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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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