by 0mar » Sun 09 Jul 2006, 07:04:15
Peak oil is not a permanent reset button on technology (unless there's global thermonuclear warfare) but more like a pause button. A pause button for 50 years or more maybe but just that a pause button.
There is no reason at all, given sufficient time, that we should be stuck in mideval european technology indefinately. Eventually, new sources of energy will be found (in our lifetimes is the real question). We will still have the accumulated knowledge of 200 years+ of science, the ability to read and write is not going away since literacy rates are higher now than they ever were.
If humanity doesn't extinguish itself during the peak oil crisis, I have no doubts that we will eventually reach the stars. The physics says we can. Probably not in our lifetimes or even our children's lifetimes, but yes, eventually we will.
Joseph Stalin
"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. "