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Do you think that human technology will always be progressing?
Do you believe that human made machinery and technology will always be progressing? For example - do you believe that humans will one day have the technology and capability to teleport?
Or do you believe that human technology and machinery will regress and we will go backwards and live with the technology we had 250 years ago?
Granite_StateI couldn't find the larger version of this graph but I'll outline what each line means.
I was trying to be optimistic but you're right. My scenario was based on the idea that each country is currently producing enough food and water for its citizens which is not even close to reality.
I remember taking an ecology class in college and asking myself if the human population has already surpassed its carrying capacity. If so, we're headed towards a rapid decline in population. Looking at your graphs, I am remembering how fucked we really are.
Another thing to think about when talking about whether technology will continue to progress is petroleum production. This goes back to my first post about how we have a finite amount of resources available to us.
Looks like once we hit peak petroleum extraction, we're headed towards a decline in petroleum production which will obviously have a negative effect on technological advancements as well as almost every other aspect of our lives.
Granite_StateAlso, there's this beautiful thing in ecology called "carrying capacity". Maybe you've heard of it. When a species reaches its carrying capacity the population suddenly and drastically deceases until the ecosystem can once again sustain the species, or the species fully colapses and goes extinct. here is an example:
. These reindeer reached their carrying capacity, eating almost all available food on the island until it was scarce and the population was decimated.
Unfortunately for humans we are far above (almost 3 times) our carrying capacity thanks to technology. It takes .5 hectares of land for one person to suitably live off of. Most countries can only offer .25 AT THE MOST.
But thats not even the biggest problem. We are also directly affecting the food chain. The more species we cause to go extinct the more we fuck up the food chain. At some point we will reach a tipping point and there will be a major ecological collapse. Once again, a mathematical fact. China is a perfect model. They already have to regulate births per person to ensure they don't suffer a collapse.
The worst part is the majority of the world is incredibly ignorant to the population problem we have.
I actually do agree with you. The way I look at it, it will happen like this:
We have enough technology and machines right now to feed (most) of the world. As human population increases, we will rely on machines more and more (to harvest and transport food to cities, etc).
At a point in the future we will experience a limitation of technology and machines, (resource depletion, energy depletion, worldwide disaster, etc). After that there will be worldwide hunger, and many other problems. The ones who will be hit hardest are the ones in the cities, since they rely so much on food being transported into their areas. The ones most likely to live will be the people who live in the middle of nowhere/farmers/ranchers.
That's how and why I believe that technology and machinery will hit a plateau and regress. We have limitations to all of our inventions, they are not eternal.
.BenAnother thing to think about when talking about whether technology will continue to progress is petroleum production. This goes back to my first post about how we have a finite amount of resources available to us.
Looks like once we hit peak petroleum extraction, we're headed towards a decline in petroleum production which will obviously have a negative effect on technological advancements as well as almost every other aspect of our lives.
Didn't see this post. You're exactly right man. In America, especially, we rely so heavily on oil. Without oil our lives would change drastically..
But on a more serious note, a lot of futuristic technology is already developed but they don't want to release it to the public yet because humans are not ready for it. For example when the video phone came out in the 70/80s? it was a complete flop, but look at people now with facetime, snapchat, skype etc.
milk_manI actually do agree with you. The way I look at it, it will happen like this:
We have enough technology and machines right now to feed (most) of the world. As human population increases, we will rely on machines more and more (to harvest and transport food to cities, etc).
At a point in the future we will experience a limitation of technology and machines, (resource depletion, energy depletion, worldwide disaster, etc). After that there will be worldwide hunger, and many other problems. The ones who will be hit hardest are the ones in the cities, since they rely so much on food being transported into their areas. The ones most likely to live will be the people who live in the middle of nowhere/farmers/ranchers.
That's how and why I believe that technology and machinery will hit a plateau and regress. We have limitations to all of our inventions, they are not eternal.
Exactly. At some point we will just not be able to feed everyone. At least that is the most likely scenario. There are X amount of variables as well aka plague or global war etc. But I believe our downfall will be because of depleted resources.
Its also ironic you made that post because I just watched Interstellar and they seem to paint the same picture, our species numbers will decrease because lack of food (and food diversity which is even more important)
milk_manI actually do agree with you. The way I look at it, it will happen like this:
We have enough technology and machines right now to feed (most) of the world. As human population increases, we will rely on machines more and more (to harvest and transport food to cities, etc).
At a point in the future we will experience a limitation of technology and machines, (resource depletion, energy depletion, worldwide disaster, etc). After that there will be worldwide hunger, and many other problems. The ones who will be hit hardest are the ones in the cities, since they rely so much on food being transported into their areas. The ones most likely to live will be the people who live in the middle of nowhere/farmers/ranchers.
That's how and why I believe that technology and machinery will hit a plateau and regress. We have limitations to all of our inventions, they are not eternal.
But you're ignoring future advances in how we feed the people of the world. People throughout history have always said that worldwide hunger was a legitimate concern, and it was at the time. However, they failed to foresee advances in productivity. Today we have crops that produce more yield per acre than ever before. We have disease resistant crops. 3D printed food is slowly becoming a thing. I think that we have every reason to be concerned about the future of food, but technological advances will make sure the world's burgeoning population never goes hungry.
