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JoshuaZ comments on Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI) - Less Wrong
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The remains of the prior civilization would provide quite a bit. Indeed, for some metals this would be even easier. Aluminum for example requires a lot of technology to refine, but if one has already refined aluminum lying around one can easily make things out of it. A more serious problem would be the substantial reduction in easily accessible coal and oil. The remaining fossil fuels require a lot more technology to access.
Yeah, this is one of the scarier future prospects I've heard kicking around. We can really only bootstrap an industrial civilization once, because the available energy simply isn't going to be there next time. We'd better get it right. Fortunately, we've done pretty well on that score thus far, but it's one of those lingering distant-future fears.