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Post by davidm on Aug 9, 2012 9:22:12 GMT 9.5
Anon, you think the future is simply an extrapolation of the recent past, which itself is only a blip in our longer history. If and when things break down it is the small local approaches that will step up. Sailing is right at the heart of local solutions, with skill sets widely in place or easy to develop and generally is environmentally friendly. Everything isn't reduceable to concentrated energy output. The sun directly or indirectly remains our most reliable and easily accessible energy source and integrates well into community life.
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Post by anonposter on Aug 9, 2012 9:45:56 GMT 9.5
Anon, you think the future is simply an extrapolation of the recent past, which itself is only a blip in our longer history. If it's not then we're screwed. For you see, our longer history is one of suffering, of barely eeking out a miserable existence, of famines, short lives, lots of children dying before they grew up, etc. If we are to avoid going back to that (which a small minority wants for everyone) then we're going to have to continue the recent 'blip' and ensure it becomes the normal state of affairs for our species (once we've got self-sufficient space settlements we'll have pretty much done it). If and when things break down it is the small local approaches that will step up. But if we rely only on the small local approaches we will go extinct, it is only by increasing the scale of our civilisation, first to the current global civilisation, and then off-world that we will avoid extinction. How long we can last is an open question, but we can not rule out the answer of forever. Sailing is right at the heart of local solutions, Except when you need materials from elsewhere. Everything isn't reduceable to concentrated energy output. No, but energy is the ability to do work. The sun directly or indirectly remains our most reliable and easily accessible energy source and integrates well into community life. If that were true we wouldn't have switched to better sources in the first place (and yes, I do think fossil fuels are better than renewable energy).
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