The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists

[sendler]

Bucky Fuller (As Craig Vetter calls him) had some great concepts. But most of our efficieny gains have already been realized. Tom Murphy estimates we could see another 30% eventually in the mid future.
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If we could get that done by 2050 when our energy consumption is predicted to double again, We would still need 14TW continuous average.
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Then there is also Jevon's paradox which shows that for every gain in efficiency, we tend to create a new gadget or service which we adopt in addition to what already have that increases our ebergy consumption even further.

[freebeard]

There is vast room for improvement, because we impose the Cartesian coordinate system on what Fuller called Nature's operational mathematics.

In its broadest sense synergetics is Fuller's hypothesized coordinate system of Universe --- both in its physical and metaphysical aspects. Fuller's system of epistemography and mathematical-physics attempts to disclose how Nature actually operates --- her "operational mathematics." Fuller claimed that synergetics could be understood by children (though they probably couldn't comprehend his books on the subject)...

From my own study of synergetics, I'm convinced that Bucky did in fact identify the coordinate system used by Nature. But I would add the caveat that he didn't get too far along in developing it. Fuller points to what the coordinate system is in broad strokes...

Tip to students of synergetics: Build models.

http://www.cjfearnley.com/fuller-faq-2.html

In addition Electric Universe and the Shawyer EM Drive point the way to order of magnitude improvements.

[niky]

I like the futurist bent this thread is taking, having not been in here for a week or so.

Originally Posted by freebeard

sendler —

Reproduction and demographics operate too slowly. What is needed is some refinement of intellect to lofty heights, but across the board. SF author David Brin would call it 'uplifting', but he focuses on chimpanzees and dolphins. How this might happen is concerning. Persusasion is Okay but mass hypnosis mind control is not. Brain implants?

Unfortunately, Brin evoked aliens to uplift us.

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One of the big concerns in charting the future of humanity is that while we have the massive energy and manpower resources needed to develop future technologies, we're splurging a lot of it on inconsequentials.

Not that enforcing an authoritarian grip on energy and manpower would get us there faster... a happy population is a productive one, but a lot of our excess energy use is simply used for stuff we don't need.

Full virtuality can't come soon enough.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by JockoT

Modern reactors will still cost Billions to decommission, which has to be added into the equation. And we all know the consequences if things go wrong,

The financial consequences are pretty similar to... one large hurricane.
But a lot rarer.

Japan nearly doubles Fukushima disaster-related cost to $188 billion
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...-idUSKBN13Y047

"National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates [Hurricane Katrina to have] cost about $160 billion in today’s dollars and resulted in 1,833 deaths.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...mes-close.html

Yes, there are other, scarier consequences from nuclear disasters, but... We cheerfully accept disasters on that financial scale all the time and rebuild the same buildings in the same places almost every time. There's nothing magically dangerous about nuclear disasters, and we do everyone a disservice by not pursuing it more.

[sendler]

And keep in mind these were primitive, experimental reactors. We will learn to do it much better if we allow progress in the designs.

[redpoint5]

I don't know if I said it in this thread or not, but we will have the opposite problem of under population in the future. This problem might even begin towards the end of my lifetime.

We currently massively subsidize children by basing welfare on the number of children a person has. The way I see it, if a person hasn't figured out how to support their children by providing adequate resources, they probably shouldn't be raising the children in the first place. Perhaps custody of the children should go to the state until the individual can demonstrate a minimum level of responsibility. I see the slippery slope this could take though, and generally believe that more government is usually the wrong solution. But why subsidize poor decisions?

VR is going to negatively affect population growth. Once men get hooked on VR porn, real women won't be as appealing anymore. I see this as a real threat to healthy relationships and steady population numbers.

Regarding Planned Parenthood; it was started by white racists as a way to reduce the black population. While the organization may not have this as a stated goal now, 40% of abortions are from black women, but black women only represent 13% of all women in the US. PP still promotes a barbaric practice that address the symptom of a problem (unwanted child) rather than focusing only on the problem itself (unwanted conception). People are right to be furious that their money is extracted by force from them to promote barbaric practices.

That said, I see the value of some of PP education and resources.

BTW- very off-topic, but the pull out method is as effective as condom use in preventing pregnancy. There is basically no reason that even the most unprepared sexual encounters results in conception.

[sendler]

We have an energy trap and also a population trap. Since the current economic model can only function with eternal growth, contemplating a reduction in population raises the same issue of collapsing economy as dwindling energy resources.

[sendler]

The 6th mass extinction event is already well underway. humans are causing it and will for the most part outsmart it for now (barring a meteor). At least as long as the fossil fuel holds out.

[freebeard]

Those extinctions area a hiccup. The Hindu Puranas describe cycles within cycles.

The smallest cycle is called a maha yuga. A maha yuga is 4,320,000 human years.

These build up into Barahma days, Brama years and a Brama Life.

At the end of the life of Brahma, all worlds are completely dissolved (mahapralaya). No one is reincarnated from these worlds ever again.

Sleep tight tonight.

[sendler]

A very interesting Prog Metal song I have admired for many years now takes on a fuller understanding as it applies dead on syllubus.
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https://youtu.be/sNPLaabTu24
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Tears escape from my eyes
As I'm reminded once again
Of the failure of our kind
We're closing up this shop for good
Since we plundered all that we could
What will it take for you to open up your squinting eyes

It's who we are
It's who we are

You can't own what you loan
A short time we've claimed this soil
Which really is no mans land
Time is short, we're running out
But not of ideas of how to squeeze out
The last drops of this borrowed world we call our own

It's who we are
Can't we accept and just go on?
It's who we are
We're trading of the breaking dawn

Unknowing you blend into the dough
Handing your votes to those who are thought of to know
What is left to say

It's sickening me how they're raking in
And couldn't care less as long as they win
It's sickening me when those who have it all
Elbows others to get some more
It's sickening that they'd rather rake the earth
And claim that they're just quenching out thirst
It's sickening how we choose to neglect
How it all unfolds

A vestigial prophecy
Of tomorrows floating orb of debris
A faded memory
Drained out it monument
The echoes of ashamed lament
Of what evolved from silent consent

As a phantom of the past
Holding the cast

As the shadow of a lucent moon
Burned out light years too soon
Benighted we fail to attune
This acheronian state, is it our fate
Way out of sight
Absorbed by night

An endless line
Running past the signs
Thus condoning the fall of all

Shadow of a lucent moon
Burned out light years too soon
Benighted we fail to attune
This acheronian state, is it our fate
Way out of sight
Absorbed by night

It's sickening me how we're wearing down
What is in our care to hand it on
It's sickening me how we fail to see
That all of this just ain't meant for you and me
Ain't meant for you and me