Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> The much bigger question, though, has less to do with these emergent upstarts in our informational world and more to do with humanity’s overall trajectory. Any species that endlessly grows, and continually invents energy-hungry processes, may not be destined for a happy ending.

Unless energy consumptive processes lead you off-world for more resources. I'm surprised that the author, an astrobiologist, doesn't see a more open ended future.



Too bad we don't live in sci-fi land. Crypto is burning resources here and now as we already face a climate catastrophe and drag our heels in replacing fossils with renewables.

There's currently no pressure to drive anyone "off-world" for more resources. "Off-world" is not only completely speculative and untested but also prohibitively expensive. Even if we could solve all the technological problems overnight simply by thinking really hard and running simulations (and that's a ludicrous assumption for any time scale), it would still be extremely resource and labor intensive to build the necessary infrastructure to actually implement it. In other words it would require burning more resources, creating more pollution and damaging the climate even more during an ongoing climate disaster.

And then what? Asteroid mining? This would solve resource scarcity but not actually help the climate. Sure, lithium and precious metals are cost factors when producing batteries but you still need to transport those resources back to Earth and refine them. All of this is still extremely energy and resource intensive and creates pollution.

No, an astrobiologist with a good head on their shoulders probably isn't naively pursuing some speculative VC promises of a high-tech future with off-world carbon capture and space elevators. They're probably more concerned with the one world we have not totally going to shit in the next few decades.


> There's currently no pressure to drive anyone "off-world" for more resources. "Off-world" is not only completely speculative and untested but also prohibitively expensive.

Well, good thing people are making it cheaper now. The people who don't think it's possible will benefit from that eventually despite their grumbling. It's the way of the world. Endless cycles of laughing at Colombus and then enjoying imported tea.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: