Apropos of something

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." -- Charles Darwin

This century he would say "will certainly be" rather than "will never be".

It reminds me of the global warming deniers. I don't think the threat is particularly urgent, but they never fail to irk me more than the Gaia cult, because at least the environmentalists aren't making as many assumptions based on faith. The deniers, however, assume a powerful, almost magical resiliency of the ecosystem, which is funny considering how, unlike the environmentalists, they aren't particularly awed or reverent or even knowledgeable of it.

They also point to previous disasters that never came to pass, such as the Malthusian population explosion, as evidence of the track record of chicken littles. It makes a deceptively good soundbite, because it takes longer to explain how our current population level is entirely dependent on the "green revolution", which happened as a direct consequence of people working to prevent the impending mass starvation, particularly Norman Borlaug. Malthus was right, and his warning averted catastrophe.

Of course, they also bring up Borlaug as evidence that technology will save us if global warming ever comes to pass. Like both the Marxist and Christian true believers, the future is pre-ordained, and it is good, and questioning it is heresy. You must have faith! The technological solution exists, we just don't know what it is yet!

But faith in technology did not cause Borlaug save the world. If he had faith, he would have let the problem solve itself. The market would have fixed it. The ecosystem would have reached a new equilibrium. It would have only required the death of billions to return us to a sustainable population.

Do not ever assume some currently unknown secret wrested out of the universe will solve all our problems. The universe solves problems by killing the people having them, that is the only certainty we have.

If you want technology to solve a problem, you must first admit that you actually have a problem. You must devote resources toward finding a solution, and if, if you find one, you must still implement it, potentially requiring an even greater commitment of resources.

You may not ever have the solution, or the means, or the will, and the universe will laugh unchanged at your pathetic wishes.