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The year is 2800; An alien spacecraft lands to survey the blasted and ashen ruin that was once home to over 7 billion sentient beings. The mission commander, wi
by tragomaskhalos 10y ago
The year is 2800; An alien spacecraft lands to survey the blasted and ashen ruin that was once home to over 7 billion sentient beings. The mission commander, with infinite sadness, reports their findings to his superiors: "They let the market decide".
- jackweirdy 10y agoBut because of the helium, they presumably say it in a very high pitched voice.
- melling 10y ago7 billion? We're going to be close to 11 billion by the end of the century. That's a lot more birthday parties, graduations, etc. Don't forget the other effect on sea life when they're released near water: http://balloonsblow.org/impacts-on-wildlife-and-environment/ http://balloonsblow.org/impacts-on-wildlife-and-environment/
- throwanem 10y agoMeanwhile, from Alpha Centauri, Tau Ceti, and Barnard's Star, the expeditionary fleets of the First Great and Bounteous Human Empire set forth once more to conquer. (Hey, it's not any more or less plausible than what you said.)
- sethrin 10y agoPredicting the consumption of a scarce resource is extremely plausible, and there are many historical precedents. Predicting that interstellar travel will ever be in any way economically advantageous is probably unphysical. With travel time for messages taking decades and travel taking centuries, your "Human Empire" would be more along the lines of "Human-descended collection of exceptionally bad pen-pals". The speed of light and the tyrannies of the rocket equation don't really allow for anything else.
- throwanem 10y ago> Predicting that interstellar travel will ever be in any way economically advantageous is probably unphysical. What's sauce for the sad alien is sauce for the human empire, say I.
- nickik 10y agoCan you give me some of those historical precedents? They must have happened in a market society, otherwise its not valid as a comparison. For most resources it seem that they dont run out and the prices dont skyrocket in the apocalyptical. I have seen books from pre-1900 that were warning of the eminent "peak coal". Their is an issue if their are no useful property rights like you can see in whales and you race to the bottum.
- sethrin 10y agoI would cite any animal driven to extinction by a commercial market. If we agree that the criterion is where the good is no longer marketable, we can examine e.g. the markets for beaver or sea otter furs, the cod fisheries of the Grand Banks, and arguably the Tasmanian tiger. It's also not hard to find examples of mine or oil well exhaustion, which demonstrates the principle. I'm not going to insist that it's a common or inevitable phenomenon, my contention is merely that, as you say, there are circumstances which can promote it. Often these are market failures like a fixed price for a commodity, but perfect competition being something of a rarity, market failures abound. Either way, it's far more plausible, however unlikely, than interstellar trade or interstellar empires.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoThey ascend through the dark sky, breaking through the balloon layer that blocked out the sun. "I wonder what these glyphs mean," mutters the navigator, as he steers his ship around the formation of mylar Happy Birthday balloons.
- nercht12 10y agoSad thing is, those balloons pop when they get too high. The density of air decreases, allowing the helium to push outward and pop the balloon. Had we made stronger balloons, we might have been able to just float up and collect them when we run out of light gases... Oh wait, that requires a balloon.