Artificial intelligence won't likely even slow aquifer depletion or many other similar negative trends. During the maintenance phase of this declining civilization he did a lot to slow the decline. But as the new dark age takes hold, it seems his relevance is drawing to a close. One time, he commented that his friend Buffet would not have done well during prehistoric times by shouting at a predator, "I allocate capital well."“My answer is this: I am still an optimist because I see what innovation accelerated by artificial intelligence will bring.”
This was written 12 years ago and it only seems the negative trends have accelerated.
Although deforestation has slowed by about an estimated 15% in recent years.Higgenbotham wrote: Wed Jun 11, 2014 7:40 pm Bill Gates and others say this is not like Roman times because of all the great technology we have. To that point, let's talk about some of this great technology and how it relates to the drawdown of the resource. I only see technology that works to draw the resource out faster; for example, irrigation in the Midwest that draws down the aquifers, or fracking that draws down the oil resource. Both of these then allow the renewable resource excess extraction rate to be maintained at a higher level than would otherwise be possible. There does not exist any great technology which is putting water back into aquifers or increasing stores of liquid fuels (unless it depletes the other resources - ethanol for example). Most of the enhancement of soil is done with fossil fuel derived products.