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If human kind ever developed virtually unlimited source of energy, ability to store it and channel it in to desired work on demand then there will be no poverty
by sytelus 12y ago
If human kind ever developed virtually unlimited source of energy, ability to store it and channel it in to desired work on demand then there will be no poverty, no scarcity of virtually anything and there would be no concept of money itself anymore.
With unlimited energy you can move mountains, convert Sahara in to green farmland, build giant spaceships of the size of cities, colonize pretty much all planets and so on.
There would no shortage of material because you can mine entire solar system and even with current technologies you can pretty much automate making everything. That means there will be no employment because most people would not need to work to meet their basic needs. People would work on things if they felt like so. There won't be shortage of fuel and transportation because material become ultra cheap and making copies of vehicles would be done by automated factories. Robots would run almost entire operations, they themselves can be mass produced like soap because building them is cheaper and they would have lot of energy available to themselves to virtually do anything.
There won't be wars on tiny land disputes because you can virtually fly anywhere and settle yourself with most modern amnesties in your giant mention built mostly by robots anywhere you like, including in the Antartica or in depth of seas or middle of Neveda.
I know you are already raising your eyebrows over this because one can argue that we can also easily vaporize our own planet and robots can take over the world. Yes, sure. My theory is that there is certain kind of maturity required for species before it can attain "unlimited energy" prize from the nature. We have became more and more civilized over the centuries as we have gotten more and more power starting from rocks to swords to guns to basic atomic energy. We now have recognition for sovereign countries and aggressors gets punished by mutual boycotts. There will be no more Chengiz Khan or Alekzanders - they are all simply artifacts of our history where we consider their acts as unnecessarily barbaric.
So there will be a day when human kind would be culturally ready and I think that day will align with invention of unlimited energy source - may even just direct conversion of mass to energy (fusion is really not that efficient).
- rpedela 12y agoI think you are conflating technical maturity with societal maturity. The Romans were technically the most advanced in their time and also equally or more barbaric than their less advanced neighbors. I hope some of what you say happens, and I do think if we can make all resources abundant and accessible to all then war and conquest will no longer be part of human culture since lack of resources is the root cause of those activities. However I also think it is not so simple and one super-volcano eruption or one asteroid can completely reset the clock.