“Decarbonization will demand more than just a different kind of technology curve, accelerating sharply into the horizon. It will very likely require abrasive changes to well-worn cultural norms, the structure of cities and trade, and perhaps even the valorization of economic growth in its broadest terms. It will be conflictual, classed, and expensive.”

Metaphors matter: nothing less than the future of the planet is at stake. And interrogating the charisma of exponential thinking suggests that the Carbon Law is unlikely to help make that future a fair and habitable one. Insofar as silicon’s history helps us understand carbon’s future, its lessons are the opposite of those circulating at Davos. The story of silicon doesn’t teach us to sit back, relax, and let technology save us. On the contrary: its real lesson is the power of purposeful struggle within systems of constrain