{"id":293,"date":"2020-08-31T12:36:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T11:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/?p=293"},"modified":"2020-08-31T12:36:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T11:36:33","slug":"investing-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/31\/investing-in-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When\nin 1995 Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, predicted that soon\npeople would be buying books and newspapers straight over the Internet, Clifford\nStoll wrote a critical article. Stoll\u2014an accomplished astronomer with a PhD to\nhis name!\u2014discussed why the internet would fail stating in particular that\necommerce would <em>not<\/em> work. And oh boy work it did! But that is just one\nindividual who, like many of us, probably does not wield the power to predict\nthe future too well. Organizations can also go wrong: in 1876 Western Union\nbelieved that the telephone had too many shortcomings to be seriously\nconsidered as a means of communication and they saw no value in it. KODAK, one\nof the biggest companies in the world that contributed a lot in the area of\nphotography, went bankrupt in 2012. Their collapse may be partly attributed to\ntheir failure to pivot toward the new technologies in photography. As the world\nwas moving to digital photography KODAK was hesitant to change. &nbsp;These are a few examples of companies and an\nindividual who were unable to see the future value of a technology or\ninnovation. But while some failed to see the immense value that certain\ntechnologies would create, others failed to properly estimate the price mankind\nwould have to pay in exchange for enjoying certain technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One\nof the reasons the human race has advanced so much is that some few individuals\nimagined a future far different from their present. These individuals then invested\nin their vision, be it in terms of time, finances, or career. These great\ninnovators could not have possibly thought about every aspect of their\ntechnologies. Perhaps to the inventors of just-in-time manufacturing their\ndesire was to make affordable goods and do so with supreme economic efficiency.\nBut this same invention then played a central role in allowing companies to\nalso overproduce, an outcome unintended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So,\nas we invest in the future we think both about what good a technology can do as\nwell as what could go wrong with it. This assessment is continuous. We then at\ntimes realize that some technologies are generating more harm than good. One\nsuch key technology is that of energy generation from fossil fuels. It is a\ngreat invention, and we must candidly applaud people who created the requisite extraction\nand refining technologies as well as the business schemes to make electricity\navailable to paupers and the rich alike. However, as we learn more about how nature\nworks we change our habits to incorporate our latest knowledge. At present it\nis generally believed that there are better ways of generating electricity that\ndo much less environmental destabilization. The alternatives include renewable\nenergy solutions\u2014technologies that generate electricity from sources that can\nbe replenished and often do much less harm to the biosphere. There is agreement\nthat renewable energy sources are better than non-renewable sources. However, there\nisn\u2019t always as much agreement as to which renewable energy source is\nbest.&nbsp; For example, generating energy\nfrom solar power is wonderful but perhaps only to an extent. The more people\nadopt solar power on a large scale, the more materials we would need to make\nthe solar panels and the larger the land needed for these solar farms. These\nissues could lead to more waste being generated in disposing of solar cells, or\npotentially land not being available for other uses. Nevertheless, it is\nthrough these debates and discussions that as humanity we\u2019re able to devise\nclever and better solutions. It is when we cease debating the merits and\ndemerits of our technologies that we must worry all the more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KCHKNA\nInc. is based in Africa and is focusing on bringing clean energy to African\ncountries, starting with Malawi. Africa is one of the best places to deploy\nlarge scale renewable energy solutions. While is Africa one of the best? First,\nacross most of sub-Saharan Africa there is <em>practically<\/em> no electricity\ninfrastructure to support a modern industrial economy. The demand is far higher\nthan the supply. So, it is not a question of whether there is demand; rather it\nis question of whether we can devise a business model that works here. Second, again,\nacross most of sub-Saharan Africa there is <em>practically<\/em> no electricity\ninfrastructure. This is good because there is then no need to tear down an old functioning\nsystem in order to build a newer, more environmental-friendly one\u2014because there\nisn\u2019t such a system at the moment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\nbelieve that we need to push more heavily on renewable technologies. We believe\nthat in the long run deploying renewables <em>on a large scale<\/em>\u2014rather than\nLED lamps to some forlorn villagers\u2014is more cost-effective especially since\nacross most of Africa the necessary renewable sources such as water, a good\namount of sunshine, and waste are readily available. Germany, Japan and other\neconomies that have been traditionally powered by non-renewable sources have\ntaken steps\u2014through policies as well as developing different innovations\u2013to pivot\ntoward clean technologies. Africa on other hand is lucky in that it will not\nneed to pivot; it can start with renewables. KCHKNA aims to spearhead the\ndevelopment of such enabling technologies so that Africa and the world may thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When in 1995 Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, predicted that soon people would be buying books and newspapers straight over the Internet, Clifford Stoll wrote a critical article. Stoll\u2014an accomplished astronomer with a PhD to his name!\u2014discussed why the internet would fail stating in particular that ecommerce would not work. And oh [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kchkna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}