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It has nothing to do with being a "Malthusian loony". Which of these do you prefer: - >10 billion people living on this planet, depleting resources so that in

It has nothing to do with being a "Malthusian loony". Which of these do you prefer: - >10 billion people living on this planet, depleting resources so that inequality levels will rise while total (real) wealth will decline. - A lot less people than now living on this planet in a way that we can actually permanently get close to the current western standard of living for ~all of them.

ronilan 7y ago
How many people live on this planet is not a matter of personal preference. Neither individual nor collective. I thought that was obvious.
- Invictus0 7y ago
  There are multiple people alive today that could decrease the global population by hundreds of millions without having to even put their shoes on.
  - ronilan 7y ago
    Indeed. But it’s up to them to decide what they want to do with their life and liberty and how they’d like to pursue their happiness. Shoes on or off, excluding specific placements, should not be a factor. Neither, me, you nor loony, father of two, UBC professor have a say about that. It is self-evident. (And as a side note: peak humans has arrived and the consequences may not be as rosy as the UBC professor who spent his entire life and career in an immigration infused growth zone, thinks they will)
pdonis 7y ago
> Which of these do you prefer Neither. You, like the author of these articles, left out the third choice: - Continue to improve technology so it can continue to supply increasing real wealth with a smaller ecological footprint. This has already been happening for pretty much the entire history of technology. The computers we are using to have this conversation consume orders of magnitude less power for orders of magnitude more computing operations than the ones people used to have similar conversations a couple of decades ago. The cars we drive are much more efficient and emit much less. The widespread availability of telecommunications and the Internet reduces the need for people to physically go somewhere in order to get something done. People can adapt to change if they are given the tools.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  By what specific mechanisms does, has, and can technology deliverthose increases? What are the net gains provided by millionsfold increases in compute capacity and performance? How much such gains remain?

ronilan 7y ago

How many people live on this planet is not a matter of personal preference. Neither individual nor collective. I thought that was obvious.

Invictus0 7y ago
There are multiple people alive today that could decrease the global population by hundreds of millions without having to even put their shoes on.
- ronilan 7y ago
  Indeed. But it’s up to them to decide what they want to do with their life and liberty and how they’d like to pursue their happiness. Shoes on or off, excluding specific placements, should not be a factor. Neither, me, you nor loony, father of two, UBC professor have a say about that. It is self-evident. (And as a side note: peak humans has arrived and the consequences may not be as rosy as the UBC professor who spent his entire life and career in an immigration infused growth zone, thinks they will)

pdonis 7y ago

> Which of these do you prefer Neither. You, like the author of these articles, left out the third choice: - Continue to improve technology so it can continue to supply increasing real wealth with a smaller ecological footprint. This has already been happening for pretty much the entire history of technology. The computers we are using to have this conversation consume orders of magnitude less power for orders of magnitude more computing operations than the ones people used to have similar conversations a couple of decades ago. The cars we drive are much more efficient and emit much less. The widespread availability of telecommunications and the Internet reduces the need for people to physically go somewhere in order to get something done. People can adapt to change if they are given the tools.

dredmorbius 7y ago
By what specific mechanisms does, has, and can technology deliverthose increases? What are the net gains provided by millionsfold increases in compute capacity and performance? How much such gains remain?