[lutherquick]

The software industry has a special edge, it's an industry where 70% of all projects fail, but nobody knows. And to patch that failure, we issue service packs, upgrade hardware, increase memory or reboot each 1/2 hour, and BINGO things look great.

My point is that software engineering doesn't require such great planning as say jet engine design. The reason is that you can just add millions of extra lines of code and wing it, turn the entire project into one big band-aid.

Look at that piece of software the FBI developed, 178 million dollars and they can't even demo the damn thing.

This methodology of "winging it" now and fix it later was used in Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom board meetings. And finally, on CIA intel with respect to wmd in Iraq.

To that end, these baby boomers of today are treating "peak oil" exactly the same. They are listening, they are thinking, and the rich ones are adjusting their investments, but they all think some quick solution can be patched together "IF" peak oil turns out to be true.

Whether you work at Lucent or AT&T or Enron or joining a cabinet meeting at the Whitehouse, it's a circle jerk, everyone tells the group what they want to hear (group think), and they all "hope" for some leg room later to fix this cluster f..k. Delusionary fairy tales propagate all over our society where "planning" is against the law, it's evil, because only communist plan. In the new "just in time", "supply chain" system we will fix later what we refused to talk about today.

Somehow, I don't think "peak oil" will be as flexible and forgiving as the software world is. There will be no patch or service pack.

[Jack]

It's not just software; we as a society don't have hard, fixed standards for anything. The fellow who said "We are an empire, and we make reality" is emblematic of the attitude.

I agree with you - reality will assert itself. And peak oil, like gravity, does not plea bargain.

[gt1370a]

People in our society are rewarded for immediate results. Rarely if ever are they punished for long-term consequences, especially if there is not a direct tie of the consequences to their actions. People respond to incentives.

With peak oil, look at it this way - if people won't quit smoking or lose weight, why should they change their lifestyle because of some vague, distant threat that they have no control over anyway?

[BlueGhost]

Perfect logic, there is only one solution - change people.

[JustinFrankl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlueGhost', 'P')erfect logic, there is only one solution - change people.

[Ayoob]

I guess change will be motivated by pain.

[Cobra_Strike]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', 'I') guess change will be motivated by pain.