3 ms·
Read A Farewell to Alms. Malthus's thinking was objectively correct up to the time of writing. He just made & recorded the observations at almost exactly the
by onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
Read A Farewell to Alms.
Malthus's thinking was objectively correct up to the time of writing. He just made & recorded the observations at almost exactly the wrong time, right before the trend reversed, during the industrial revolution.
I'm not claiming that we have reached a new era where - once again - growing population = worse living conditions.
But there are a lot of good arguments WRT to limits on fossil fuel extraction, physical limitations on technological progress, etc...
Light bulbs can't get much more efficient. Neither can electricity transmission. Energy generation still has a healthy amount to improve. Maybe there's enough progress left to be made for the population to double again.
But the idea that the population could be near infinite on this planet and that would only lead to more progress and better living conditions is laughable.
There's clearly some limit.
My crystal ball isn't working. I don't know if we've passed it, or are even close to it...
- bryanlarsen 4y agoThere's lots of room to improve electricity transmission. Local generation is more efficient than remote generation. This is especially important in poor rural areas. Build somebody a natgas generator and they're dependent on you for fuel. Build them a nuclear plant and they're dependent on you for experts. Give them a solar panel and now they independent.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y agoAssuming they don't need electricity at night or when it's cloudy and they only need one solar panel's worth of electricity and they don't live in a condo where they have nowhere to put it...
- Manuel_D 4y agoEnergy demand is concentrated in population centers. In practice, renewables result more remote generation: https://www.vox.com/videos/22685707/climate-change-clean-energy-high-voltage-transmission-lines https://www.vox.com/videos/22685707/climate-change-clean-ene... I'm always amused when people talk about a decentralized grid as though it's a positive. It's a liability, since energy demand is centralized.