Re:Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World
by anvandare on Tuesday February 13, 2018 @05:19AM
(#16366069)
War is the essence of life. Limited resources means any growing system inevitably hits this (carrying) limit. Sooner or later, there are no more unclaimed resources available and you have to start competing with others for access to the resources. Mutation and evolution follows. The only alternative is to open up more resources (like the Haber–Bosch process did) but that's just postponing the inevitable. The amount of (useful) matter and energy in the universe is both finite and decreasing.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World
by shaki-dora on Tuesday February 13, 2018 @06:17AM
(#16366291)
Population growth has seized in industrialized countries, and is plateauing in others.
Humanity’s foremost achievement is overcoming its biological roots, and any view of the world based on supposedly unchangeable evolutionary mechanisms is deeply flawed.
Re:Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World
by gnode on Tuesday February 13, 2018 @09:45AM
(#16367458)
> Humanity’s foremost achievement is overcoming its biological roots
I think we're very far from that. I would say our biological roots are responsible for our individualism, which often doesn't manifest as boundless reproduction, but rather as greed.
Re:Fritz Haber: A Monster Who Fed the World
by anvandare on Tuesday February 13, 2018 @06:37AM
(#16366368)
The population might plateau, but our resource consumption is still rising. I'd be very surprised if we manage to avert calamity, though I'm quite certain we'll survive it.