David_Gerard comments on Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist [link] - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (20)
Of course, there's an economist with two degrees in physics just over there ... I believe he's opined "I know of no law limiting economic value per atom".
Right, but he's also expressed scepticism that you could produce arbitrarily high value per atom. Ah, found the link and it was in the context of the number of people-equivalents worth of value we could produce per atom:
Ah, thanks for that - I just remembered the pithy soundbite.
I find myself somewhat confused then, because my recollection is that he has consistently argued that economic growth will not be able to continue indefinitely, and that from some point in the future for the vast remaining part of human history we will be living in a static society.
As I remember, Robin argued that we will be living in a Malthusian society, not a static one. In a Malthusian society, population growth keeps the per capita resources at a subsistence level, but the overall society continues to grow.