On 1/6/25 5:49 AM, D wrote:
On Sun, 5 Jan 2025, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
On 2025-01-05, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>
We have achienved something no other species has done. Science.
>
Someone once pointed out, though, that for all the great things
science can do, it can't make the sun shine brighter or the
rivers run faster. If our consumption continues to increase,
sooner or later we'll hit the crunch.
We can use things more effectively, we can build nuclear. In terms of power we have no problem out all. This is a solved problem and only requires political will.
We ARE very wasteful - even with known-limited
resources. There's mostly not enough money in
're-cycling' to make it worth it (except in
4th-world countries - oh reports are of a
really good gold-recovery chemistry lately)
How many neo magnets from old disk drives now
reside in the bottom of landfills ? Most of
those come from an ENEMY nation. I've seen pix
of what Africans can do with waste plastics on
a low budget (note, 4 parts sand to 1 part
old jugs is best for construction bricks, found
graphs somewhere). BUT, 1st world, the problems
and regs and bureaucracy ruin it all. Can't get
there from here.
Nuke plants are good (I still like 'pebble bed' and
apparently China is now into them). There's still a
waste-disposal issue alas, what to do with stuff
that's super-deadly for 99,000 years. Tectonics
are too slow to just bag it and drop it in an
ocean trench somewhere.
"Better" is gonna require a SENSIBLE mix of energy
technologies. No one thing can save us, but all
COMBINED as best suited per-region can.
And then there's the "expectations" issue ...
eight BILLION all demanding a luxury 1st-
world lifestyle they saw on TV. Even with
better tech I just don't think that's gonna
be possible for at least a century, maybe
two or three. This causes DISCONTENT and
lots of unpleasant POLITICS - followed by
things on fire.
And alas ... I don't see "AI" creating any kind
of nirvana - more like rendering half the pop
largely obsolete and crammed into horrible govt
tenements until they rot and die .
Add to that the ability to plan long term, and there's nothing
to fear.
>
Given the scarcity of companies that can see past the next quarter,
I think there's quite a lot to fear.
There are companies that are older than countries.
Yea, but they mostly chose "bullet-proof" lines of biz.
We can even nudge asteroids out of the way, should it be necessary.
>
Or not. See the Netflix movie _Don't Look Up_.
Sorry, forgot that source of eternal truth.
Don't think asteroid mining can make a profit, at
least not until there's something beyond Newtonian
propulsion - IF there's such a thing.
If you wanna be useful with asteroids, divert a bunch
of big icy ones towards a soft-crash into Mars. THEN
we'd have a spare planet.
I'd argue, that we've actually far, far safer from changes in
climate and our surroundings than we have ever been before.
>
Well, the rich folk are, at least.
You can become rich too! Remember the locust protein company we've been talking about. The idea is just sitting there for you to realize it! =D
They re-named rapeseed oil and call MSG "natural
flavor" and call Winders an operating system ... maybe
they can de-locust powdered bug goop :-)