Re: The joy of actual numbers, was Democracy

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 30/10/2024 09:59, D wrote:

 
 
On Wed, 30 Oct 2024, rbowman wrote:
 

On Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:43:13 +0100, D wrote:
 

Many centuries left. We'll mine the ocean floors, we'll reach for the
stars (or at least asteroids). Eventually we'll expand beyond the earth.
The people predicting crashes and famines have been wrong every time,
except for when alternatives to capitalism has been tried. Then there
have been real famines.

 
I worked summers for the NYS Dept. of Education and the basement
corridors
were filled with pallets of newspapers. (and 5 gallon buckets of water,
reusable as toilets after the Ruskies attacked) I don't know if they were
waiting to be microfilmed or stacked and forgotten.
 
I mostly read the funnies and old ads but I found a trove of 1929
editions. "The fundamentals are sound!" as they took the express route
down from the 30th floor.
 
I love a good science fiction yarn but I realize the space travel
genre is
mostly fiction. The dystopian worlds run by AI probably aren't.

 
Well, it is future, so by design fuzzy around the edges. But looking at
the history of the planet, and the fact that despite being capable of
destroying our planet several times over, we've managed not to do so
(with all the crazy people in power) gives me enormous hope. Yes, I'm an
optimist!

 
Oh we wont destroy the planet. Just our own civilization
Read Joseph Tainter.
 
He lays it all oy very plainly. A society finds a better way to exploit
nature. It grows, and extends, as it does so it needs rules and
regulations laws taxes and competent bureaucrats. Then its resource base
starts to get strained, and it needs even more complexity and
bureaucracy to keep it going.
Eventually the quality of people needed to keep it going also runs out.
And it collapses into autonomous fragments.
 

It’s a little scary how dependent we are on single sources for things. The
NC floods impacted both what’s apparently a single source of ultra-pure
quartz and a major supplier of IV solution. Apparently the quartz thing
turned out not to be too bad, but the IV problem is forcing people to
postpone operations, etc.

You would think we would have learned something from the great baby-formula
shortage, but I’m beginning to think it’s only IT that designs redundancy
into things. For everyone else it’s cross your fingers and hope.

--
Pete