As we exited this fine show about dark matter and dark energy I felt a twinge of sadness about the inevitable heat death of the universe.

So I compensated by telling a joke favored by my paternal grandfather:

Teacher: The sun will explode in 5 billion years.

Student, waking up in back of class: What did you just say?

Teacher: The sun will explode in 5 billion years.

Student: Whew, I thought you said 5 million.

Nobody laughed, and we trudged on into the existential gloom.

Planetarium movie: Recommended. Joke: Less so.

Comments

[hartzman]

I fear we will reach 2.5 billion human inhabitants on Earth before 10 billion...

[Billy Jones]

Gonna be crowded then...

[Ed Cone]

George, what do you think will cull the herd so dramatically?

[hartzman]

War, international trade/commerce disruption, currency debasement, societal breakdown, starvation, climate change and more war over what's left after.
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"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency,
the second is war."

Ernest Hemingway
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It's what happens when mold continues to multiply after eating half a piece of cheese.

If we’re the mold and Earth is the cheese, there is too much mold that needs and/or wants what's left.
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Much of the world's population is going to be cut off from the levels of food, water and energy that currently exists.

Conflict will most likely determine who gets what.

[Billy Jones]

Don't forget rising tides, radioactive rains from Fukushima, growing ocean gyres, shrinking food supplies, rising fuel costs, the Economic Depression declared by Professor Brod in Today's News & Record, a population that no longer knows how to live off the land and the ever present efforts of the Elites to enslave the working classes.

You win Ed! That is, if the working classes don't resort to eating the Elites.

[NitWitCharmer]

There is another side to the dismal science, guys. With down comes up, and if history is any guide there is more up than down.

[NitWitCharmer]

Stumbled into this concerning ‘catastrophists’ vs innovation and why catastrophists are always wrong.

I wonder if the EU has been innovating over the past six years. I expected a different outcome while Europe shuffled through its deck of debt, yet here we are, the EU still shuffling ... or innovating?

[Ed Cone]

Malthusian catastrophe has been an unfulfilled prophecy since the days of Malthus.

It may happen at some point, and perhaps that point comes soon, and ultimately no matter how well or badly things turn out for humans...read the original post.

So: Gather rosebuds while ye may, and build risk scenarios into your plans without freaking out completely.

[Billy Jones]

Ed wrote: "So: Gather rosebuds while ye may, and build risk scenarios into your plans without freaking out completely."

Just remember, this advice is coming from the same Ed Cone that mumbled something a few years ago about trees falling in the forest when I predicted the Economic disaster that his bestist bud and economic guru, Andrew Brod is now calling an Economic Depression.

But how quickly Ed forgets...

[Andrew Brod]

FWIW, I've been calling it a depression for years.

[NitWitCharmer]

What is a Keynesian economy book-ended by two recessions?

A depression.

[Ed Cone]

Yeah, not sure what Billy's talking about, this blog was pretty gloomy about the bubble, bust and long hard slog that followed.

[Billy Jones]

Andrew, I predicted the Depression in 2005. Everyone thought me crazy as usual. According to my therapist I'm not the problem: the rest of you are the problem.

NitWhitCharmer, on a well known local Keynesian economist whose name isn't Brod. Just wanted to be clear that despite my many arguments with Andrew Brod I do not think him a thief or in anyone's pockets. We just disagree often.

Sorry Ed, I couldn't resist.

PS. the long hard slog isn't over for most working folk.