Originally Posted By: artie505
It would very likely bankrupt the entire planet,

If you're talking monetary, that's really impossible. Wealth is distributed, it can't really be destroyed. Speculation (stock market) is the only way that's loosely considered to be able to "create" or "destroy" wealth. It would be a significant contributor to global inflation though, as material and labor were effectively siphoned out of the economy.

On the other hand, if you're referring to resources, that's possible, depending on the resource. Some resources (such as gold or copper for electronics) may not be in adequate supply. Until we get good at nuclear element synthesis or element-level recycling, that's going to continue to be a problem.

Besides high efficiency (75%+) direct solar to electrical, the most fundamental tech we are likely to achieve in the next century is nuclear recycling... everyone oohs and aaaahs when they see a star trek replicator, but really the opposite is what we need. To be able to drop a garbage bag down a chute, and have a machine fill rows of chutes, vials, and cylinders with the elements contained within. That tech will come, but it's a ways down the road from now. That will tie in with things like nitrogen fixing and carbon sequestering also. So far we've gotten pretty good at putting things together, but are still pretty bad at taking them apart. And without that, eventually you can't put things together anymore. That summarizes "industrial waste".


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