Simulation

As I was reading a bedtime story the other night, William interrupted me to ask if we too are living in a fairy tale. Caught a bit off guard, I answered that it may be so but that I personally do not think so. Realizing that dissecting the simulation hypothesis may not be the best bedtime activity for a five-year-old, it is still fascinating how a young child can be so much better in asking the important questions than all those professors of “sustainability”.

Today, I again found myself tempted to comment on some LinkedIn piece. For all its apparent flaws, Michael Moore’s new film Planet of the Humans at least correctly depicts the inherent fossil fuel dependency of renewables and why any realistic 100% renewable vision of the future would have to be one of comprehensive degrowth and depopulation.

Readers familiar with this blog know that I strongly oppose such a future. Not only do I find it politically unfeasible, I also find a return to permanent agrarian poverty on a climate-ravaged planet to be such a sad ending to the human enterprise. As a species, we have within us to achieve truly marvellous things within the coming century and, while the risks may be great, they surely are worth taking if the alternative is cosmic oblivion.