The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Through the Prometheus Institute, a research non-profit in Cambridge, the author is in the process of publishing a book on what he terms the economic inevitability of solar energy, specifically photovoltaic electricity. Relying only on fundamental economic analysis of the key industry drivers, it outlines a re-interpretation of and forecast for the future of energy generation, showing that natural market forces are shifting in favor of distributed, renewable energy. What results is a radically larger role for photovoltaics than is currently forseen as well as an achievable, sustainable, and potentially inevitable path to a cleaner and more secure energy system.