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smoll | 6 years ago

But necessity is the mother of invention, so we will probably invent a viable nuclear fission-based energy solution at the 11th hour, probably by someone who also helped cause the death of countless people through their earlier work[0]. I know this sounds absurdly far-fetched, but it’s pretty much par for the course for us humans.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haber

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roenxi|6 years ago

Plans that involve being pleasantly surprised are not good plans. Haber was preceded by centuries of warfare that did not produce inventions of such significance.

guelo|6 years ago

The 11th hour came and went and we didn't notice because it takes decades for the planetary system to react to the pollution.

yifanl|6 years ago

I dont accept this line of thinking, we cant hand wave away hard problems just because we've solved hard problems in a pinch before.

This sounds like a tautology, but we solved hard problems by solving them, not by believing we'd solve them.