"Exploiting" the natural resources of the oceans, if allowed, will be a huge benefit to humanity.
Just like we've benefitted enormously from "exploiting" land resources.
Just like we've benefitted enormously from "exploiting" land resources.
And regular conductors …
the entirety of modern society, good and bad... the computer or phone you're typing this with, your job, etc
Not saying things will be perfect, of course. They never are.
More seriously, I'd expect greater resource availability to result in fewer wars over it. That's pretty consistent with human history.
We grew from 50 million hunter gatherers to 8000 millions mostly living longer better lives, and have access to Hacker News.
So for me that's a very strong Yes.
How do we ant colony our way out of this bitch before we all die?
I'll give you my favorite answer. You probably won't like it.
For reasons I don't claim to know, humanity always expect the world to end. It's in all the religions. Christians has expected the Last Judgment any day now for 2000 years.
In this century we don't express that urge in religious term. It manifests in worries that pollution or overpopulation or nuclear war will bring the end of times. I've seen enough of these predictions over the last 50 years to stop worrying too much about the new ones that keep popping up.
Of course non of this proves we won't speed into one of these brick walls. None of us knows the future, and that's certainly a possible one.
Civilizational collapse is real. It has happened many times to flourishing cultures and might happen again. Most cultures never recover*. The difference is that previously there was always another culture that was not pulled into the abyss as well and could pick up the leftovers.