Re:The side effects of an unfinished internet
by chrisco255 on Sunday February 16, 2020 @12:50AM
(#22340015)
Higher growth does not necessarily mean more materials consumed. For example, if you could invent a gas engine that got 120 miles per gallon, it likely wouldn't take much more physical materials to produce, and it would decrease demand for gas. Likewise if you can increase crop yields, or food produced per acre, the end result will be less farm land necessary to feed the population. Productivity is all about doing more with less.
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Re:The side effects of an unfinished internet
by thaumasiotes on Sunday February 16, 2020 @04:47AM
(#22340788)
> For example, if you could invent a gas engine that got 120 miles per gallon, it likely wouldn't take much more physical materials to produce, and it would decrease demand for gas.
This is not true in general. Much higher gas efficiency lowers the amount of gas that existing uses need. (Sending one cruise ship to the Azores takes less gas!) That reduced requirement means reduced demand. But it also raises the value of gas. (One gallon of gas does much more work than it used to!) That increased value means increased demand. Maybe we should start sending more cruise ships to the Azores!
Re:The side effects of an unfinished internet
by im3w1l on Sunday February 16, 2020 @05:36AM
(#22340941)
The government could tax it to prevent that.
Re:The side effects of an unfinished internet
by hinkley on Sunday February 16, 2020 @01:00AM
(#22340040)
The thing we see though is that demand grows to fill most of the new supply. And many of he advanced in agriculture have only increased energy intensity.
Re:The side effects of an unfinished internet
by chrisco255 on Sunday February 16, 2020 @02:57AM
(#22340462)
Not always. There's only so much food people can consume, and richer countries are producing less children than poor ones are, so there's an asymptote to a lot of consumption.
Re:The side effects of an unfinished internet
by thaumasiotes on Sunday February 16, 2020 @07:11AM
(#22341192)
> richer countries are producing less children than poor ones are, so there's an asymptote to a lot of consumption
The theory of evolution guarantees that no asymptote based on this mechanism can persist over time. Populations that voluntarily extinguish themselves are replaced by other populations that don't.