Current Events » in reply to re: An accurate statement

re: An accurate statement

Tom Brosz — 10/20/2005 3:26:17 AM (archived)

But doesn't the scope of the problem shake your faith even a little bit? Against a problem that big, it seems to me that we're talking about a technology indistinguishable from magic. We're almost talking about living off sunlight and folding space to give everybody room to turn around!

It's no small problem, but it's instructive to take the Jared Diamond thought experiment and run it backwards. What is the world's energy consumption today? How about 200 years ago?

The table associated with that graph is here.

Addressing someone in 1800 with the question of the world needing over 600 times the energy in the future, what would he say? What solutions would he propose? What solutions could he propose? How many of the solutions eventually arrived at were known, even in theory, back then? Nuclear power? Gigawatt gas-burning power plants? How did these solutions arrive? What drove them?

A person in 1800, even a highly-intelligent one, could be forgiven for assuming the future was screwed.

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The whole thread (61 posts)

• "Jobs no American will take" - Sure! - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/19/2005 2:51:08 AM
  • We need Real Guest worker legislation. - Scott Evil - 10/21/2005 9:00:47 PM
  • "Jobs no American will take" - Lindy - 10/19/2005 10:37:16 PM
    • Can't even do that! - CARL - 10/21/2005 1:29:31 PM
  • This is the one of the two sour spots I have with the president. - REB - 10/19/2005 6:48:48 PM
  • So change the jobs - Robert - 10/19/2005 5:47:51 PM
    • Important points - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/19/2005 9:53:30 PM
      • "The wall works" - nick hoffman - 10/20/2005 4:15:18 AM
        • While it was up, the Berlin Wall worked pretty damn well. - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 5:39:39 AM
          • It wasn't the wall that worked so much as the mine field next to it. - Scott Evil - 10/21/2005 9:05:01 PM
          • re: While it was up, the Berlin Wall worked pretty damn well. - nick hoffman - 10/20/2005 9:01:18 AM
            • You bet it was a stretch. - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 4:23:03 PM
      • re: Important points - Robert - 10/20/2005 1:03:46 AM
    • What makes you think illegals are getting minimum wage? - Tom Brosz - 10/19/2005 6:35:18 PM
      • Tangential - Robert - 10/19/2005 10:51:05 PM
        • re: Tangential - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 3:12:53 AM
          • And no, the Mexicans aren't going to walk around the wall. - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 3:41:39 AM
            • We had this problem in Australia... - nick hoffman - 10/20/2005 4:57:02 AM
              • Thanks for this Nick - Daniel - 10/22/2005 7:08:37 AM
              • Dilution. - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/21/2005 12:24:13 AM
              • Outstanding post. (n/t) - et - 10/20/2005 9:16:56 PM
              • Legal vs illegal - Larry J - 10/20/2005 4:59:45 PM
              • So how much carrying capacity do you think Australia has? - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 5:50:37 AM
                • carrying capacity - nick hoffman - 10/20/2005 9:05:39 AM
        • The Wall - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/19/2005 11:14:06 PM
  • A more accurate statement would be... - Larry J - 10/19/2005 1:08:24 PM
    • Chain reaction - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/19/2005 10:19:19 PM
    • It's possible that American agriculture would go the way of American textiles - alcaray - 10/19/2005 5:29:23 PM
    • An accurate statement - Robert - 10/19/2005 5:11:51 PM
      • One essential problem... - Larry J - 10/19/2005 6:55:27 PM
        • re: One essential problem... - Robert - 10/19/2005 11:22:32 PM
          • re: One essential problem... - Larry J - 10/20/2005 1:49:55 PM
          • Freedom is messy. - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 3:46:17 AM
            • Should be "alternative to people" (n/t) - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 3:46:48 AM
        • Correction - Larry J - 10/19/2005 8:28:20 PM
      • re: An accurate statement - Tom Brosz - 10/19/2005 6:52:01 PM
        • re: An accurate statement - Robert - 10/19/2005 11:52:26 PM
          • re: An accurate statement - Tom Brosz - 10/20/2005 3:26:17 AM
      • You're not alone in this kind of thinking. - Tom Brosz - 10/19/2005 6:39:07 PM
  • You summed up the situation perfectly. - Lee - 10/19/2005 5:55:30 AM
    • We will not wage "physical" war with Mexico - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/19/2005 10:37:13 PM
    • "but far too many of our citizens would be unwilling to engage in a war. " - R.L. - 10/19/2005 6:18:55 AM
      • Just curious... - R.L. - 10/19/2005 9:14:23 AM
        • Actually RL, I was refering to people like you. - Lee - 10/19/2005 7:19:32 PM
          • re: "well we stole it from Mexico, so they do have a claim to it" - alcaray - 10/19/2005 11:22:14 PM
            • And they stole it from the Spanish, who stole it from the Native Americans. - REB - 10/20/2005 1:43:44 PM
            • Do some homework. - Lee - 10/20/2005 5:40:21 AM
              • Man I live in the LA area. - alcaray - 10/20/2005 3:02:39 PM
                • No, your head is stuck in the sand - Lee - 10/20/2005 7:22:14 PM
                  • How many Mexican do you know? - FrankC - 10/21/2005 8:36:29 PM
                  • The Mexicans are invading!!!!!! - alcaray - 10/20/2005 8:41:11 PM
                    • And not one word against the links I posted. - Lee - 10/21/2005 5:36:52 AM
                      • Rense and Newsmax I will not bother to look at, sorry. - alcaray - 10/21/2005 2:59:26 PM
                        • Rense is leftwing and Newsmax is rightwing. They both agree on this. (n/t) - Lee - 10/22/2005 2:15:14 AM
                    • They are already in Texas. - REB - 10/20/2005 9:13:08 PM
                      • Ya, you know. - alcaray - 10/20/2005 11:01:54 PM
                        • Do you really want to go there? - Sam F. - 10/21/2005 6:36:28 AM
                          • Not everything is politics - alcaray - 10/21/2005 2:54:46 PM
          • Referring as well. (n/t) - Lee - 10/19/2005 7:20:42 PM
  • "Jobs no American will take" A load of crap. - Tom Brosz - 10/19/2005 3:21:05 AM
  • re: "Jobs no American will take" -link - SDAI-Tech1 - 10/19/2005 2:54:14 AM