3 ms·

Produce 10x what exactly? Earth at current consumption level is not sustainable. where the fuck do you have the resources to produce 10x

ben_w 3y ago
Which bits are and aren't sustainable depends mostly on tech. 10x solar power and we get meet all current electricity demand in a climate friendly way; 10x lithium etc. mining and we can roll out electric vehicles much faster; 10x bioreactors makes… well, very little difference to ethical eco-meat, but mainly because it's still new and the kinks have yet to be worked out, but the principal still applies. (Unfortunately, my point would still stand even if higher production only sped up disaster; the tragedy of the commons is because everyone is motivated to consume more than is sustainable given the size of the group).
satvikpendem 3y ago
Why is it not sustainable? Are you talking about fossil fuel usage? Because that can be solved if we had the technology to solve it, via carbon capture, geoengineering, etc, via the help of AI even. The Earth is a massive planet relative to human scales, there are more abundant resources in it than we can use in a thousand lifetimes.
raincole 3y ago
In theory the more productive we are the higher "upper bound of sustainability" is. Cheap energy can be used to recycle garbages from the ocean, recapture carbon from the atmosphere, etc. We just choose not to.
PeterisP 3y ago
For a few decades already growth of consumption/GDP has been decoupled from growth of energy and resource usage. Roughly speaking, we consume more by consuming "better" things rather than "larger" things. A $1000 iPhone is much "more consumption" than a 1990s cell phone plus portable CD player plus a calculator, but takes less resources than those things. Even more so when consumption of digital entertainment replaces live entertainment.

3 ms·

Produce 10x what exactly? Earth at current consumption level is not sustainable. where the fuck do you have the resources to produce 10x

by xbmcuser 3y ago

ben_w 3y ago
Which bits are and aren't sustainable depends mostly on tech. 10x solar power and we get meet all current electricity demand in a climate friendly way; 10x lithium etc. mining and we can roll out electric vehicles much faster; 10x bioreactors makes… well, very little difference to ethical eco-meat, but mainly because it's still new and the kinks have yet to be worked out, but the principal still applies. (Unfortunately, my point would still stand even if higher production only sped up disaster; the tragedy of the commons is because everyone is motivated to consume more than is sustainable given the size of the group).
satvikpendem 3y ago
Why is it not sustainable? Are you talking about fossil fuel usage? Because that can be solved if we had the technology to solve it, via carbon capture, geoengineering, etc, via the help of AI even. The Earth is a massive planet relative to human scales, there are more abundant resources in it than we can use in a thousand lifetimes.
raincole 3y ago
In theory the more productive we are the higher "upper bound of sustainability" is. Cheap energy can be used to recycle garbages from the ocean, recapture carbon from the atmosphere, etc. We just choose not to.
PeterisP 3y ago
For a few decades already growth of consumption/GDP has been decoupled from growth of energy and resource usage. Roughly speaking, we consume more by consuming "better" things rather than "larger" things. A $1000 iPhone is much "more consumption" than a 1990s cell phone plus portable CD player plus a calculator, but takes less resources than those things. Even more so when consumption of digital entertainment replaces live entertainment.