Peace on Earth

It's probably not hard to figure out that I'm into "business". Markets, trends, technology, channels and the general allocation of resources has long been not just an interest, but a passion, as well as an area of expertise. (A few decades successful in sales, marketing and technology industry management might not prove it, but at least suggest some competence). Lighting, and LED lighting in particular, offer pretty dynamic studies in all those areas. One of the questions we enjoy digging into with our industry friends and clients are, "What's your goal?" For the answers we're after, the question normally has the most relevance at the senior management level. It's not that folks who haven't yet reached the top layer or two of management don't have goals, but they often haven't gotten far enough along to be able to see much past, "Make a steady living, some savings in the bank, and get in line for promotions." What I'm looking for is to understand where the personal passion is, and how it ties into this industry. Ultimately, it's not about the money, since money is just ink-dyed paper, or numbers in an account statement. It's not of significance except for its value to be traded for tangible, or intangible, things. And not all things need money in order for them to be captured, although it doesn't have to hurt the cause either. Personally, I'm in it for Peace on Earth. So lighting as a path to peace on earth, as well as some goodwill towards mankind... that's not something we hear a lot about. Actually, we do hear about it from a number of our lighting designer friends, but not so much from the rest of us mercenaries, and their typical context is usually centered on better lighting making us happier people, who are better able to operate in harmony with our environment. That is both noble and important, but more of the adjective form, as in 'peaceful'. The 'peace on earth' that I'm pointing at is the noun form, that takes a bunch of verbs to create (go, do, make happen, innovate, change things!). The kind of peace that comes from changing zero sum economics to abundance and resource creation. The kind that happens as people have more knowledge, more opportunities, and more abilities to move towards goals beyond mere survival. And lighting, specifically solid state lighting, can really make a huge impact on many of the ingredients of that kind of 'peace on earth'. Agriculture, Environment and Health... As mentioned in an earlier commentary, LEDs have opened up a new arena in agriculture, which means more food can be in the right places. It's been argued that the earth is not short of food production or capacity, but is challenged by distribution. I would add that it's also a marketable commodity that someone needs to pay for, either with money or their labor. By harnessing the ability of LEDs to be designed to produce specific wavelengths of light, global crop production will become more efficient. And while it still may not be efficient to imagine fields of grain inside a greenhouse, it is easy to envision a village producing healthy vegetables in a previously challenged area. Giving the plants just the light they need increases the yield, and decreases the other ingredients needed, such as water and fertilizer. Or an area might not have soil amenable to grain crops, but quite desirable for valuable ornamentals, that can cultivated in those highly efficient greenhouses and sold for the money needed to purchase the more basic food sources. Add to that the fact that tuned photons mean less overall photons, which means less energy is needed to "feed" the plants, freeing up more for other uses (such as maintaining the temperature or humidity in that greenhouse, or to use some of that generator's capacity to pump more water from a deeper well). While that addresses water indirectly, there on a zero sum mini-grid, LEDs can also help more directly with higher capacity, longer lived purification. LEDs are pretty good at generating UV light, when designed to do so, with all the inherent advantages of the solid state source. They are already handy in a variety of medical instruments where heat in the beam is problematic (you want the light from that bulb to go where???). If you can get rid of the requirement for a remote lighting source, you can start with less light, put it right where it's needed, and with optimal wavelengths to see what you're looking for. All of those elements translate to a higher quality instrument and diagnosis, and at a lower cost. Currently, energy is somewhat of a zero-sum commodity, in the sense that with a fixed generation and transmission capacity in a particular region, more of being consumed for one use leaves less of it for other uses. We face that on a micro-scale in our home, where one of the circuits in the house feeds most of the overhead lighting, and several of the plugs. Want to do a bit of house-cleaning at night? If we turn all the lights on at once and start up the vacuum, we need to hope that the two aquarium heaters don't decide to engage at the same moment or we might be looking for the flashlight. You have to look at someplace like Las Vegas, and figure that a new mega-building can't be treated frivolously when it comes to factoring in the new load on the existing grid. What happens when the light is two to twenty times more efficient? You "gain" capacity, is what happens. And capacity, in its generic/economic form, and lead to more knowledge and opportunity. Knowledge is the driver that has innovated us towards longer, healthier lives. In the distant past, your knowledge was limited by the collective knowledge in your community, with the rare infusion of something new from "an expert" that rode into town. Then we invented books, and knowledge began to multiply as we could leverage off what was already known or discovered by someone else, and more the knowledge forward from there. No more reinventing the wheel. With the communications revolution, knowledge was no longer limited by having to gain access to a book, but could reach it with a few keystrokes on the computer. Of course, that's the "developed world" perspective, and there is no doubt not everyone is so equipped. But they can and will be, as higher quality light can be delivered "off the grid". People across the globe need to make analogous choices whether to haul kerosene for household lamps, or diesel for the equipment or generator. What happens when those lamps are powered by the batter that is charged by the plentiful sunny days? You gain capacity to concentrate on transporting just the other fuels that make life more productive. If a fully taxed grid, such as California's, doesn't have to build more capacity thanks to energy saving LED lighting, then the equivalent amount of "productivity" and its associated capital equipment, can be redirected to other uses, lower those costs and therefore raising overall economic efficiency, and knowledge. Things like computers and access to the web can harness the economic efficiency to become more accessible. Even something as basic education can be more accessible if "suddenly" the village schoolhouse can operate during the night, as well as the day. In the zero-sum constraint, does society move forward faster when the school that has a small generator has to use it for lighting, or would it be better for the lighting to be so efficient that there is plenty left over for computers that can communicate with the world of knowledge that is out there? The answer is obvious. At some point in our future, energy probably won't have to remain a zero-sum commodity. The sun, the wind (which is energized by the sun), tides (ditto) or nuclear fusion (the 'safer' kind, which interestingly is what powers the sun), all offer the potential to be practically limitless as our technology allows us to harness them. But even then, using less of it allows more productive resources to be diverted from meeting the capacity to more creative uses. There again, LEDs offer still their contribution as wealth creators, for everyone. Every good new idea has the potential to add to the wealth of the human kind, which has never been a zero-sum resource. If it was, we'd never have been able to come this far. When we were hunters and gatherers, there frankly wasn't much leftover, except maybe for the guy that came up with a better bow, or a more efficient hunting technique. Wealth created (not money, but wealth). Then someone came up with that farming idea. Now there was spare food, so some folks could trade new ideas (specialization) for some of the spare food. More wealth created. The good idea guy invented technology (carts, engines, digital watches!) and we could get more for less effort input... Lots of wealth. Less energy needed for lighting, more energy can be devoted to perfecting clean fusion or plentiful solar power. More wealth, and correctly applied, more peace on earth. Thank you LED lighting industry. You'll be making a big difference. Happy solid state lighting to all, and to all, a bright night...