DoubtingThomas wrote:Exactly! and if we increase our health spans we are probably going to live longer too.
Sure. So far what has been done is to increase life span's by dealing with common health problems like cancers and such, but in the future it may involve genetic manipulations allowing for longer life spans. This of course will have major ramifications.
The research is not getting the attention it deserves. Most Americans only care about guns and religion.
I agree that more resources should be put into scientific research instead of wasting resources on so many other things.
Maksutov wrote:If we're going to do life extension then we'd better start colonizing the galaxy. There won't be room here for long.
How long? And are we assuming a static condition with all currently known life supporting systems? (e.g. the paradigm shift caused by food refrigeration and freezing)
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
Maksutov wrote:If we're going to do life extension then we'd better start colonizing the galaxy. There won't be room here for long.
How long? And are we assuming a static condition with all currently known life supporting systems? (e.g. the paradigm shift caused by food refrigeration and freezing)
If you reach a point where you cannot produce enough food to supply the basic needs of the population, how does refrigerating or freezing it help?
canpakes wrote:If you reach a point where you cannot produce enough food to supply the basic needs of the population, how does refrigerating or freezing it help?
Refrigeration has allowed us to keep food from going bad for longer allowing for less wasted food, although modern populations tend to be more wasteful then those of the past. Freezing can really help store certain foods for times when they are not available like frozen fruits, allowing healthier and more food for hard times. Subby seems to be bringing how many people can live on the earth now without starving as well as technological advances that have allowed for more food production. It's far too complicated to answer how many more people we can accommodate with sufficient food and nutrition, but we should be concerned about. Especially since we are changing our environment on a massive scale which could majorly degrade our environment and ability to grow enough food.
canpakes wrote:If you reach a point where you cannot produce enough food to supply the basic needs of the population, how does refrigerating or freezing it help?
Refrigeration has allowed us to keep food from going bad for longer allowing for less wasted food, although modern populations tend to be more wasteful then those of the past. Freezing can really help store certain foods for times when they are not available like frozen fruits, allowing healthier and more food for hard times.
Of course. But I’m playing off of sub’s specific comment about refrigeration somehow advancing in some way that compensates for needing to feed more folks. At a certain point, it becomes a question of being able to produce enough food to feed the population. If absolute production begins to lag absolute consumption needs, then building a better fridge won’t matter. Infinite freezing capacity is meaningless if the food can not be spared for freezing for any length of time past transportation if it is needed immmediately to meet the needs of the population.
canpakes wrote:Of course. But I’m playing off of sub’s specific comment about refrigeration somehow advancing in some way that compensates for needing to feed more folks. At a certain point, it becomes a question of being able to produce enough food to feed the population. If absolute production begins to lag absolute consumption needs, then building a better fridge won’t matter. Infinite freezing capacity is meaningless if the food can not be spared for freezing for any length of time past transportation if it is needed immmediately to meet the needs of the population.
Keep in mind refrigeration was just an example of technological changes in food production and storage that subby gave. He was trying to be subtle and suggest future technological changes will allow us to feed ever increasing populations. While future technological changes will probably increase our ability to grow food under current environmental conditions, we don't know if the changes in technology can keep up with the increasing population, and especially whether the environmental degradation we are currently doing to the earth could significantly degrade our ability to produce food.