Difference between revisions of "Fundamental resources/Intro"

Revision as of 21:06, 19 November 2006 (view source) CharlesC (Talk | contribs) ← Older edit		Latest revision as of 12:46, 18 July 2010 (view source) CharlesC (Talk | contribs)
(34 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	'''Mankind's four fundamental resources''' are material, energy, intelligence and information. They are actually all ''so'' abundant it is incredible to think that people in this world are still going without basic human necessities.	+	[[Image:Earth and sun.jpg|right|180px]] So what have we got to work with? Mankind's '''fundamental resources''' are [[Fundamental resources#Material|material]], [[Fundamental resources#Energy|energy]], [[Fundamental resources#Human intelligence|intelligence]] and [[Fundamental resources#Information|information]]. In reality they are all so enormously abundant that it's incredible to think that there are people in this world who are still going without the basic human necessities.
−		+	<p>
−	In the past a lack of technology could be considered a significant cause of scarcity but that is certainly not a reason today. It is the way that we currently employ our resources that is inefficient and wasteful {{em}} there is no actual fundamental scarcity of material or energy. Current financial mechanisms that create an unnecessary artificial scarcity are one major reason that resources seem restricted, however new emerging ways of co-operating have the potential to fully unlock them.	+	In the past a lack of technology could be considered a significant cause of scarcity but that is certainly not a reason any more. Despite common perceptions, there is no actual lack of material or energy available to us. Emerging methods of co-operation and advanced automation have the potential to unlock these resources to provide a good standard of living in all parts of the world, while causing minimal harm to the natural environment - a combination that although is hard to imagine today and might appear at first glance to be contradictory, is very much possible.
−		+	</p>
−	<noinclude>{{refresh|Fundamental resources}}</noinclude>	+	An important trend in technological progress is the tendency of products and processes to steadily become more effective while using less material and energy {{en}} i.e. doing more with less {{en}} something that {{wp|Buckminster_Fuller|Buckminster Fuller}} termed {{wp|Ephemeralization|ephemeralization}}.

---

Latest revision as of 12:46, 18 July 2010

So what have we got to work with? Mankind's fundamental resources are material, energy, intelligence and information. In reality they are all so enormously abundant that it's incredible to think that there are people in this world who are still going without the basic human necessities.

In the past a lack of technology could be considered a significant cause of scarcity but that is certainly not a reason any more. Despite common perceptions, there is no actual lack of material or energy available to us. Emerging methods of co-operation and advanced automation have the potential to unlock these resources to provide a good standard of living in all parts of the world, while causing minimal harm to the natural environment - a combination that although is hard to imagine today and might appear at first glance to be contradictory, is very much possible.

An important trend in technological progress is the tendency of products and processes to steadily become more effective while using less material and energy – i.e. doing more with less – something that Buckminster Fuller  termed ephemeralization .