07-30-2016, 09:16 AM
GeekSpeak – Resource Wars! Saturday, July 30th at Noon SLT
There are some resources on the planet, such as coltan or neodymium, that are very important to us but are only found in a few places. For instance, neodymium is found only in China. What will happen if we run out of these resources? Will the countries where they are mined always be willing to share? Will we go to war?
Or will the lack of resources lead to new inventions? For example, if there is no copper will we be forced to start developing carbon circuits in a big way?
What about material that cannot be found anywhere on earth, like He-3, or material that gets lost in space, like helium? We cannot go to war for that so how do we get new stockpiles of it?
What would a future without all these resources look like? Are we heading for a low technology future? Stone tools again? Or will it not go quite that far? Bring your thinking hats to GeekSpeak.
[To see links please register here]
There are some resources on the planet, such as coltan or neodymium, that are very important to us but are only found in a few places. For instance, neodymium is found only in China. What will happen if we run out of these resources? Will the countries where they are mined always be willing to share? Will we go to war?
Or will the lack of resources lead to new inventions? For example, if there is no copper will we be forced to start developing carbon circuits in a big way?
What about material that cannot be found anywhere on earth, like He-3, or material that gets lost in space, like helium? We cannot go to war for that so how do we get new stockpiles of it?
What would a future without all these resources look like? Are we heading for a low technology future? Stone tools again? Or will it not go quite that far? Bring your thinking hats to GeekSpeak.
[To see links please register here]