7 ms·

"Put extra dirt on your fields" isn't really in the same class as those is it?

eru 4y ago
How do you define classes? For something that sounds similar: When people didn't understand soil and biology very well, fields needed long fallow periods to recover from growing wheat and other crops. As part of the British Agricultural Revolution, they figured out that they could plant turnips and clover instead: > One important change in farming methods was the move in crop rotation to turnips and clover in place of fallow. Turnips can be grown in winter and are deep-rooted, allowing them to gather minerals unavailable to shallow-rooted crops. Clover fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form of fertiliser. This permitted the intensive arable cultivation of light soils on enclosed farms and provided fodder to support increased livestock numbers whose manure added further to soil fertility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolutio...
barry-cotter 4y ago
Putting the right kind of extra dirt is in the same class. Fertilizer can increase yields by 20% or more. That’s a magic bullet. Technology is nothing but the quest for magic bullets.
- wokwokwok 4y ago
  It’s not. There are no magic bullets. Every action has consequences; as you see from the effects of using fertilisers and pesticides. “Perfect fixes” with technology don't happen. Perfect fixes have no side effects. That’s incredibly difficult to achieve in complex systems. Whether you want to believe it or not, doesn’t change the facts. Breakthrough transformative technologies do exist, but those simply change things they don’t magically fix them. What you’re espousing is not “truth”; it’s simply a philosophy, considered by many to be a short sighted trivialisation of a complex problem. See -> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_fix https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_fix
kbelder 4y ago
"Wash hands" was a simple silver bullet in medicine.

eru 4y ago

How do you define classes? For something that sounds similar: When people didn't understand soil and biology very well, fields needed long fallow periods to recover from growing wheat and other crops. As part of the British Agricultural Revolution, they figured out that they could plant turnips and clover instead: > One important change in farming methods was the move in crop rotation to turnips and clover in place of fallow. Turnips can be grown in winter and are deep-rooted, allowing them to gather minerals unavailable to shallow-rooted crops. Clover fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form of fertiliser. This permitted the intensive arable cultivation of light soils on enclosed farms and provided fodder to support increased livestock numbers whose manure added further to soil fertility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Agricultural_Revolutio...

barry-cotter 4y ago

Putting the right kind of extra dirt is in the same class. Fertilizer can increase yields by 20% or more. That’s a magic bullet. Technology is nothing but the quest for magic bullets.

wokwokwok 4y ago
It’s not. There are no magic bullets. Every action has consequences; as you see from the effects of using fertilisers and pesticides. “Perfect fixes” with technology don't happen. Perfect fixes have no side effects. That’s incredibly difficult to achieve in complex systems. Whether you want to believe it or not, doesn’t change the facts. Breakthrough transformative technologies do exist, but those simply change things they don’t magically fix them. What you’re espousing is not “truth”; it’s simply a philosophy, considered by many to be a short sighted trivialisation of a complex problem. See -> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_fix https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_fix

kbelder 4y ago

"Wash hands" was a simple silver bullet in medicine.