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Re:50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn ... by orwin on Friday September 02, 2022 @02:50AM (#32687422)
Technology can only improve our productivity so much. I'd argue that the last time technology really improved our productivity was in the mid 70s to early 80s, with the nuclear push and real improvement in efficiency of Carnot machines, with another wave in the 90s whis some of those improvement reaching the smaller models (IE car motors).

All the rest of our productivity growth is only energy usage.

Re:50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn ... by imtringued on Friday September 02, 2022 @03:16AM (#32687616)
Most of our growth was population growth assuming the country in question was able to overcome structural problems that keep developing countries poor. If every human couple has three children growth is infinite, if you count economic activity of the offspring as economic demand of the parent then suddenly human wants and needs are infinite.

Isn't it strange that we are massaging everything to fit the axioms which are starting to sound more and more like religious beliefs and anyone who is making inconvenient statements is called a heretic?

If you tell the longtermists about the population shrinking then their galaxy conquest plans no longer become the obvious conclusion of humanity but rather just a preferred vision of the future for a bunch of people who want to elevate themselves.