Selección de husillo de bolas según THK

It may seem a stretch to jump from thinking about transport as logistics and distribution to considering the evolution of the world, but it seems that both are necessary for creating and maintaining thermodynamic living structures that function far from equilibrium. In chapter five, I gave examples of similitude of transport at many scales and argued that the general process and outcomes for the systems served were similar in both form and function and consistent with the developing transport ontology. For social development, oil powered transport has provided the physical means to extend the reach for trade with much being written about optimising and maximising transport benefits and a globalised economy with concomitant social changes. At the molecular level research in areas of biology, ecology and chemistry can now explain more about the nature of thermodynamic systems, evolution, and the micro world where the phenomenon of transport itself is not questioned but is taken as a given. It is acknowledged as a means of

distribution and in cell chemistry it is described in similar terms to the activity of a modern logistics company like Mainfreight or FedEx. What is philosophically significant is that contemporary research about evolution remains focussed on gene frequency and transport hardly features at all. In Chapter 4 I described how vast communication networks and control systems have been

identified in cells. Sigismund et al. (2012) offer a short summary of this: “Endocytosis is the logistics of the cell” and note that the use of logistics in both instances is usefully defined by Wikipedia as “logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling and packaging and security”, and then for completeness they give an even shorter description of Endocytosis as ‘the right thing at the right place, at the right time’ (p273). Those in the logistics industry would recognise this definition as very similar to the concept of IFOTIS, being ‘in full, on time, in spec’. It could well be that the study of multicellular biological systems would well inform research and theorising about which transportation structures and controls would be successful in a world of complex, information rich and fast evolving social systems. There is no

shortage of research that suggests such a reassessment of transport in material usage in social systems in necessary. For example, a simple comparison of the current global footprint of energy materials and resource verses their suggested maximum sustainability level is shown in Figure 37 (Hoekstra & Wiedmann, 2014). In their review of current footprints Hoekstra’s and Weidman identify the gap in sustainable practices regarding supply chains should and the resource use of water, energy, materials, and other social consumption footprints. This raises the political situation where supply chains are often disengaged from social governance processes and lack the overall veracity to others allowing the system to ‘behave badly’(M. Wilson, 2007). As Bruce Plested, the Chairman of Mainfreight said, transport at a business level reacts and operates within whatever political and economic constraints are set by regulatory bodies.

the growing connectivity of places around the world, questions the suitability of institutional frameworks that govern no more that the narrow interests of transnational profit companies. International connections which are almost topological in their form now complete with regionally based institutions, with the outcome being a direct impact on community structure and health. With regard to this situation Hoekstra and Wiedemann (2014) say that ‘ultimately major transformative changes in the global economy are [now] necessary to reduce humanity’s environmental footprint to sustainable levels’ (2014, p. 1114). The question is not whether the details of their assessments are accurate as the literature is full of similar assessments of the

problem and its dimensions (L. R. Brown, 2008; Mark T Brown, Cohen, & Sharlynn, 2016; Daly, 2007; Wells, 2001), but by what means non sustainable usage can be brought back within sustainability limits. This problem is nested within the larger problem of defining what sustainability means in a world of individual choice and free will. The social and moral aspect of this can be disguised as ‘a good’ as shown when Sachs writes that we are entering the age of sustainable consumption as the world is more interconnected than ever before, and business, ideas and technologies cross borders ‘with unprecedented speed and intensity’(Sachs, 2008, 2015). He says that for these reasons these new opportunities and risks mean we have arrived in the ‘Age of Sustainable Development’, but I find the logic of this argument hard to follow. Sachs relies on innovation and new energy pathways that are based on energy efficiency, as well as farm systems that cause less ecological damage, while at the same time praising modern science for allowing the geometric growth of food production in line with a geometric rise in the world’s population. For transport and logistics researchers the growth in the carbon, ecological and materials footprint raises the question about who it is that controls supply chains. The exiting ontology allows for the sovereignty of the

consumer and freedom to consume and for authors like Sachs to talk about sustainability without any weight given to energy flows or transportation shows that the material aspect of social systems

falls outside the his world view in which sustainable development is an analytical field of study where the concept consists of a normative framework embracing economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability (Sachs, 2015, p. 6) without proposing the imposition of limits on either transport or energy use.

A thermodynamic analysis of a forest ecosystem would expect to find that the system would strive to reduce gradient across a forest by all chemical and physical ways possible. Based on the premise that ecosystems have functions and structures developed to select the most efficient dissipative gradients that support the

forests continued existence. An ecosystem combines physical and chemical components with biotic components with an energy flow from the sun that when combined constitutes a non-equilibrium dissipative process. At a mature stage the density and shape of a forest captures more energy, and has more energy flowing through the system and studies show this to be the case (Holdaway, Sparrow, & Coomes, 2010;

Schneider & Kay, 1994). How these systems remain stable in a way that is consistent with the above premise is central to a practical understanding of transport governance. Within cellular systems there are topological governance systems that manage the interrelationships with the environment. Could and should a nation prepare for shocks, and in what way? Several transport scenarios have been considered by policy makers with most scenarios not considering the option of no practical and sustainable future for freight transport in its current form. The likelihood of constrained energy supply, waste disposal in the form of CO2 and a general resource scarcity are not consistent with

economic models and predictions and not seriously considered. Robelius has shown that there is a downward trend in the frequency and size of new oil discoveries (2007) and so the problems or limited resources is not a new one. The failure to find new oil stock will impact on freight transport requirements and could significantly reduce transport growth, and new battery centred

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