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Re:Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits: a PLAN f... by adastra22 on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @10:51PM (#32934314)
Diamond-based molecular nanotechnology, combined with fusion and high efficiency solar as sources of power will make all of our technology and infrastructure carbon sinks. By the end of this century I expect we will be concerned about CO2 going too low and causing a glacial period.

PS Mercury is too far in-system to be that useful. It takes less energy to get to/from the outer planets than it does Mercury. The cold traps on the poles are interesting though--mercury potentially has all the raw material needed for a self-sufficient industrial colony.

Re:Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits: a PLAN f... by sidewndr46 on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @11:40PM (#32934562)
You have suggested in the same comment that somehow we will have nearly limitless carbon-negative energy but also that the amount of energy to get to Mercury is too high to make the trip worth it. This does not follow from the initial assumption.
Re:Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits: a PLAN f... by adastra22 on Thursday September 22, 2022 @12:15AM (#32934729)
Why spend X/kg to get something from mercury when you could spend 1/4 or 1/8 as much to get it from the asteroid belt?
Re:Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits: a PLAN f... by ben_w on Thursday September 22, 2022 @02:30AM (#32935408)
A lot more Mercury than sum of all asteroids. On the scale of "this century" this may only matter for von Neumann probes building a Dyson swarm, but that's not a 0% possibility and you did ask for a reason.
Re:Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits: a PLAN f... by Dylan16807 on Wednesday September 21, 2022 @11:26PM (#32934487)
We can just turn off the carbon sinks in that case, there's plenty of carbon around to grab off the ground. And release some methane if needed.
Re:Modernity is incompatible with planetary limits: a PLAN f... by ben_w on Thursday September 22, 2022 @02:34AM (#32935431)
Eh, if it's economical to have the sinks at that scale, we probably won't turn them off for the same reason we "could" turn the CO2 sources off but don't.