On Sep 17, 2008, at 2:46 AM, Wayne Eddy wrote: > From: "Bruce Bostwick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> The fact that deciding which of the existing 6-7 billion should be >> allowed to live is an extremely thorny ethical and moral question >> (and >> one I wouldn't even begin to be qualified to answer) doesn't take >> away >> from the fact that a population of 6-7 billion is far in excess of >> what this planet appears to be able to support on a sustainable >> basis, >> nor does it address the problem that the moment anything improves on >> the supply side, the population immediately accelerates growth to >> more >> than wipe out those gains on the demand side. (In other words, >> saying >> it's a potentially insoluble problem doesn't make the problem go >> away.) > > Lets hope that that technology will eventually enable 6-7 billion > humans to > exist on Earth on a sustainable basis. > Mind you, I think we should be ambitous and work towards a > population of > 20-100 billion plus near immortal humans, living in stimulating > artifical > environments in underground arcologies, with say 5-10% of the earths > land > surface built over, and the remainder left as or reverted to natural > environment. We should be trying for fusion power, and biological > and nano > machines that recycle everything, etc. etc. We should be trying for a > technological utopia, and not giving up and dreaming of reverting > back to a > non-existant preindustrial golden age. > > Regards, > > Wayne Eddy. > > Where is the Science Fiction spirit in you lot? Maru.
As soon as we have a next-generation energy source to replace our current petroleum-based energy economy, and fusion is probably the best horse to bet on in that race, that "science fiction" future comes within reach, and you'll have more "science fiction spirit" around you than you'll know what to do with, trust me. :D Energy is everything, and the "science fiction" future is energy-intensive to say the least. Not that I wouldn't want to live in it, just that it requires an order of magnitude more energy expenditure per capita than we're capable of even now .. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
