If the year 2026 has proven anything so far, it’s that fossil fuels, especially crude oil, still play a major part in global energy consumption. However, this fuel supply is susceptible to major disruptions, which affect the global economy. With each passing decade, the amount of oil in the ground dwindles. The costs of extracting, processing, and distributing it rise. This creates a vicious cycle, as more BTUs of energy are needed to extract each incremental unit of fuel. That’s the traditional engineering approach: Squeeze out every last possible marginal gain of efficiency possible. And it works—until it doesn’t. Even if we take into account the gains from the application of AI, we’re still stuck in the trap of finding the energy to power the AI that we’re using to find more energy.
An alchemist from ancient times, entering a time portal, popping up in today’s world, and seeing all this, might wonder: “Why all the fuss? Why not simply mix water, rock, and magnetism and make unlimited quantities of this stuff they’ re struggling so hard to produce?” That’ s exactly what two latter-day knowledge alchemists are doing at a company called RASA Energy (rasainc.com).