Are there limits to growth? There must be because the planet we live on is finite. Therefore, it must be that there are limits to growth. But I believe that there are no practical limits to growth. The distinction between the theoretical and practical is important because it has implications regarding our moral imperatives.
In this bit, I continue my reply to Akshay’s comment. The previous bit was Energy and Power. In his comment, Akshay wrote: Continue reading “Limits to Growth”
Growth is a feature of the natural world. All sorts of processes at various scales — from the molecular to the galactic — lead to growth. Plants and animals grow through their life cycles, as do stars and galaxies. The opposite process of degrowth is also part of the natural world. Growth invariably leads to dissolution and death. Nothing lasts forever. Whatever has a beginning has an end. Creation and destruction are inextricably linked. Shiva, as Nataraja, ceaselessly dances the universe into existence and also dances it out of existence.[1]
Though growth and its opposite continue, overall growth wins over degrowth. The universe and its various subsystems grow with the passage of time.
Narrowing our focus to the processes that are involved in the evolution of life on earth, we see the same cyclical story: birth, growth, dissolution and death followed by renewal. All these processes are by definition dynamic and therefore have the potential to be creative. Continue reading “Economic Growth and Degrowth”
In the first bit I distinguished between religions and the dharmas, and argued that Hinduism (and the related traditions of Buddhism and Jainism) is not a religion. Furthermore, religions have a concept of god (and strictly only one god) but dharmas have no related concept of god, neither one nor many. Thus Dharmas are godless, and therefore by the strict definition of the term, the dharmas are atheistic.
As I’m an atheist — a person who does not believe in god — I am godless and therefore irreligious. I assume that much was clear by now if you’ve been following my posts.
In this series (see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), I am exploring why I’m a Hindu, and intellectually and morally justifying my choice of my dharmic identity. Continue reading “Why I’m a Hindu – Part 4”
The Swedish economist Johan Norberg is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He is a passionate advocate of capitalism. In his 2023 book The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World he argues for free markets and freedom.
Among his 20 books are In Defense of Global Capitalism, Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, and Open: The Story of Human Progress. Those two books were recognized as the 2016 and 2020 book of the year, respectively, by The Economist . Continue reading “Johan Norberg on China”
Twenty-three years ago on September 11th, a great big catastrophe hit the world. The US suffered a direct hit that was bad enough in terms of death and destruction. But the reaction by the US military-industrial complex was orders of magnitude more devastating to the world. Trillions of dollars worth of arms and ammunition was unleashed on millions of innocent civilians while protecting the guilty.
A few days later on Sept 17th, 2001, I wrote a piece on my UC Berkeley blog (which is no longer online.) I reproduced that piece on this blog: The Looking Glass War.
TL;DR. The world is getting increasing unequal in wealth, income and consumption. That’s great. I prefer to live in an increasingly unequal world than in a world of equality because an unequal world is a better world than a world characterized by equality.
But let me stress that a world with more inequality is preferable to a world with less inequality is an empirical fact, not a necessary logical fact. Here’s why.
Our present world is unimaginably wealthier than the world was any time of the past, as I claimed in the first part of this essay. I believe the future will be even more unimaginably wealthier than the present. The causal factors that led to the present explosion of wealth will continue to not only operate in the future but will intensify. Continue reading “Wealth, Income, Consumption & Utility – Part 2”
Thomas Hobbes (born 1588 CE) had a dismal view of humans living “in a state of nature.” In his famous book Leviathan (published 1651 CE) he characterized human life as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” From all the evidence we have it appears that he was, to a first approximation, absolutely correct about the human condition.
Human beings — species homo sapience — have been around for approximately 300,000 years. Taking a generation to be 25 years, we have had 12,000 generations of human beings prior to our own. An estimated 100 billion of us have ever lived, including the present 8 billion. Continue reading “Wealth, Income, Consumption & Utility – Part 1”
I explained previously (see part 1 and part 2) that I’m a Hindu because I was born to the dharma and not to a religion. My starting off as a Hindu is an accident of birth, not something that I rationally decided on. But I have had ample opportunities to learn about the dharmas and the three major world religions — and rejected the religions only after rational consideration. I was born a Hindu but I continue to be follow dharma even after I know about the religions.
As an adherent of the dharmic traditions, I don’t believe in any god and I am not religious. Therefore I’m an atheist by the very definition of the term — one who does not believe in any god or gods. I am also an agnostic. Continue reading “Why I am a Hindu – Part 3”
Are there any examples of governments that only protect negative rights? Reader Sambaran asked that question in the latest AMA.
It may be useful to review what is meant by negative rights, and what distinguished them from positive rights. Negative rights are rights that require others (including the government) to refrain from interfering with an individual’s actions. It is a “freedom from” something. The right to life, liberty, private property, etc. are examples of negative rights. It is freedom from coercion by others. In the securing of negative rights, people are not required to take any action — merely refrain from acting in certain ways. Continue reading “Negative Rights and Minimalist State”
Practical Engineering is a channel I follow on YouTube. The host, Grady, is a brilliant engineer and explainer of things engineered. Consider for instance a video he uploaded yesterday. In it, he talks about the Dallas High Five Interchange.
I have taken that interchange scores of times. My friend Yoga has a home in Allen, TX — a suburb about 30 miles north of Dallas on highway 75.
And there’s a Costco about 10 miles south from Allen on 75 in Plano, TX. Wherever I am in the US, I visit a Costco every week. I get everything from Costco: food, drink, clothes, furniture, fridge, washer/dryer, TV, computers. I even got my most recent car from Costco. As I say, if you can’t get it at Costco, you can do without it.
Continue reading “Texas Interchanges”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 