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AftyOfTheUK t1_j5wx30y wrote

Reply to comment by Sanpaku in The world is (on average) 50% reliant on nonrenewable sources of phosphorus fertilizer to grow food. It won't go away this century, but prices will increase and ~3/4ths of reserves are controlled by one country by fartyburly

>If we don't start recycling that poop to fertilize crops, or learn how to cost-effectively extract P from seawater, we have at best a few centuries of global populations that number in the billions.

A few centuries? Like... four?

Technology marches on, progress gets ever faster. We're advancing our capabilities so much more rapidly today than we did in 1623.

Here were some things people didn't know, or didn't know how to do in 1623:

  • Explain gravity
  • Measure temperature or air pressure
  • Pendulum clocks
  • Design or build an engine
  • Measure latitude with a sextant
  • Fly in a hot air balloon. Or plane.
  • Take photographs
  • Make propellors

That gets us about halfway to the present.

Now, think of everything invented since then.

And consider progress is increasing.

Being worried about any problems that will occur multiple centuries from now (and are not growing/lagging issues like climate change) is literally crazy.

Will they work out how to cost-effectively harvest phosphorous from human poop before 2450? Yes. And if by some miracle they have not, they'll do it expensively.

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OblongRectum t1_j5wy2xb wrote

>Explain gravity

Quibbling here, but scientists can't explain gravity, they can only explain what it does. They still dunno why

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Deleena24 t1_j5xay43 wrote

Leading theory is that gravity is a result of warping the fabric of space-time. The larger the mass the larger the warp. At least that's what Einstein proposed.

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Prying_Pandora t1_j5xx7uu wrote

Like a bowling ball in the middle of a trampoline.

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Deleena24 t1_j5y2r7c wrote

Yes, basically. The bigger the ball the more the trampoline sags/warps, and the closer to the ball the deeper the warp (the closer to the object the more influence/strength it's gravity has.

Except the trampoline would exist in every direction instead of a flat plane.

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clampie t1_j5yx0mc wrote

Or a cat between the sheets while you're making the bed.

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AftyOfTheUK t1_j5xg8my wrote

>Quibbling here

I love a good pedant.

Should have been "Accurately describe and model gravity's effects"

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DraziBlack t1_j5x185b wrote

I've heard that by 2240 we aren't even going to need to poop anymore.

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AthKaElGal t1_j5xk9y3 wrote

that's very possible. nanobots could recycle our body's waste products.

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