The Lithium Age

Humanity has gone through plenty of different "ages." We started with the Stone Age. Subsequent was the Bronze Age, then the Iron Age.The names of the ages get a bit fuzzy as we hit the industrial revolution. With that came steel and more advanced manufacturing.Moving closer to today we have the second technology revolution that came with the ubiquity of electronics and the explosion of communications.But as I'm traveling today to go visit our manufacturing facility in Dallas I realized that we might be in the age of Lithium. Nearly everything that we're carrying around with us on a day-to-day basis has a lithium ion battery safely ensconced within. (well, hopefully... notable exceptions include things like the exploding phones courtesy of Samsung)Looking at what I'm carrying with me on my trip:

  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Apple Pencil
  • Kindle reader
  • Laptop (two, one personal, one company)
  • Panasonic GH5
  • Two spare batteries for the GH5
  • Portable light (I'm planning on a bit of filming)
  • RØDE shotgun mic
  • USB battery bank

I think that's all I have with me that has a battery. All of them are Li-ion chemistry of various forms.I might have even more... but it's hard to keep track of at a certain point. Everything that we have seems to have grown from the electronics boom to work wirelessly, at least in bursts. Even cars run on lithium.But it seems that we're all so very reliant on lithium chemistry at this point.

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