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Increased birth rate is not necessarily a good thing for human development at this stage. Our planet cannot support an infinite number of people. Since we are
by DKnoll 9y ago
Increased birth rate is not necessarily a good thing for human development at this stage. Our planet cannot support an infinite number of people.
Since we are already facing unprecedented growth that won't be stopped except by famine, world war or some other calamity, it's important we find a way to stretch our limited resources further and develop technologies that will help us expand beyond earth like nuclear fusion.
- wiz21c 9y agoYup. But I was pointing more at the fact that the notion of "price" is not very useful here. If we're talking about mankind's future, money should be brought back to the level of "minor technical detail".
- adrianN 9y agoMoney is what we currently have as a means of getting a consensus about what is important for mankind's future and how to allocate resources based on importance and expected payoff. It's not the best system, but it's hard to introduce alternatives.
- DKnoll 9y agoI agree that it should be that way. Price is important to motivate people to develop nuclear fusion technology, and to finally build commercial fusion plants when the time comes. Nuclear fission is a superior power technology already, but we've largely stopped building new plants because of the exorbitant upstart costs compared to other technologies.
- DennisP 9y agoPrice is a proxy for "how much resources would it take to roll this out at scale." That's important regardless of how your economy works. Price also tells us whether the new energy source would require government support, or require less resources than building and fueling a new fossil plant, or (if extremely cheap) would prompt people to shut down even brand-new fossil plants because the new energy source is cheaper than the cost of fuel.