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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2500 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 21, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Incorrect - the "running out" of resources means that we will have completely shifted the Earth's climate and seen immense changes to global temperatures and environments. The environmental damage is only just goin to get started when that happens, and the human infrastructure damage will be immense. Every single port city is going to be underwater and new ports will have to be constructed. Shifts in climate means that the areas which receive rain and the areas which are habitable for humans are going to be very different to what they were in the past - which is going to be a big problem, given that our farms and other infrastructure are located in places where they are most efficient right now, as opposed to the world we're going to be living in once all that carbon is back in the atmosphere. Not to mention the terrible weather events we'll get during the transition - and which are already starting to show up.

All I hear is "very slow process with ample time to adjust".

We're talking about time frames in which humanity went from inventing electricity to landing on the moon. Time frames in which the world population multiplied several times over. Time frames in which humanity survived economic depressions, world wars and a cold war, and the invention of several novel types of superstimulus. And in such a time frame, we'll have to...move agricultural production to new areas, possibly plant different crops in old agricultural areas, and account for a few centimeters of sea level rise when we inevitably have to do maintenance on infrastructure anyways. Some people will need to adjust to more or less wind than previously. More or less rain than previously. Different temperatures. Over a time-span of multiple generations of humans. OK. I'm very confident that we will manage to deal with this. I'd bet money on it if I expected to be able to collect my winnings at the end of the century.

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