Here, we’ve just got a video produced by the Energy Research and Development Administration, the precursor to the Department of Energy. It’s actually quite a good summary of American energy usage up through the mid-70s while the film was made, but the pre-20th century bits are bizarre fiction. Watch for the  little boy in period costume staring into a fire wondering how to harness that energy and all the excellent mustaches on most of the unnamed characters.

But beyond this gems, it also reminds us that we’ve gone through energy transitions before — and that they actually have made lives better. Perhaps not uniformly (we’ve certainly lost some cultural stuff) but in terms of life expectancy, average nutrition, and leisure time, I’d take our era over any other.

We’ve got energy problems to solve, but the worst energy problem of all is not having any at your disposal. Because what that means is that humans are most valuable for their muscle, not for their minds.