TED Community » Victor Petri

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Mankind, the makeable world, human ingenuity and creativity, improving state of the world.

An idea worth spreading

Every newborn baby is a valuable addition to all the lives surrounding it, and thus to all of man, it is not just a resource user.
Mankind suffers an underpopulation issue, not an overpopulation issue, because on average every person solves more problems than they create.
http://humansrunderrated.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/go-forth-and-multiply-on-the-joy-of-population-growth/

Talk to me about

Politics, economy, the future

Comments

• TEDCred score: +31.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +2

  A comment on Talk: Don Tapscott: Four principles for the open world

  Jul 12 2012: God is suppose to be all powerful and all knowing and had created man in his image. I believe this to be the otherway round, we will become all powerful and all knowing and create ourselves in His image.
  
  Complex systems will merge indefinitely, as atoms merged to big nuclei, nuclei to molecules, molecules to RNA, RNA to DNA, single cellular to multicellular, our single brains will merge with eachother to form a single complex entity (that will merge with complex entities in our galaxy to finally rival the universe and stop it from expanding indefinitely).

• A comment on Talk: E.O. Wilson: Advice to young scientists

  Jul 9 2012: Why would the exponential growth of technology tail off and plateau?

• A reply on Talk: Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index

  Mar 24 2011: Ever met a happy heroin addict???

• A reply on Talk: Hans Rosling: The magic washing machine

  Mar 24 2011: The Club of Rome and Paul Ehrlich predicted billions of deaths, also they were the respected scientists of their time. They were so unbelievably wrong, but nobody seems to be bothered, no, they are even hailed again today as being visionary although somewhat lacking in timing. Ehrlich predicted in 1970 that it was too late to help India, millions would die from shortage, 3 years later, thanks to the Green Revolution, India was a food exporter.
  The IPCC, the UNFCCC and other bodies infect each other with prepondorous estimate upon estimate of alarmist rhetoric just as so many fine thinking people have done for hundreds of years already.
  You and they will be so wrong: in 20 years time there will be even fewer poor people than today, living longer and more comfortable lives. Our unsustainable ways will luckily not come to an end, and we will continue to provide better lives for everyone thanks to it.
  
  And in 20 years time, you will not acknowledge that, according to you although people will have gotten better lives by then, it will be unsustainable in 2030, saying again that infinite growth cannot possibly continue. Because you are able to extrapolate our problems into the future, but not the solutions, you will always look at the world like that.
  Believe in the most complex object in the known universe, our brains, and believe in the solutions of tomorrow for the problems of today, for these solutions have been coming for 10 thousands years already.
  I am not saying sit back and relax, I am saying don't panic, we can do it.

• A reply on Talk: Hans Rosling: The magic washing machine

  Mar 24 2011: Despite that it might feel counterintuitive, the amounts of produced resources increases over the years, for hundreds of years already and for practically every commodity thinkable. The way people view resources in the Earth is too simple, it's not a barrel filled with stuff, which is empty after the last bit is taken out, but rather their is a scale of different extraction difficulties, with few easily extractable and many more difficultly extractable resources. This scale is infinite, there will always be another drop of oil, even harder to extract than the last.
  The point being, the Earth might be finite, our creativity is infinite. And the pace at what we produce solutions is way faster than the rate at which we use resources. This is why Peak Oil was predicted so many times, all along the 20th century, but never materialized, and at the same time we produced ever more oil, for a continuous lower price trend (at present we have anomalously high oil prices, a spike in an overall downward trend if you will, but still not as high as in 1900, and believe me it will go down again).
  That's why the Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones, and that's why the oil age will not end because we run out of oil.
  
  Because we only use a mere fraction of all energy here on Earth the only thing bounding our growth is our creativity and that is infinite.
  
  
  And the whole poorest people- refugee thing is a bit outdated, currently the 76 fastest growing economies are developing nations, thanks to infinite growth the developing world is at an increasing rate closing the gap.

• A comment on Conversation: What are your thoughts and questions on "the magic washing machine"?

  Mar 23 2011: Thank you for pointing this out to the world. There seems to be a new Western arrogance about us, this time around it is not us telling the developing world they should live like us, like in colonial times, this time around we are telling they should not want to live like us. We romanticize their way of life, from our comfortable houses and state that they should preserve their rainforests, although that probably means that their economies don't progress as fast as is possible.
  We should not scholar developing nations in what they should prioritize, but look at ourselves, we should accept that we will use more energy each year, as we have done for centuries already, even when efficiency takes a leap forward and focus on solar energy to dramatically decrease our environmental impact. So that within 20 years all our energy comes from the sun.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Hans Rosling: The magic washing machine

  Mar 23 2011: No, no need to stop 'excessive' consumption. Energy wil become more abundant, more used, even as it will become more efficiently used, a centuries old trend. We will consume ever more, a millenia old trend.
  Peak Oil will come and go, just like peak coal, peak peat and peak wood. It will be temporarily replaced by gas, of which we still have 100s of years of reserves, finally we will arrive at solar power, which within 20 years will provide 100% of our energy need (google Kurzweil and solar power). The sun beams more energy onto Earth each year as all fossil and uranium reserves put together.
  We use a mere fraction of all energy circulating in system Earth, all we need to do is open our minds and take it.

• A reply on Talk: Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women

  Jan 3 2011: ?

• A reply on Talk: Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women

  Dec 31 2010: I mention the following in my first comment "plainly earning money does not bring that much status anymore in this rich, female oriented economy. "
  Surely, a couple of decades ago it would be enough to just have any job as a man.
  But nowadays everybody has a good job (more or less), also women, a secure environment is just not enough any more. Of course, the happy few really rich still attract many females.
  Luckily many different women all have quite different thoughts of what brings status. Hippy women want gentle souls saving the earth. Gothics want metal dudes with black clothes. Or you can cook really well, or paint, or save seals, or play rock music, or be funny or be good at debate.
  How many women do you know who are massively attracted to someone with a lot of money? That's only in societies where a lot of people don't have money.
  What I am saying: there is not much status improvement to be found for men in a menial job.
  And we all need eachother...

• A reply on Talk: Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women

  Dec 31 2010: Although this lies besides anything I discussed. I do want to react on women empowerment and happiness.
  Firstly, I do not agree with the ease you caste aside economical usefulness, in an ageing and shrinking western world, we should cheer any contribution to the workforce we can think of.
  But secondly, more importantly, the countries with the smallest gender gap, namely Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, where women are stimulated to participate in the economy, but at the same time get generous benefits to raise children, are also among the richest and the most happy in the world. Their children are among the smartest and healthiest in the world.
  
  I understand you critique, but see a free world, where women are educated and smart enough to chose their own priorities and chase their own happiness.