DIRT, WATER, AND CHIPS: the Real Economy Behind Digital Illusion

The algorithm runs on a server. The server runs on a chip. The chip is made from materials extracted from the earth, refined with water, and fabricated in a single factory on a geopolitically contested island. The workers who built that factory are fed by farms that still run on soil, sunlight, and fertilizer derived from natural gas.Nothing in the digital economy has been transcended. The physical foundation has merely been pushed out of sight.Dirt, Water, and Chips exposes the physical infrastructure that modern civilization cannot function without. Robert F. Geissler examines three critical sectors - agriculture, water and infrastructure, and semiconductors - tracing the economics, the geopolitics, and the concentration of control that is reshaping each of them.Inside you will find: - Why chronic water underpricing is draining aquifers that took millennia to fill- How four companies control the global grain trade - and what that means for food security- Why TSMC's dominance in Taiwan is the single greatest supply chain vulnerability in the world economy- What the CHIPS Act actually buys, and whether it is worth the cost- Where the energy-water-food nexus creates the most consequential investment opportunities of the coming decadeThe physical economy has been under analyzed, undervalued, and dangerously underinvested. Dirt, Water, and Chips gives you the framework to see it clearly - and act on it.

Pagina's: 103, Paperback, Independently published