Essential questions I have, can you assist me?

Discussion in 'Economics' started by jsv416, Oct 14, 2008.

  1. No
    No
     
    #11     Oct 14, 2008
  2. btud

    btud

    Yes Gringinho, people making these kinds of projections seem to ignore technological progress. As we develop sustainable green techs, the "ecological footprint" of each individual will decrease. Also, even more people ignore the fact that all processes in nature are exponential. That is human population grows exponentially and the efficiency of resource utilisation grows also exponentially. In fossil energy case, there is a hard limit on the quantity it can be extracted. But there are resources in the universe which are almost limitless - example solar energy. The Sun radiate in 50 years the same amount of energy it radiates today, yet the amount of solar energy which will be used in productive purposes in 50 years will be overwhelmingly higher than today.
     
    #12     Oct 14, 2008
  3. ... and poor families have larger sizes in order to survive. I am baffled that you cannot see the consequences. Bill Gates talks about this as well many times in his work with his foundation.

    btud,
    efficacy is not exponential... and technology merely offsets the footprint, it doesn't remove it or nullify it. The impact of a highly leveraged population on Earth means that the system would become highly vulnerable and needed careful optimization, minute control - which would increase inherent population resistance, refusing communism and total collectivism. Therefore a moderate growth with stability and peace - in order to expand outwards - is what ultimately makes sense, reduces risk and is least painful, preserving personal freedom - and the most peaceful, quickest and most effective way ahead.

    Growth and evolution needs to meet a balance of factors, not over-levering one single factor or put all eggs in one basket. That is simply unsustainable, fragile and highly risk-taking.
     
    #13     Oct 14, 2008
  4. so the answer is educating the poor families and ending religious restrictions against birth control. the richer western nations are already at almost no growth birthrates.
    the numbers clearly show that the more educated and less religious a populace is the fewer babies they have.
     
    #14     Oct 14, 2008
  5. bbqbbq

    bbqbbq

    the richer people are, the less babies they will have. this is one of things in statistics. but that's easier said then done. look at the giant money streams going to africa, and still things arent getting better. Only a few countries which have non corrupt government like namibia and such. also psychology of people helps. If not for oil, middle east countries would still be very very poor because they dont let women work. because women dont work the country will be at least a third less productive and poorer. also if country has no education, chances of it getting less babies is almost nil would say.
     
    #15     Oct 14, 2008
  6. Yes, that I agree on. :)
    But like with everything - the balance of this is very difficult to ensure. The perceived imbalances, opportunities and bias will make humans want to attain more. If society was entirely "altruistic" as providing everyone with good education, security, equal wealth, and they accepting this - then we would be living under a total collectivist system - Communism. As we know - "human error" in systems produces bias and corruption, because we "think" - are greedy, unjust, subjective, ignorant, varying etc.

    Therefore we should not suppress the potential and freedom that every individual seeks, but rather understand society and the world system as a whole... and how we can develop further. Diversity and individuality is the strength of evolution. That is why simply educating and enriching people in an attempt to "suppress evolution" or humans expanding is really just utopia - we need to continue to evolve - because we cannot stop evolution and we need to understand how to make our progress sustainable.

    Unless we pace technology and knowledge to keep up with human expansion, evolution and consumption - then we will see setbacks where scarcity of resources will ensue... understanding how evolution works is crucial for "an unlimited future." Ultimately it means that humans dominate other systems - and unless we keep the pace up to do this - we will start turning on ourselves because of competition and scarcity. This goes for any system of reality which is expanding, growing. They need sustainable, intelligent growth - preferably in consent with others as part of a system's surroundings (other systems). A system is just the view or understanding of it - the entities, processes, relations and interactions... it is not reality or nature itself - just (a temporary snapshot of) an intersection for understanding reality.
     
    #16     Oct 14, 2008
  7. raw evolution has a way of decimating species when they outgrow their resource base. do we want to go down that road or is it better to use our ability to think to head off such an outcome?
     
    #17     Oct 14, 2008
  8. And that is called "sustainable development" - being consciously aware, reasoning and planning with a full understanding.
    As knowledge is never perfect, it means continuously adapting and improving information as well as understanding.
    I.e the systems views need revising - because reality is constantly evolving - and we can never "capture it all" in our understanding or information gathering.
     
    #18     Oct 14, 2008
  9. Take a good geology course; then take a criuse from the equator to a pole and back. Would you like to see the photos of salient stuff?
     
    #19     Oct 14, 2008
  10. heypa

    heypa

    I don't think that humans are any smarter than a bunch of yeast spores put into a gallon jar of sugar water. The result will be the same. Cessation of all activity caused by uncontrolled growth.
     
    #20     Oct 14, 2008