Or they've progressed to the point where they choose to remain hidden and we can't detect them.
I've considered writing a zoo hypothesis short story about aliens, ~100 l.y. distant, ~5000 years more advanced than we currently are. I'd focus on their internal debates over the few thousand...
Excellent news and info.
I hope we're there in the next 30 years. I knew about planetquest, but was ignorant of the details and only thought it was looking for big planets.
Thanks.
I understand that astronomers cannot yet detect extra-solar earth-like planets.
However, I’m finalizing details on a science fiction story (about an astronomer) set 200 years in the future. It assumes regular scientific and human advancement – it’s not dystopian. But there is NO faster than...
I think a civilization advanced enough could create a unique, powerful signal to get through the stellar noise. But I'm no expert...
I'm not sure the 'beacon' approach to signaling is what an advance civilization would do. They'd probably have directed signals at systems and/or planets with...
I think the Netherlands is on a pretty sound footing, economically. It's not Greece or Italy.
Perhaps it's best that the government is weak and divided. Nothing meaningful gets done. No big changes.
I like the market oriented VVD, but I think they'll need a cycle or two more before the...
Leisure recharges my body and mind for work. Therefore, it has economic value to me.
Manually sorting trash does not. Therefore, it is almost economically worthless to me.
If recycling were really important, the state should levy heavy taxes on non-recyclers. All non-recyclers' trash could...
We have interstate commerce. We have vast open areas in many states. Landfill space IS cheap.
If you think I'm trolling, you're a mentor. Kill this thread.
It's economically inefficient to sort trash manually. That's the point of this thread.
Many (maybe even most) people don't sort their...
RE: In general, yes.
I won't poison the environment - but I don't consider putting plastic, paper, or aluminum in a landfill poison.
Perhaps I wasn't clear. I see fusion research a a valid future investment.
I do NOT see sorting trash as an valid future investment.
I work, stand, play, sit...
I've done that - but not anymore. I live in a 600 sq. ft. apartment with my significant other. It's inconvenient and space inefficient for me to have a 2nd 'trash' can.
Then there's the time to rinse things - or they can smell or attract bugs - 10 or 20 minutes per week.
The environmental...
Knowledge about disease and sickness would make living in one's own filth dumb. It would be cost effective to be clean even if doing so was horribly inconvenient. Avoiding the very (often fatal) consequences of becoming ill back then would be worth the effort.
Fusion research is a valid...
Plastic, aluminum and paper are renewable. Landfill space is cheap. When the cost of these items rises to the point where it's profitable to remove them from the trash stream, it will be done.
My time to put items (properly, according to my local G) in a bin is expensive. Therefore, the benefit...
We don't recycle because it is cost effective; we recycle because it will be cost-effective and we need to learn how to get there from here.
I don't find virtue in doing manual labor that can (and should) be automated.
Trash recycling needs the same economies of scale that modern sewage...
Outside of obviously toxic items like chemicals, electronics and batteries, I don't recycle my trash. I don't think the environmental benefit is worth the opportunity cost of my time (lost classifying and sorting trash). My time is better spent working, improving my skills, paying more taxes...
Selectively well done.
"Tax" > income tax. Consider the entire tax on labor. Especially the marginal tax effects on incentives when moving up the income scale.