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Arithmetic, Population and Energy - FULL LENGTH

kip399 · 190.6K views · 2012-01-26 · 1:14:16

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

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

Recommended by 3 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2016–2024

Topics

Climate policy, solutions & debateUniversity lectures & coursesEarth & energy (other)
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exponential growthal bartlettpopulationenergypeak oil

What people said

theossuary · 2023-07 · Strong recommendation

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

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shahar2k · 2016-10 · Strong recommendation

[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.

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myshpa · 2023-07 · Recommendation

> 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 it ... if only we would do what's necessary. But we're not doing what's necessary, we never started even discussing it, and I'm starting to doubt that we'll ever do. We're talking only about climate change, but that's only one of the symptoms of the overshoot. Even people @ hacker news mostly don't have a clue. > we can't just ignore the problems We've been ignoring them for 50-70 years. The limits to growth / club of Rome was in 1972? So far ... we did nothing but ignored the problems. We may cross the 1.5C threshold in 5 years. Not in 2050 as previously expected, but in 5 years. And we're still pursuing economic growth. Have you noticed any evidence to the contrary lately? > it's going to be a big challenge, and things may get ugly I recommend few videos for you. I must warn you ... it may hamper your ability to enjoy parties. Collapse: The Only Realistic Scenario - Arthur Keller [LINK] How to Enjoy the End of the World - Dr. B. Sidney Smith [LINK] Arithmetic, Population and Energy - Dr. Albert A. Bartlett [VIDEO] Why Societies Collapse And What it Means for Us - Joseph A. Tainter [LINK] Revealing the Naked Emperor – Paris, 2° & Carbon Budgets - Kevin Anderson [LINK]

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Sources

Video by kip399, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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