Week 8, Energy Efficient Culture

The idea of energy efficiency is based on the first law of thermodynamics: the total energy content of the universe shall remain constant; never being created or destroyed; but only transformed from one form to another. Efficiency, then, refers to how much of the actual energy employed into making or doing something leads to the final result as compared to how much of the energy is wasted and/or lost in the process of making or doing that something. I'm not sure how efficient the manufacturing of all the stuff we consume is, but is seems like the way society has come to be in itself is not efficient at all. For example, people are forced to worked from 9-5 in a lot of places. However, they are not being efficient for most of their time on the job. They are literally wasting time. It would seem to be more efficient to let people work the amount of time they really need to finish something and then let them rest.