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THE VIDEO SHELF · exponential growth and sustainability

Arithmetic, Population and Energy - FULL LENGTH

Physicist Albert Bartlett's full-length lecture on how steady exponential growth in population and energy use collides with finite resources. It uses examples like bacteria in a bottle and covers peak oil.

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Why HN readers recommended it

HN repeatedly quotes its thesis that humanity's greatest shortcoming is failing to understand the exponential function.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
kip399
Topic
exponential growth and sustainability
Format
lecture
Level
general
HN recommenders in dataset
3
HN mentions in dataset
12
Recommendation years in dataset
2016–2024

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.

  • [VIDEO] "the greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function" not a high tech talk, or particularly technically complex, but it shows a common blindspot in a way that is both clear, enlightening and frightening.

    shahar2k on Hacker News · 2016-10
    In Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?

  • Your point reminds me of my favorite guest lecture I've ever seen: [VIDEO] About 2/3rds through makes the same point you do.

    theossuary on Hacker News · 2023-07
    In There’s a heatwave in the sea and scientists are worried

  • > Burn it all down and start over We won't be the ones doing that. > We're going to have to figure this sustainability thing out though It may be already late. I wish it wasn't so. I think we could have chance at repairing …

    myshpa on Hacker News · 2023-07
    In How, Mathematically, We’re Fucked: Exponential growth on a finite planet

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

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