In 1938 Buckminster Fuller observed that technology enabled us to do,
"..more and more with less and less until eventually we can do everything with nothing,"
This process is called ‘Ephemeralization’
A glance at the screen of your phone shows the carnage of once huge physical industries. The abstraction of millions of products onto our devices in the form of ‘Apps’ accommodating the desires of billions in an entirely sustainable fashion.
Film & Camera Photo albums Music player Baby monitors Spirit levels
Do we need to grow economically? ("Yes" I hear you all shouting "You silly person").
Can't we grow culturally, push the limits of our minds, bodies, our creativity? Instead of looking beyond Earth to exploit and extract, can we not fully explore ourselves? I think we humans can be so much better, the world can be fairer. Now I hear you shout "Sharon. What planet are you living on?"
I think there's a difference between the personal and the species-wide answers to that. On a personal basis, I know you're right (and you know I know you're right) - its likely that beyond a certain level of material security, 'growth' becomes, at the best, unsatisfying, and then you're best to look within. But the problem is that most of humanity is not at that level, and never has been. For them, 'growth' means not senseless consumption, but physical and emotional security. I've seen plenty of grinding poverty, and it is not a virtue and it does not give birth to virtue. Quite the opposite.
So yes, I think humanity 'needs' economic growth, and I think on a net basis, this will be a moral and ethical gain. If to avoid its ending, and the return to a basically static, entropic world and vision of humanity, I've got to get into bed with the tech-bros, well, I'll do it. Knowingly.
But of course, I might be mistaken and wrong. My Quaker friends, who value simplicity of life, would surely tell me so.
So pleased you’re writing these again, Michael. I enjoy them immensely.
Although I have the same worries about space-based solar panels as all of Milliband’s wind turbines in the North Sea - someone will bomb them and then it’ll be terribly cold and dark.
My understanding is that the space-based power plants are projected to be a long way away - about 22,000 kls from earth. So probably quite hard to bomb.
In 1938 Buckminster Fuller observed that technology enabled us to do,
"..more and more with less and less until eventually we can do everything with nothing,"
This process is called ‘Ephemeralization’
A glance at the screen of your phone shows the carnage of once huge physical industries. The abstraction of millions of products onto our devices in the form of ‘Apps’ accommodating the desires of billions in an entirely sustainable fashion.
Film & Camera Photo albums Music player Baby monitors Spirit levels
Newspapers Magazines Stop watches Filing cabinets Compasses
Calculators Calendars Security camera Bar code readers Share trading
Wallets TV’s, Cinemas Medical records Telephones
Parking meters Dictaphones, Games consoles Records/DVD/CD’s Banks
Radios Phone books Magazines Magnifying glasses Maps
Do we need to grow economically? ("Yes" I hear you all shouting "You silly person").
Can't we grow culturally, push the limits of our minds, bodies, our creativity? Instead of looking beyond Earth to exploit and extract, can we not fully explore ourselves? I think we humans can be so much better, the world can be fairer. Now I hear you shout "Sharon. What planet are you living on?"
I think there's a difference between the personal and the species-wide answers to that. On a personal basis, I know you're right (and you know I know you're right) - its likely that beyond a certain level of material security, 'growth' becomes, at the best, unsatisfying, and then you're best to look within. But the problem is that most of humanity is not at that level, and never has been. For them, 'growth' means not senseless consumption, but physical and emotional security. I've seen plenty of grinding poverty, and it is not a virtue and it does not give birth to virtue. Quite the opposite.
So yes, I think humanity 'needs' economic growth, and I think on a net basis, this will be a moral and ethical gain. If to avoid its ending, and the return to a basically static, entropic world and vision of humanity, I've got to get into bed with the tech-bros, well, I'll do it. Knowingly.
But of course, I might be mistaken and wrong. My Quaker friends, who value simplicity of life, would surely tell me so.
So pleased you’re writing these again, Michael. I enjoy them immensely.
Although I have the same worries about space-based solar panels as all of Milliband’s wind turbines in the North Sea - someone will bomb them and then it’ll be terribly cold and dark.
My understanding is that the space-based power plants are projected to be a long way away - about 22,000 kls from earth. So probably quite hard to bomb.