• AA5B@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    But you’re assuming the type of growth will never change.

    • population growth is not sustainable and we’re past that point, but knowledge growth is
    • resources growth is not sustainable and we’re past that point for many resources, but economies can grow independently of resources
    • Zacryon
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      5 months ago

      They literally said:

      Perpetual growth in a finite system is impossible

      I don’t see how your comment applies to that.

      Knowlegde growth may be sustainable, but it is also impossible to grow forever. (Supposing knowlegde is finite, which is, as far as I see it, the case as long as we make the definition of knowledge depend on characteristics like repition-free and new. For example, you could learn the number pi to even longer lenghts forever, but doing that is not necessarily something new to know as it’s just a manifestation of a repition which was already discovered.)

      I’m intrigued how you would explain that economies could grow independently of resources. From my perspective, it looks a lot like each and every form of economy relies somehow on some form of resource or resources. As resources are finite, economies can’t grow forever.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        There are already trends showing economic growth disconnected from both resources and energy. Welcome to the service economy

        • Zacryon
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          5 months ago

          Service needs workforce performing the service. Workforce are usually human resources. Thereby, limited again. Or did I get it wrong?

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            We already have many cases where a very small number of humans can manage automated services for millions. It’s extremely scalable

            While you could argue the electronics and power are also a resource dependency, it again scales extremely well