the repayment terms only get harder and you will repay.

Or:
If you can read this you are already doomed.

Or:
Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein

As an experimental physical chemist, I've always liked:
"Constants aren't; variables won't."

But here's one of my own for the challenge:
"Every castle is a prison, every blessing a curse."

I need two clauses but the result applies to many fields.

Maximizing profit is simply the process of optimizing the ratio of your costs to your revenue and then increasing your sales until that ratio worsens.
The percentage of the population buying or even aware of your product is entirely incidental.

Conclusion: If you're trying to sell the same thing as everybody else and you're trying to sell it to everybody, you are almost certainly not maximizing your profit.

Unless, of course, you're manipulating the market.

Lead with a positive spirit instead of a primal instinct.