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> not possible to have infinite growth and improvement in living standards in a finite world But our world might be infinite, and there is certainly at least 2
by akvadrako 9y ago
> not possible to have infinite growth and improvement in living standards in a finite world
But our world might be infinite, and there is certainly at least 20 orders of magnitude more available resources than our current usage, so this isn't a practical consideration.
- skosch 9y agoUnfortunately, the opposite is true for basic resources such as clean water and air: look up "Earth overshoot day" [1] [1] https://phys.org/news/2017-08-earth-resource-spent-august.html https://phys.org/news/2017-08-earth-resource-spent-august.ht...
- adventured 9y agoNear limitless clean water is a technological problem that we have already solved via reuse and desalination. The challenge now is to make it far less expensive, which we'll also do in the coming half century or so. Vast progress in real-world use of desalination is why Israel can exist at all for example. [1] Large cities in California will likely become supplied mostly by desalination in the near future. San Diego is getting 1/3 of its water from one plant. It can fulfill the water needs of its entire population for about the cost of three, one billion dollar desalination plants. I consider that an extreme bargain. Such plants will get cheaper and more efficient with time. Indoor agriculture and altering crops to need less water, adjusting them to indoor efficient growing via CRISPR, will also significantly lessen our water demands over time. That'll take decades to bring to meaningful impact, however there's no scenario where we don't do that. [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the...
- rocqua 9y agoThe main problem with desalination is energy use. I don't see desalination on a massive scale happening unless we get a lot more (and thus cheaper) energy being produced. Basically, fingers crossed for fusion.
- f_allwein 9y agoReally? Do you have any evidence for this claim? Genuinely interested, as it's the first time I hear this.
- goatlover 9y agoWhat do you mean the world might be infinite? The Earth isn't. Do you mean the sun, asteroids and other planets in the solar system will provide all the resources and energy we could ever need? Because even that's not infinite on a Kardashev increasing energy scale. But the real concern is the biosphere, which most certainly is finite and the 7.4 billion humans are very much dependant on it. Maybe we terraform Mars someday, but I doubt that will do much for life on Earth.
- redwood 9y agoDid you mean "20 times" instead of "orders of magnitude"?
- akvadrako 9y agoI meant orders of magnitude, which most of the replies seem to have completely ignored.