[lovemenot]

>> we'll need to consume vastly more energy if we want to make people richer, healthier and happier

I have frequently heard this argument made - often as here axiomatically.

No argument that changing energy sources is crucial. But I would not dismiss a plan to also reduce overall energy consumption while maintaining or improving quality of life indicators.

[LewisVerstappen]

> I have frequently heard this argument made - often as here axiomatically.

Okay, you're dismissing the argument without proposing any counter arguments.

J. Storrs Hall lays out the case for the relationship between energy usage & quality of life.

What are your specific rebuttals?

[lovemenot]

It is not self-evident to me that QoL improvements are necessarily driven by increased energy consumption. Not having read J. Storrs Hall, I do not have any specific rebuttals to that.

When I have heard such assertions before, I dug a little and found it was based on extrapolation. Sorry, if that isn't implicit in yours or J. Storrs Hall's thinking.

Ultimately, any system that seems to grow exponentially will eventually be found to have been on an S-Curve. We can argue the timing of reaching the plateau after the fact, but it is certain that no system can continue to grow exponentially indefinitely. Nor should it have to.

Global human population for instance should start to reverse centuries of growth this century. In the case of population flattening, perhaps we can agree this is to the good. I would argue much the same about energy consumption.

[lovemenot]

I just looked at J. Storrs Hall page on Wikipedia and saw Kurzweil in the References there.

Would it be fair to call J. Storrs Hall a Singularitarian ? If so, it figures. We can argue the merits of such arguments, but it is a reach to state them axiomatically.

[palata]

Not the OP, but fossil fuels are not unlimited, until now we don't have anything close to them, and anyway more energy consumption tends to go with more loss of habitat (talking biodiversity).

I think there is a case to make about reducing energy consumption.