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Re: The Limits To Growth
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Subject: Re: The Limits To Growth
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From: jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy)
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Date: 15 Nov 1996 17:37:27 GMT
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Article: 15979 of alt.sustainable.agriculture
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In-reply-to: Alastair McKinstry's message of 15 Nov 1996 12:09:24 +0100
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Newsgroups: alt.agriculture.misc, alt.org.earth-first, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.greens, alt.save.the.earth, alt.sustainable.agriculture, sci.agriculture, sci.econ, sci.energy, sci.environment, talk.environment
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Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
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References: <542t7d$iep@rainbow.rmii.com> <32665F05.112@ilhawaii.net> <JMC.96Nov10090026@Steam.stanford.edu> <565ehv$qm9@agate.berkeley.edu> <01bbcf5b$bd8e1700$89d0d6cc@masher> <567f46$2prt@sat.ipp-garching.mpg.de> <56d2l3$k1q@agate.berkeley.edu> <56dm1s$cv@netnews.ntu.edu.tw> <JMC.96Nov13210117@Steam.stanford.edu> <jcbud0r6tq.fsf@kbhr.ilo.dec.com> <JMC.96Nov14091510@Steam.stanford.edu> <jc20dvbonv.fsf@kbhr.ilo.dec.com>
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Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
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Xref: newz.oit.unc.edu alt.agriculture.misc:6406 alt.org.earth-first:6626 alt.politics.economics:92514 alt.politics.greens:23513 alt.save.the.earth:25653 alt.sustainable.agriculture:15979 sci.agriculture:15890 sci.econ:60257 sci.energy:58067 sci.environment:111664 talk.environment:77059
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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