The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World

by Charles C. Mann

I found it hard not to wonder whether our industrial era was not simply Pithole writ large: an evanescent surge of wealth, much of it squandered, doomed to end when the world’s fuel supply was consumed.

I found it hard not to wonder whether our industrial era was not simply Pithole writ large: an evanescent surge of wealth, much of it squandered, doomed to end when the world’s fuel supply was consumed.