tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post7994374689677638296..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: Techno-utopia unravelling: Why complexity is no longer solving our problemsKurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-82318673490089764722022-01-19T22:06:12.896-05:002022-01-19T22:06:12.896-05:00I've been sensing this trend for some time. N...I've been sensing this trend for some time. Now it's much more apparent, thanks to the pandemic and our inadequate and sometimes misguided attempts to control it. Following the trend Kurt has described, we can expect some serious thought will be given to a global technological fix for global warming, like filling the upper atmosphere with droplets of sulfur dioxide to cool the planet. What will be the by-products of THAT activity?<br />We need another way of thinking that does not depend on the means that got us where we are now. That means is presently unknown to me, and I bet to you as well. Perhaps humans could be programmed from an early age to regard their primary function while alive is to insure the survival of our species and all the preservation of other creatures, resources and interactions between them on which the health of the whole planet depends. Who would have the wisdom and the power to do all that? - an omnipotent AI device? Who will program that, and maintain it properly? Perhaps there simply are way too many of us, too powerful for our own good. Or for the good of the planet, for that matter.<br /> Can we take comfort in the fact that before the beginnings of modern technology, the planet seemed to fare pretty well on its own?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16264272847043566284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-8329292600908006042022-01-16T12:33:38.045-05:002022-01-16T12:33:38.045-05:00How do we determine the maximum level of technolog...How do we determine the maximum level of technological and social complexity consistent with a sustainable society? I suspect that the key indicator is human population growth. If technology allows even a small amount of continuous increase in human population, it will grow to the point that it will eventually destroy the natural environment supporting that population.<br /><br />In looking at estimates of global population, it appears that a long-term trend of increasing population growth started about the time that the iron age began, roughly 1,000 BCE. The use of iron may have been the "tipping-point technology" that allowed population growth and social-technological complexity to continuously grow from that point on, eventually allowing the widespread use of fossil fuels and an extreme exponential growth in complexity and population growth.<br /><br />Early technologies, like fire, boats, glass, bricks, written language and bronze didn't cause any problems. Iron and steel were just too much. It may be that the incorporation of ferrous metals into agricultural tools, like plow-shares, may have allowed food production to increase too much and thereby support an increasing human population.Joe Clarksonnoreply@blogger.com