Posted on 09/29/2005 2:21:03 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
use your brain for a moment.
what is all food production dependent upon? photosynthesis.
what is photosynthesis dependent upon? energy input from the sun.
there is a finite amount of surface area on the Earth.
There is a finite amount of solar radiation impinging upon that surface.
assume humanity develops a method to convert all such sunlight striking all that surface area into the basics of foodstuffs, with 100% efficiency.
this is the absolute hard ceiling.
the fact that there is no way we shall ever approach 100% photosynthetic efficiency, 100% surface-area usage, and have requirements for energy other than food production sets a much lower PRACTICAL hard ceiling, but I don't have all the factors available to make a rough table of factors for you.
That aside, again: use your brain - there IS an absolute hard ceiling which our technical prowess can do nothing to exceed. Factor that in when fantasizing about infinite technical innovations.
some depths surpass my ability to plumb
Just a question, Joe: all this Christian Wehrmacxht, armed to the teeth, disagreed with SS and could not do anything? Not during the war, not before it, when synagogues were burning and Jews were deported. According to you, all they heard about the inferiority of Jews, Roma, Slavs, etc. --- all this was against their Christian beliefs, and they simply were powerless to stand up against a few SS thugs?
No, my friend, it is the CURRENT methods of food production that depend on photosynthesis.
very good - at least SOMEONE got it.
as a pragmatic matter, there shall be a hard ceiling when we get to the point of maxing out the amount of energy conversion out technologies can squeeze out of photosynthesis and the arable lands and shallow waters between 65N and 65S... if we make it to that point before running dry on the energy sources our logistical chain and industrial agriculture rely on.
sooner or later, we are going to faceplant in the brick wall, especially if we delude ourselves about technology being able to surpass all hurdles.
Some did try to kill Hitler but failed.
yes, true - as does our oxygen supply.
there is no energy source competitive with the sun for food production. or air production.
nukes don't come close.
can you conceive of a power source more potent and durable than nukes, which can be operated within the environment?
or are you the ghost of Geordi LaForge, postulating the development of molecular "replicators"? If so, what would they run on? Tinfoil?
Here is the weak point in your stance. It is true, if by Christianity you mean the spirit of what Christ said, that Nazism is incompatible with Christianity. The question is, why so many Christians --- in the country that was the apex of Western civilization at the turn of the century --- could not deduce that?
A related question, from a different era, is, if expulsions of Jews, pogroms and other persecutions (and against the Roma to the same degree) are against Christianity, can you name ONE case where the Church has said so (until a few decades ago)?
So, it is an intellectually convenient escape to say that when Christian commit horrible acts that other Christians subsequently abhor that those acts were non-Christian. When Crusaders go to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims and on the way "liberate" Europe from the presence of Jews wherever they can, why are so many of these Christians are so confused about the essence of Christianity?
When Isabella gets rid of all Jews and Roma in Spain, the Christian public not only fails to condemn her but thenceforth endows her with the name Isabella the Catholic. If all those actions are non-Christian, Why so many Christians fail to see this simple fact for centuries?
You still don't get the point: how do you know that food would not be simply synthesized from other materials? And, how do you know that its production will not be confined to Earth? We are not even sure that the Universe is finite, for crying out loud.
Joe, you are smarter than that; you know perfectly well what I mean: those that did not kill themselves accepted and sympathized with those actions.
It was not hard to "get" from the start what YOU meant. It appears, however, that you still don't get it that your conclusion is unfounded and cannot be given a foundation.
hrmn...
IQ test for you:
"IS" is the third-person present tense form of the verb "to be"
True or False?
use it in a sentence: there IS a hard ceiling for food production.
again: use your brain.
It all depends on what the definition of "is" is.
Ping.
Thanks. I've been aware of this thread.
If you come across any science/crevo threads, could you drop me a ping? I'd appreciate it mightily.
there'll be pie... in the sky... by and by...
I "know that" the same way I know that we will not develop antigravity or inertialess drives or matter-transmission in the next 100 years, that Louis Farrakan's mothership will not stop by to set thing straight and kill all the whities, that little gray bastards from Beta Reguli will not swing by and give us terraforming technology and fast interplanetary logistics in payback for all the cheap proctology training we've "given" them, that Gene Roddenberry will not rise from the grave and give us detailed production specs for antimatter reactors and food replicators...
I know all this in exactly the same way I know food production will not undergo so dramatic a paradigm shift as you are pinning your fantasies on: I do not.
I do, however, know that the odds of any of these things happening are exceptionally slim, far FAR less likely that we shall shortly run out of cheap energy (for the requisite production and logistics) while the population continues to grow by a billion a decade.
Right.
I would have liked to have been there, during that interview... so I could have bitch-slapped Bubba for attempting that dodge.
It is called history, as in His Story.......
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