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The resource that is most valuable for us on Earth is not oil or water or gold or rare earth metals. It is the human brain and human potential. I would argue t

The resource that is most valuable for us on Earth is not oil or water or gold or rare earth metals. It is the human brain and human potential. I would argue that we have developed this more than we ever have before in human history. We have access to more knowledge than we ever have had before. We can communicate more than we have ever had before. More children get good nutrition and so can develop normally than we ever have before. Women, especially, with the advent of safe, reliable birth control, as well as low infant and maternal mortality are encouraged by society to develop intellectually more than they ever have before. If you look at the past, it was said that humans would exponentially grow in population. Turns out birth control and female education and empowerment radically altered that trajectory and we will actually have a stable population soon. People were predicting wide spread famine, but the green agricultural revolution enabled us to produce more food than we have ever been able to. The most important thing is not to be consumed by doom and gloom but rather embrace that human potential is our most powerful resource and seek that every human on earth will be given the resources and opportunity to fully develop into all that they can be.

gerbilly 5y ago
>It is the human brain and human potential. No. Just no. The most valuable thing is the ecosystem, of which we are just one small, temporary, and insignificant part. It’s exactly this kind of hubris and overconfidence that is leading us to the next extinction event and to our own doom. Humans may be good at solving short term problems, but one of the biggest limits on our potential is to collectively act to avert long term threats. Every civilization from the Egyptians to the Romans thought they had it all figured out in their prime. The Egyptians literally moved mountains, and they are gone. If we wanted to today, we probably couldn’t rebuild the great pyramid, even with modern machinery. It would be too expensive! Our technologies have always created more problems than they have alleviated even if you restrict the cost benefit only to the human sphere. The record only becomes worse when you factor in the rest of the world.

gerbilly 5y ago

>It is the human brain and human potential. No. Just no. The most valuable thing is the ecosystem, of which we are just one small, temporary, and insignificant part. It’s exactly this kind of hubris and overconfidence that is leading us to the next extinction event and to our own doom. Humans may be good at solving short term problems, but one of the biggest limits on our potential is to collectively act to avert long term threats. Every civilization from the Egyptians to the Romans thought they had it all figured out in their prime. The Egyptians literally moved mountains, and they are gone. If we wanted to today, we probably couldn’t rebuild the great pyramid, even with modern machinery. It would be too expensive! Our technologies have always created more problems than they have alleviated even if you restrict the cost benefit only to the human sphere. The record only becomes worse when you factor in the rest of the world.