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They could've still been born in the dark ages if we didn't go through the industrial revolution and burn fossil fuels. I'm sure they'd pick this world, with i

They could've still been born in the dark ages if we didn't go through the industrial revolution and burn fossil fuels. I'm sure they'd pick this world, with it's future.

wat10000 2y ago
I really hope the choice isn’t between one bleak future and another. I’m losing track of what point you’re making here, but “at least it’ll be better than medieval times” doesn’t seem like much of one.
- palata 2y ago
  > but “at least it’ll be better than medieval times” doesn’t seem like much of one. And it's far from certain. The dinosaurs (and countless other species) disappeared due to a much slower process of climate change (and that is a fact, not a prediction). We humans may well disappear, for all we know.
  - wat10000 2y ago
    There’s a good argument to be made that we only get one shot at a high tech civilization. So many easily accessible natural resources were used to bootstrap and are no longer available. Is an automotive industry going to arise in a world where you can’t stick a primitive drill into the ground in the right place and get oil gushing out? If climate change knocks humanity back to an 18th century level, that might be it. The species might survive for a long time after that, but forever at that level or worse. Maybe the argument is wrong and there are alternative ways to get back to high technology in that scenario. I strongly recommend not running the experiment.
    - palata 2y ago
      > I strongly recommend not running the experiment. Do you know anybody who wants to live the complications that are coming? :-) What I see is that on the one hand, there are people who think that we should try to do our best with what we know (cut down on emissions, accept that we have to do less with less, and optimise our society accordingly). And on the other hand, we have people who get into the religion of technology, where some god will bring them solutions that do not exist today and that likely won't exist, but that those people really want to believe in.

They could've still been born in the dark ages if we didn't go through the industrial revolution and burn fossil fuels. I'm sure they'd pick this world, with it's future.

wat10000 2y ago

I really hope the choice isn’t between one bleak future and another. I’m losing track of what point you’re making here, but “at least it’ll be better than medieval times” doesn’t seem like much of one.

palata 2y ago
> but “at least it’ll be better than medieval times” doesn’t seem like much of one. And it's far from certain. The dinosaurs (and countless other species) disappeared due to a much slower process of climate change (and that is a fact, not a prediction). We humans may well disappear, for all we know.
- wat10000 2y ago
  There’s a good argument to be made that we only get one shot at a high tech civilization. So many easily accessible natural resources were used to bootstrap and are no longer available. Is an automotive industry going to arise in a world where you can’t stick a primitive drill into the ground in the right place and get oil gushing out? If climate change knocks humanity back to an 18th century level, that might be it. The species might survive for a long time after that, but forever at that level or worse. Maybe the argument is wrong and there are alternative ways to get back to high technology in that scenario. I strongly recommend not running the experiment.
  - palata 2y ago
    > I strongly recommend not running the experiment. Do you know anybody who wants to live the complications that are coming? :-) What I see is that on the one hand, there are people who think that we should try to do our best with what we know (cut down on emissions, accept that we have to do less with less, and optimise our society accordingly). And on the other hand, we have people who get into the religion of technology, where some god will bring them solutions that do not exist today and that likely won't exist, but that those people really want to believe in.