[ExI] Gigideath was aboriginal humans

[hkhenson]

I wonder if anyone can make a good argument against this thesis.

Humans effectively eat oil.  The huge growth in the population has 
come at the expense of many calories of fossil energy used for 
irrigating, plowing, fertilizing and transporting food.  An 
interesting metric is that it takes a thousand tons of water to grow 
a ton of grain.

How we got to this condition is a really interesting subject, I can't 
recommend Dr. Clark's work highly enough, particularly his "obvious 
in retrospect" comments on diminishing returns.

But the near term consequences are an even more interesting 
topic.  We are all keenly aware of peak oil.  Now New Scientist (Jan 
19-25) has an article that makes the case for peak coal in a 
relatively short time span (25 years).

Unless a major new source of energy is brought on line in the next 
few decades, there is going to be one heck of a die off, ultimately 
because there are just too many people for the resources available, 
particularly energy.

Of course the singularity (nanotech and AI) throws a spanner into 
predicting anything out that far.  However if it fails to come 
through in time, there is going to be one heck of a die off with 
attendant problems for the ones who live through these times.

As some of you know, I have been working on a pre singularity 
solution to the energy problems (power sats).  Unfortunately, my 
efforts are not likely to accomplish much.

Keith