4 ms·
Heat death of the universe. It's not clear to me why you believe we'll reach that point before extinction--I find the notion highly implausible.
by davelnewton 9y ago
Heat death of the universe.
It's not clear to me why you believe we'll reach that point before extinction--I find the notion highly implausible.
- tinymollusk 9y agoExtrapolating previous trends of energy consumption. Historically, technological advances have greatly increased the energy consumption per human. At an accelerating pace (exponential energy consumption growth). According to Geoffrey West's "Scale", humans biological needs are about 90 watts at rest, 250 watts for an extremely active lifestyle. The average American uses about 11,000 watts, 2 orders of magnitude more, and more than a blue whale. It is possible we will invent new ways to tap energy, but exponential growth will have to end somehow. (Unless you meant to imply that our technological progress could hasten the heat death of the universe, in which case I fully agree.) Note - I do not mean this will happen any time soon, just that there is a theoretical upper bound to innovation: how much energy exists in the universe.