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Nope https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/ "But let’s not overlook the key point

Nope https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/ "But let’s not overlook the key point: continued growth in energy use becomes physically impossible within conceivable timeframes. " And Wealth And Energy Consumption Are Inseparable https://www.declineoftheempire.com/2012/01/wealth-and-energy-consumption-are-inseparable.html https://www.declineoftheempire.com/2012/01/wealth-and-energy...

Retric 3y ago
Track the total energy used by humanity and it’s almost all sunlight used to grow plants the same way it’s been used for thousands of years. It looks nothing like the 2.3% exponential curve pulled out of a hat by that article. There’s little reason to suspect future advanced societies will even vaguely approach a 0.1% increase in total energy demand per year when human population stalls out. Nobody wants to heat their house to 10,000f or cool to cryogenic temperatures. Energy demand is therefore simply a question of technological progress and rates of growth in energy use is surprisingly slow for the top economies.
cscurmudgeon 3y ago
Nope Reminds of the NYT article on the impossibility of flight.
- fastneutron 3y ago
  Care to elaborate? Are you envisioning some decoupling of energy and economic growth?
zeroonetwothree 3y ago
The chart at the beginning already shows we don’t fit the trend anymore. So the whole premise is nonsense
ForHackernews 3y ago
Shades of https://xkcd.com/605/ https://xkcd.com/605/ > The merciless growth illustrated above means that in 1400 years from now, any source of energy we harness would have to outshine the sun. Cool, we can worry about this in 1000 years? This article is silly because the whole point of the OP is that population growth will not continue, so it's reasonable to assume that energy consumption will also plateau.
PeterisP 3y ago
That 2012 article is obsolete, as GDP and energy usage has now been decoupled in advanced economies (e.g. https://ourworldindata.org/energy-gdp-decoupling https://ourworldindata.org/energy-gdp-decoupling) as nowadays improved consumer goods tend to require less physical resources than the earlier devices they replace, and various physical services get replaced with software.

Retric 3y ago

Track the total energy used by humanity and it’s almost all sunlight used to grow plants the same way it’s been used for thousands of years. It looks nothing like the 2.3% exponential curve pulled out of a hat by that article. There’s little reason to suspect future advanced societies will even vaguely approach a 0.1% increase in total energy demand per year when human population stalls out. Nobody wants to heat their house to 10,000f or cool to cryogenic temperatures. Energy demand is therefore simply a question of technological progress and rates of growth in energy use is surprisingly slow for the top economies.

cscurmudgeon 3y ago

Nope Reminds of the NYT article on the impossibility of flight.

fastneutron 3y ago
Care to elaborate? Are you envisioning some decoupling of energy and economic growth?

zeroonetwothree 3y ago

The chart at the beginning already shows we don’t fit the trend anymore. So the whole premise is nonsense

ForHackernews 3y ago

Shades of https://xkcd.com/605/ https://xkcd.com/605/ > The merciless growth illustrated above means that in 1400 years from now, any source of energy we harness would have to outshine the sun. Cool, we can worry about this in 1000 years? This article is silly because the whole point of the OP is that population growth will not continue, so it's reasonable to assume that energy consumption will also plateau.

PeterisP 3y ago

That 2012 article is obsolete, as GDP and energy usage has now been decoupled in advanced economies (e.g. https://ourworldindata.org/energy-gdp-decoupling https://ourworldindata.org/energy-gdp-decoupling) as nowadays improved consumer goods tend to require less physical resources than the earlier devices they replace, and various physical services get replaced with software.