Public Lecture
Michael Bell
8 Minutes, 20 Seconds: Encrypting the Sun
8 MAY 2026 | 6:30-8:00pm
KB419 Lecture Hall, 4/F Knowles Building, HKU
Energy generated by nuclear fusion in the Sun reaches Earth in 8 minutes and 20 seconds. In this lecture, Michael Bell drew from 8 Minutes, 20 Seconds: Housing after Banking; Encrypting the Sun (2025), co-authored with Eunjeong Seong, to propose an architecture based on renewable energy, caching forms of energy that are essentially inexhaustible and persistent, and virtually non-denumerable in quantity. The book anticipates a post-scarcity era enabled by asking: “What if what was a housing asset becomes a new form of energy asset whose downstream byproduct was shelter?”
