THE VIDEO SHELF · exponential growth and sustainability
Arithmetic, Population and Energy - a talk by Al Bartlett
Physicist Al Bartlett's well-known lecture on the arithmetic of exponential growth, applied to population, energy consumption and resource depletion. He argues that steady percentage growth cannot be sustained on a finite planet and that most public discussion ignores this.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN commenters cite it as a mind-changing introduction to exponential growth, though some note his peak oil predictions did not pan out.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- lXlSalemlXl
- Topic
- exponential growth and sustainability
- Format
- lecture
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 6
- HN mentions in dataset
- 11
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2016–2023
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
For me, several books by Greg Egan fall into this category. Permutation City, Diaspora, Quarantine, and Schild's Ladder have all... changed me. I was a different person before and after I had read those books, and now I categorise all works of fiction into those …
jiggawatts on Hacker News · 2020-03
In Ask HN: What are some deep, mentality changing books?"Two minutes past twelve." The problem with stuff like this is that most people have no knowledge about the dangers of exponential growth. It only takes an hour, but it's the most valuable use of an hour of your lifetime to watch Prof. Bartlett's talk …
simonblack on Hacker News · 2020-03
In Why don’t I know anyone who knows anyone with Covid-19? [pdf]Compounding, growth etc [VIDEO] Taught me the logical impossibility of the stock market to go up by x% per year, forever. Taught me that getting better today (however small) can give resources to getting better(er?) tomorrow. Taught me that many "experts" just say whatever to …
maerF0x0 on Hacker News · 2020-05
In Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.
