khafra comments on Politicians stymie human colonization of space to save make-work jobs - Less Wrong
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A cursory googling for "peak rare earth metals" yields a likely affirmative response. Hafnium, Iridium, neodymium, lathanum, cerium, and several others are both necessary for modern electronics and/or EVs, and rapidly diminishing. Barring societal collapse or a new technological revolution on the scale of transistors, we'll probably want to go out and get more within the century--and that's not even including the advantage of avoiding the deletorious effects of mining on Earth.