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Comment by mattferderer | Hacker News Reader

Some bright spots:

Solar & wind are getting cheaper & more common

AR & VR will hopefully decrease travel

Lots of research going on in creating beef in labs instead of fields to reduce the over abundance of cattle

Medical Marijuana is becoming legal in just about every state in the USA. One nice side effect I'm hoping for is that it's price & method of growing will help improve technology & lower costs for growing plants indoors.

Several prototypes are being tested to do more precise fertilization of land & use either small robots, lasers or other methods to control weeds & specific pests on crops. Reducing fertilizer waste into waters & getting rid of pesticides is a huge win.

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Most of what you said is relevant and correct, but:

>Medical Marijuana is becoming legal in just about every state in the USA.

Feel like this was just thrown in there. I don't see how wasting millions of gallons of water on a useless plant is representative of the human population taking sacrifices to luxuries in order to prolong the life of the planet. In fact - it sounds like quite the opposite.

>AR & VR will hopefully decrease travel

"Hey boss can I take a week off next month for travel?"

"Sure bud where ya going?"

"google.com/images" - said nobody... ever.

The point made about marijuana was more focused on the process of indoor agriculture than the plant itself. However, I also think calling it a "useless plant" is an overstatement considering the proven medical benefits of CBD.

Also I don't know if the AR/VR comment was about traveling for luxury. I read it as travel in general, like a lot more people would be able to work remotely if they could just appear at work through VR. Or instead of needing to take a flight for a business meeting in Hong Kong you could potentially strap on a headset and virtually tour a factory overseas.

> I don't see how wasting millions of gallons of water on a useless plant

You're starting from a flawed premise. Marijuana obviously has uses, claiming it doesn't takes a Trump-level ability of ignoring reality.

Medical marijuana to my knowledge is typically grown in a hydroponic system indoors. It's one of few plants priced high enough to make this worth it. My hope is that it can improve the tech & bring the prices down so that more crops can be grown indoors. A lot of companies have tried this on fruits & vegetables. I'm not aware of many that have been very successful yet due to the high price of this growing method but it could scale dramatically if the price comes down.

Travel is a huge pollution issue. I believe AR/VR will become an incredibly addictive technology down the road.

Short Term (1-5 yrs) - It'll chip away small amounts by offering another form of entertainment to keep people happy. I think it'll help improve business meetings in the near future as well.

Long Term - I could see it becoming a form of entertainment that reduces the amount of traveling we do. People go to the zoo to see animals because it's easier & cheaper than finding them in the wild. You can also get closer without them eating you or running away. VR will let you do a lot of things you couldn't do or would have to suffer a lot of hardship to do. I think it will also create false expectations of what the real world is like. So ya, I do think as VR graphics & physics get better, it'll replace a large chunk of traveling.

I though you were talking about the legalization of MJ, not specifically Medical MJ. Looking at the parent, you specified medical MJ, so I misinterpreted. Apologies on my end.

I like your chairs rearrangement, it goes very well with the deck of the Titanic! See you later in the lifeboat.

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