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This is just a bad take. There is almost unimaginable amount Thorium and Uranium on the planet. We will never run out. In reality, volcanic activity keeps trans

This is just a bad take. There is almost unimaginable amount Thorium and Uranium on the planet. We will never run out. In reality, volcanic activity keeps transporting thorium up, so it borderline renewable. We have energy for 100s or 1000s of years with nuclear, even used inefficiently. Sure it fucking sucks we are only mostly U-235 and we are doing it inefficiently, but stopping progress because of that is just dumb.

pazimzadeh 3y ago
> We have energy for 100s or 1000s of years with nuclear, even used inefficiently Doesn't sound like a lot to me. I believe there must be something like Parkinson's law for energy (work expands to fill the allotted time) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
- goda90 3y ago
  Asteroid mining and new sources of energy could be developed in that time though.
hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
‘No one will ever need more than 512kb of memory’ And calling something ‘a bad take’ because you have a differing opinion makes you an arrogant crass brute.
- Swizec 3y ago
  No one would ever come up with usecases for more than 512kb of memory without first having access to 512kb of memory. You need to use stuff. Only then can you have better ideas.
  - hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
    That was a paraphrased quote, made by bill gates. I think we’ve somehow found usecases for >512kb of memory, which was my point. Edit: I’ve conflated parent and grandparents points, I was in the middle of avoiding a social situation while posting.
    - aerio 3y ago
      In Australia, one government proposed and accepted to build the whole nations internet architecture on fibre. There was a government change, and the next government said "copper is good enough for anyone! No-one needs more than 1mb of internet". To this day we're still trying to upgrade the infrastructure, and replace copper with fibre, and the cost so far is far above twice the initial estimate of cost.
    - quesera 3y ago
      > That was a paraphrased quote, made by bill gates The quote was "640K", and Bill Gates probably didn't actually say it, at least not in a general context, vs "... to run MS-DOS and Visicalc" or similar.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  Not using a computer because you might need more then 512kb of memory would have been stupid. That's a simple fact and illustrates my point.
xeonmc 3y ago
> "It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever." > Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said. > "Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert." > "That's not forever." > "All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Ten billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?" > Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Ten billion years isn't forever." > "Well, it will last our time, won't it?" > "So would the coal and uranium." > "All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can't do that on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don't believe me. > "I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that." > "Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell, blazing up, "It did all right." > "Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for ten billion years, but then what?" Lupow pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun." > There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.

pazimzadeh 3y ago

> We have energy for 100s or 1000s of years with nuclear, even used inefficiently Doesn't sound like a lot to me. I believe there must be something like Parkinson's law for energy (work expands to fill the allotted time) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law

goda90 3y ago
Asteroid mining and new sources of energy could be developed in that time though.

hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago

‘No one will ever need more than 512kb of memory’ And calling something ‘a bad take’ because you have a differing opinion makes you an arrogant crass brute.

Swizec 3y ago
No one would ever come up with usecases for more than 512kb of memory without first having access to 512kb of memory. You need to use stuff. Only then can you have better ideas.
- hsbauauvhabzb 3y ago
  That was a paraphrased quote, made by bill gates. I think we’ve somehow found usecases for >512kb of memory, which was my point. Edit: I’ve conflated parent and grandparents points, I was in the middle of avoiding a social situation while posting.
  - aerio 3y ago
    In Australia, one government proposed and accepted to build the whole nations internet architecture on fibre. There was a government change, and the next government said "copper is good enough for anyone! No-one needs more than 1mb of internet". To this day we're still trying to upgrade the infrastructure, and replace copper with fibre, and the cost so far is far above twice the initial estimate of cost.
  - quesera 3y ago
    > That was a paraphrased quote, made by bill gates The quote was "640K", and Bill Gates probably didn't actually say it, at least not in a general context, vs "... to run MS-DOS and Visicalc" or similar.
panick21_ 3y ago
Not using a computer because you might need more then 512kb of memory would have been stupid. That's a simple fact and illustrates my point.

xeonmc 3y ago

> "It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever." > Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said. > "Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert." > "That's not forever." > "All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Ten billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?" > Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Ten billion years isn't forever." > "Well, it will last our time, won't it?" > "So would the coal and uranium." > "All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can't do that on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don't believe me. > "I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that." > "Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell, blazing up, "It did all right." > "Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for ten billion years, but then what?" Lupow pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun." > There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.