CCGroup post 2/12/09
responding to Alex:
Phil, I liked your coded message. You mean a threshold like ‘peak oil’? Or the peak carrying capacity of the earth in terms of population? The question is, how do you propose to reduce demand? Right now, governments are doing their damnedest to stimulate demand to save the global economy from implosion. You’re saying let’s reduce demand. How? How is this going to work? Asking a question for which there’s no answer is probably a good way to get no answer.
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Alex,
Thanks very much. My usual worry is not leaving people with questions, but getting none in return. Whether any answer about the future is more than half an answer, after all, depends on what question you ask. The best available answer to what “people want to know” is often only speculation.
Yes, “being able to see thresholds before crossing them” would apply to “peak oil” and to the carrying capacities of things. For example, the rate at which a scalar peak like “peak oil” is approaching is visible in the derivative rate long before. Continue reading Getting peeks at the the coming peaks