3 ms·

Reminds me of the scene in The Matrix where agent Smith tells Morpheus that humans are like a virus: they move to an area, and when all natural resources are co

Reminds me of the scene in The Matrix where agent Smith tells Morpheus that humans are like a virus: they move to an area, and when all natural resources are consumed up they spread to another area.

bobwaycott 11y ago
I was thinking exactly the same thing. I think [one of] the critical problem[s] is that we continue to think through the lens of resource consumption until resources are exhausted. I think it'd be pretty interesting if we began seriously evaluating ideas through the lens of resource creation on some fronts, and denying resource consumption on other fronts. Of course, I don't believe this will be achievable while the world continues to celebrate and allow the capitalist modes of production and value extraction. Is there a recognized exhaustable availability of resource X? Then we simply don't allow that resource to be used as a means of capitalist value extraction from a planet. The resources belong to the commons, and we must shift away from allowing profits to guide the use of raw materials. I look at, say, the last century of the automobile, and cannot avoid wondering just how different our lives would be if we'd bypassed the idea of placing a couple tons of metals and plastics in everyone's driveways. What else might we have used those materials for, if we mandated that using them had to be done in a way that benefited a large number of people with the same material cost. This really goes for nearly every consumer product made available to the markets. I don't think we'll be able to come up with viable long-term strategies for handling population growth, and providing a high quality of life to all members of that population, until we move beyond status-driven consumerism and the capitalist economies that create and depend on them.

3 ms·

Reminds me of the scene in The Matrix where agent Smith tells Morpheus that humans are like a virus: they move to an area, and when all natural resources are co

by wereHamster 11y ago

Reminds me of the scene in The Matrix where agent Smith tells Morpheus that humans are like a virus: they move to an area, and when all natural resources are consumed up they spread to another area.

bobwaycott 11y ago
I was thinking exactly the same thing. I think [one of] the critical problem[s] is that we continue to think through the lens of resource consumption until resources are exhausted. I think it'd be pretty interesting if we began seriously evaluating ideas through the lens of resource creation on some fronts, and denying resource consumption on other fronts. Of course, I don't believe this will be achievable while the world continues to celebrate and allow the capitalist modes of production and value extraction. Is there a recognized exhaustable availability of resource X? Then we simply don't allow that resource to be used as a means of capitalist value extraction from a planet. The resources belong to the commons, and we must shift away from allowing profits to guide the use of raw materials. I look at, say, the last century of the automobile, and cannot avoid wondering just how different our lives would be if we'd bypassed the idea of placing a couple tons of metals and plastics in everyone's driveways. What else might we have used those materials for, if we mandated that using them had to be done in a way that benefited a large number of people with the same material cost. This really goes for nearly every consumer product made available to the markets. I don't think we'll be able to come up with viable long-term strategies for handling population growth, and providing a high quality of life to all members of that population, until we move beyond status-driven consumerism and the capitalist economies that create and depend on them.