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Prophetic words from John von Neumann in 1955: "The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by industry's burning of coal and oil-—more than half of it dur
by metaprogram 5y ago
Prophetic words from John von Neumann in 1955:
"The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by
industry's burning of coal and oil-—more than half of it
during the last generation—may have changed the atmosphere's composition sufficiently to account for a
general warming of the world by about one degree
Fahrenheit." (Page 512 / 666 / 9)
- bserge 5y agoIf only he knew it would be used for growing digital tulips.
- arthurcolle 5y agoI bet JVN would totally have a couple bitcoins if he was still around.
- d4mi3n 5y agoHe was such a visionary and had such a way with words. This may be nostalgia talking, but I've struggled to find more contemporary writing on the level of Neumann's imagination. If anyone is aware of someone today doing similar work I'd love to hear about it.
- tim333 5y agoHe was also the originator of the term singularity in the sense of tech: “The ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life give the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.” which some people worry about.
- machinehermiter 5y agoHe also thought we would soon be able to completely control the weather. To me, his thoughts on the weather are some of his most interesting things to read just from the fact even someone with the brain power of Von Neuman could be utterly and completely wrong. It is the ultimate lesson in the fallibility of what you believe to be true.
- zzzzzzzza 5y agoI would say his take on nuclear power is more obviously bad than his climate take. We just haven't been bothered enough/had the political will to try and intervene at the scale he imagined with regards to the weather. Whereas with nuclear the economics never worked out.
- cratermoon 5y agoYou might like https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/05/sixty-years-of-climate-change-warnings-the-signs-that-were-missed-and-ignored https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/05/sixty-years-...