Do you think we will be able to meet the energy needs of the Earth's increasing population before mining in space becomes economical? If not, what happens to humanity? Discuss

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Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:25:00 2012 No.5067291 [Reply] [Original]

Do you think we will be able to meet the energy needs of the Earth's increasing population before mining in space becomes economical? If not, what happens to humanity?

Discuss

Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:28:00 2012 No.5067296

Without fossil fuels and no appreciable uranium reserves left, over time, we will slowly decay culturally and intellectually until we are once again cavemen. We will eventually go extinct. Maybe a few billion years down the road (before the Sun blows up), there will be enough fossil fuels to support the rise of a new intelligent race on our planet... perhaps some descendants of ours provided we did not go extinct. They will live for a little while until they to suffer our inevitable fate.

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:30:44 2012 No.5067303 We need to switch to the large scale use of batteries, and make space mining a top priority. We are going to pass peak oil soon if we haven't already. Ideally, we shouldn't be so reliant on fossil-fuels right now, but we are thanks mostly to America

Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:34:14 2012 No.5067313

There's going to be a hell of a bottleneck coming as fossil fuels run down.

How well we come out the other side will depend on what kinds of technology we develop in the next 5-10 years.

Me, I'm crossing my fingers that this hint of room temperature superconductors turns out to be something real. That would make me feel a lot better.

Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:40:14 2012 No.5067327
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>space mining

The wealthiest country in the world can't even keep its space program funded, and OP is thinking about space mining.

Please go back to playing Mass Effect and leave /sci/ forever.

Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:41:14 2012 No.5067329

Energy probably (with fusion power) but there is no way we will be able to maintain the quality of life we are used to. Humans are to arrogant to control our own population. The quality of life 200 years from now is going to be pure shit and there is nothing we can do to change that

>>	Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:45:00 2012 No.5067339 >>5067327 You remind me of that Sheldon guy from that one Big Bang sitcom. Can't detect sarcasm?

Anonymous Mon Sep 17 21:55:30 2012 No.5067361

>>5067329
If we genuinely developed breakeven fusion power we'd be in much better shape. It's the fact that we don't have it that's the cause of my worry. We need enough energy not only to generate electricity, but to generate liquid fuels to replace at least SOME of our petroleum use. Q>1 fusion, fission, advanced solar power could do it, but I wonder if we'll get it done in time.

The way we live right now is going to change in the future, for good or ill. The next decade is very very crucial.

>>	valjean !!4SOyPF0IuOv Mon Sep 17 22:04:14 2012 No.5067378 >cue LaFTeR

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