Vaclav Smil's 'Speed' Examines Acceleration Limits in Human Development

Vaclav Smil, a Canadian environmental scientist and professor at the University of Manitoba, has published a book titled 'Speed: How It Explains the World.' The work explores velocity as a fundamental driver of modernization across biological, technological, and economic domains. Smil traces the history of speed from the Big Bang through various evolutionary phases, including the Cambrian explosion approximately 541 million years ago, noting that the modern era's exponential acceleration is not humanity's first high-speed period. He presents detailed calculations comparing natural phenomena—such as tectonic shifts and river flows against volcanic pyroclastic surges and tsunami waves—and examines human advancements like transportation motorization and communication technology. While acknowledging significant gains in efficiency, particularly in agriculture where wheat production time has drastically reduced from 25 minutes per kilogram in Roman times to mere seconds today, Smil argues that growth is nearing its absolute limits. He contends that surpassing certain thresholds, such as flight speeds beyond 900 km/h, is neither economically nor ecologically sustainable. The author distances himself from speculative theories like Ray Kurzweil's singularity prediction for 2045, focusing instead on measurable accelerations. Smil concludes that future progress should not rely solely on increased speed but rather on a balanced approach combining improvements, deliberate limits, and justified decelerations to address pressing issues like social inequality and climate change. He views the contemporary slow-life movement as an elite niche phenomenon while advocating for integrated consideration of acceleration and deceleration at high political and technological levels.