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A comment on My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal collapse”. Parent comment

Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by adnmcq999 on Friday July 16, 2021 @12:15AM (#27853005)
I don’t know man, the human race makes great technological leaps, or rather leaps in understanding that allow new technology. And nobody can really predict that. It’s almost like your Einsteins, Newtons, Boltzmanns, Maxwells Paulis and Plancks had some kind 2-way channel with divinity. Even though we all stand on the shoulders of giants, sometimes a new giant appears out of the ether. And there’s no doubt we’re done. I saw a 60minutes where an air force pilot dead ass states that they saw a tic-tac lookin ufo churn water in the Pacific Ocean before basically teleporting away, only to be relocated 60 miles later. There’s more for us to know, even if that air force crew (there were more than 1 witnesses) were all just tripping on peyote.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by cjohnson318 on Friday July 16, 2021 @12:46AM (#27853109)
I don't know either. We made giant steps in the 20th C, but I feel like we're seeing diminishing returns now. From 1950 to 1970 cars advanced a lot, but from 2000 to 2020, they're still largely the same. (Sure, there's Teslas with highway autonomy, and some systems can handle an on-ramp, but "Mexico City" autonomy seems really far off.) Unless someone breaks Moore's Law, figures out general quantum computing or general AI, I think the next 30 years are going to look a lot like the last 10, but with more hurricanes and global migration.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by choeger on Friday July 16, 2021 @03:05AM (#27853704)
I think everyone has said this in every decade of the last century.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by vmladenov on Friday July 16, 2021 @03:31AM (#27853818)
It’s also not true. Cars are currently undergoing the single largest revolution since they were invented: electrification. Designs that people have been optimizing over a century are suddenly obviated and new challenges are taking their place.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by ericmay on Friday July 16, 2021 @07:49AM (#27855297)
True but the usage of cars themselves is the main problem. Electrification of cars helps, certainly, but we should be walking and biking, not driving. They’re more efficient, but we are still just using expensive energy to power them when we could just build better and not need them. Calories are cheaper than watts.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by spiralx on Friday July 16, 2021 @04:47AM (#27854234)
There are massive advances in subjects like materials and biotechnology happening now, they're just not big and flashy despite being at least as game-changing as any other major advance over the last century.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by Xplune13 on Friday July 16, 2021 @01:06AM (#27853192)
That is true, but basing a prediction model on the assumption that "technology will fix things, and someone will save us" is bad in my opinion.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by choeger on Friday July 16, 2021 @03:07AM (#27853710)
Huh? Solar power generation at scale is exactly such a thing. Wind power, too. Also hydroponics are a thing at the industrial scale now as is desalination of seawater. These are not magic bullets but they do fix a lot of things.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by Xplune13 on Friday July 16, 2021 @12:00PM (#27857677)
because we know how solar, wind works and that is "reality". Basing a model on some imaginary future technology that we don't know is possible or not shouldn't happen in my opinion. It is one thing to think or create different models with possible future technologies taken into it and other to be certain about that happening based on that imaginary technology.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by bmitc on Friday July 16, 2021 @12:32AM (#27853073)
How does new technology help these things exactly? Isn't technology, along with the discovery of coal and oil, a major contributor to the scaling of the human population and the effects of that? The vast industrialization over the past 150 has not been good for humanity or the planet.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by cjohnson318 on Friday July 16, 2021 @12:48AM (#27853116)
I think they generally mean: optimal and sustainable farming, abundant clean energy, and world leaders that can think more than two years ahead.
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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by bmitc on Friday July 16, 2021 @12:59AM (#27853163)
They specifically mentioned technological leaps, so that's what I went on, for better or worse.

I think clean energy will not by itself solve much. We need to reduce and reorganize at the same time as bringing on clean energy production, but that won't happen. Look at China, who is the world leader in clean energy production. I worry if fusion ever happens, people will just be like "great, electrical energy is free now", which won't be good.

I agree we need leaders thinking more than a few years ahead.

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Re:My take on the study from MIT that predicts “societal col... by jhoechtl on Friday July 16, 2021 @03:04AM (#27853699)
> and world leaders that can think more than two years ahead

They can do that. It's the electoral system which doesn't give an incentive to do so.

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