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Re: The Limits To Growth
Alastair McKinstry includes:
True, but missing my point. My point is we should measure
efficiency of a process in terms of energy usage, this being
a fixed size resource that we cannot avoid using. Measuring
in terms of labor efficiency (which can be varied depending
on the technology used) or money hides the true costs of the
food production.
Here is our fundamental difference. In fact there is as much energy
available as mankind is likely to want. Bernard Cohen has calculated
that the uranium from the sea at reasonable extraction costs can
supply humanity for 5 billion years. See
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/cohen.html
for an account of his calculations.
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/
During the last years of the Second Millenium, the Earthmen complained
a lot.
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